Food and Feeding Habits of Johnius carutta (Bloch, 1793) off Visakhapatnam, East-coast of India
Food and Feeding Habits of Johnius carutta (Bloch, 1793) off Visakhapatnam, East-coast of India
Date
2015
Authors
Swamy Kumar, M
Rajeswari, G
Kishore, B.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Cochin, India
Abstract
Specimens of Johnius carutta (Bloch, 1793) collected from off Visakhapatnam during 2008-09 were used for gut content analysis. J. carutta was observed to be euryphagic, carnivorous, benthic, moderate feeder feeding mostly on teleost fish, free living crustaceans, polychaetes and molluscs. Analysis of gut revealed contents different food items with dominance of squilla (17.72%) followed by Acetes spp. (11.40%), shrimps (10.81%), teleost fish (9.10%), polychaetes (7.10%), crabs (5.10%) and crustacean
appendages (3.20%). Quantitative analysis revealed the non-penaeid shrimp Acetes spp. (32.51%) dominating the food items followed by squilla (15.20%), shrimp (11.50%), fish (9.73%), polychaetes (8.63%), crustacean appendages (6.10%) and crab (3.90%).
The composite index values indicated that squilla (35.62) is the most preferred food followed by Acetes spp. (18.03), teleost fish (16.62), shrimp (10.38) and polychaetes (6.26). The average gastro-somatic index values are relatively low during pre-monsoon
(1.27%), moderate during monsoon (1.74%) and relatively high during post-monsoon (1.95%).
Description
Keywords
Johnius carutta, gastro-somatic index, composite index
Citation
Fishery Technology 2015: 52 (2), 88-94