DOI: 10.5061/dryad.qfttdz0s9
title: Data from: Insight into trophic niche differentiation in Labeobarbus (Cyprinidae) in the Luhoho Basin (Upper Congo Basin)

description: Mouth morphology plays a crucial role in determining the trophic ecology
 of fish and sometimes underpins important lineage diversification.
 Freshwater teleost fish species belonging to the
 genus Labeobarbus, commonly found in Africa, exhibit intra- and
 interspecific variation and differences in the lower jaw occurring within
 and between species, respectively. Different phenotypes include a curved
 U-shape (‘rubberlips’), a straight lower jaw (‘chiselmouth’) and an
 intermediate morphology known as the smiling phenotype. In some cases,
 smiling originates from hybridisation between chiselmouth and rubberlips.
 However, the trophic relationships of different mouth morphologies in
 the Labeobarbus taxa are still not well understood,
 particularly in the Congo Basin. Understanding the trophic ecology
 of Labeobarbus can enhance understanding of adaptive
 processes in morphologically diverse lineages. This study aims to
 investigate how differences in mouth morphology among
 multiple Labeobarbus species in the Luhoho River (Upper
 Congo Basin) link with different trophic niche uses. We combined
 information from gut morphometry, gut contents and stable isotope analyses
 on 202 fish specimens representing six species across four tributaries of
 the Middle Luhoho. All approaches consistently revealed trophic niche
 partitioning between chiselmouth and rubberlip species, respectively, more
 herbivorous/detritivorous and more insectivorous on the omnivory spectrum.
 In addition, trophic differences were also found between species within
 each mouth phenotype. Interestingly, the trophic niche of the smiling
 phenotype differed strongly from those of other phenotypes at all sites
 except for L. paucisquamatus, for which the trophic niches
 overlapped in Tchinganda. The pattern of trophic niche
 of Labeobarbus suggests subtle strategies to partition feeding
 resources when they occur across a narrow hydrographic scale.
description: In the field, specimens were collected using cast nets, with most
 fishing activities taking place during the daytime. For each specimen
 captured, morphometric data, as well as gut and muscle samples from the
 right side of the fish body, were taken. In the laboratory, the gut
 contents were analysed along and stable isotopic data. The methodology is
 described in detail in the paper.
description: # Data from: Insight into trophic niche differentiation in Labeobarbus
 (Cyprinidae) in the Luhoho Basin (Upper Congo Basin)
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qfttdz0s9](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qfttdz0s9) ## Description of the data and file structure Organizing fieldwork. Collecting fish specimens. Taking standard length and mouth width. MCollecting guts and muscles. Analysing the guts. Conducting laboratory work for stable isotopic analysis. The attached data file contains raw data based on a paper about the trophic ecology of Labeobarbus in the Luhoho Basin (Upper Congo) was prepared. This file includes three Excel spreadsheets, each corresponding to a section of the analysis conducted in our study. The first spreadsheet contains morphometric data, the second includes raw gut content data, and the third provides stable isotopic data. Each row in these datasets associates the species name with the respective locality and the corresponding data of the specimen. ### Files and variables #### File: Raw\_data\_SL\_MW\_Stable\_Isotopic\_Data.xlsx **Description:**  ##### Variables       **Sheet of Morphometric data related to feeding** * Locality * Species  * Standard length  (mm) * Mouth width (mm)   * Intestine length (mm): (missing for some specimens: null) **Sheet of Intestine contents** Part 1 of the sheet: Indices of each item found in the intestine are presented (%)  Part 2 of the sheet: Raw data of volumetric index (%) Part 3 of Sheet of Stable Isotopic data: * Field code  * P1-P24 are putative foods collected in the areas * Name of each putative food and species  * River * Standard length (not applicable to putative foods and missing data for two fish samples) * d13C (‰) * d14N (‰) ## Code/software We used R version 3.3.1and 3.6.1 in the package SIBER version 2.1.0 for Isotopic niche modelling and the Vegan package for ANOSIM and GLM ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * None Data was derived from the following sources: * None