Feeding Habit of Fishes Eating Settled Larval and Juvenile Japanese Flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) at Yanagihama Beach, Nagasaki Prefecture

摘要

Feeding habit of fishes conccurring with larval and juvenile Japanese flounder which settled along Yanagihama Beach near Nagasaki was studied. Of 10 species having taken some fish, nine were found to have eaten Japanese flounder. Fishes which live near or close to the sea bed and have relatively wider mouth, such as Trachinocephalus myops, Pseudoblennius percoides, Chelidonichthys spinosus and Paralichthys olivaceus, were considered to be serious predators for Japanese flounder. Aquarium observation showed that juvenile Japanese flounders were attacked by a predator mostly when they swam up from bottom to take food. This may explain why a high incidence of predation temporarily coincided with the high feeding activity of Japanese flounder at Yanagihama Beach.