Food and Feeding Habits of Upeneus vittatus (Forsskal, 1775) from Visakhapatnam Coast (Andhra Pradesh) of India

摘要

Aspects of food and feeding habits of Upeneus vittatus collected from Visakhapatnam fishing harbour are reported in this paper. Analysis of their gut contents based on frequency of occurrence, revealed that crustaceans mainly shrimps and crabs (59.49%) and teleostean fishes (14.51%) made the bulk of the diet with bivalve mollusks (13.51%) being at times important. Frequency of occurrence of teleostean fishes was observed to be more in fishes above 163 mm in length while shrimps constituted the predominant food item through out the year. Thus the results revealed that U. vittatus mainly subsisted on crustaceans and teleosts.