Fish Feeding Guild in the Polluted River, Pengkalan Chepa River, Kelantan, Malaysia

摘要

A study on water quality and fish guild was conducted in the year 2008 at four selected tributaries of Pengkalan Chepa River (PCR), Kelantan, Malaysia namely Sungai Pengkalan Chepa 1, Sungai Pengkalan Chepa 2, Sungai Alor B, Sungai Alor Lintah, and Sungai Keladi. Fish were collected using threelayered fish net from July to November, consecutively. Water quality of PCR was found highly contaminated with water quality index (WQI) ranging from 39-81 at each sampling. There were 170 fish collected from PCR during this study, which representing 18 families and 20 species. The most common fishes based on total fish captured were spotted catfishes (Tachysurus maculatus) and climbing perch (Anabas testudineus). This study showed that PCR were dominated by omnivorous while carnivorous fishes contributed about almost as higher percentage as omnivorous. Fishes were also categorized in four ecological guilds which are catadromous, amphidromous, marine, and potamonic guilds. The findings of this study concluded that PCR shows signs of deterioration in water quality that only support fewer species with highly skewed trophic structure (increasing frequency of omnivores and carnivores). PCR is only dominated by tolerant and generalist fish species.