bagrid catfish Hemibagrus punctatus (Jerdon, 1862) (Teleostei: Bagridae) in the Cauvery
River, South India. Iranian Journal of Ichthyology, 5(2): 86-95.
http://www.ijichthyol.org/index.php/iji ... /5-2-1/221
Raja & Perumal wrote:ABSTRACT
The aim of the study was to investigate the variation in diversity and
abundance of food items in in relation to season and also to
assess its food preference and feeding behaviour which may reflect the availability
of prey items in upstream and downstream areas of Hogenakkal area under the
Cauvery river systems. Through its stomach content analysis, the fish has been found
to be omnivorous and euryphagous, with only a few qualitative differences in the
diet. Feeding rate was found to vary in relation to monsoon caused environmental
changes during the course of a year. Among the wide variety of prey consumed,
juvenile fishes (39.88%) formed an important dietary component. The next major
food group was insects (19.50%) followed by diatoms (11.54%), green algae
(8.40%), crustaceans (7.29%), blue green algae (3.98%), plant matter (2.79%),
worms (2.71%), copepods (1.33%), cladocerans (1.33%), and mollusks (1.33%). All
the food items of this fish (% of food- composition) was found vary in monthly. The
present findings would facilitate the examination of complex food and feeding
regimes of fishes and would help identify the groups of species that use similar
resources within a specific community and could also serve as a reference database
for feeding ecology of fishes in highly impacted tropical habitats.
- Keywords: Siluriformes, Feeding ecology, Abundance, Preference, Tropical
habitats.