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Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Science

Year: 2012 | Volume: 7 | Issue: 2 | Page No.: 134-149
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Authors

B.J. Oribhabor

A.E. Ogbeibu

Keywords

Research Article

The Food and Feeding Habits of Fish Species Assemblage in a Niger Delta Mangrove Creek, Nigeria

B.J. Oribhabor and A.E. Ogbeibu
The food and feeding habits of twenty-five species of fish in Buguma Creek, Niger Delta, Nigeria was investigated between November 2004 and June 2006. The fish samples were caught by the use of hooks and lines and cast nets. The frequency of occurrence, numerical and fullness methods were used for analyzing the food items. Of the 1149 specimens examined, 299 (26%) were empty stomach 150 (13.1%) were fully loaded stomach while 222 (19.3%), 275 (23.9%) and 203 (17.7%) were, ¾, ½ and ¼, respectively. Animal preys which dominated the stomach contents of the dominant predatory fishes were insects, shrimps, lobsters, crabs, fishes, polychaetes, amphipods, isopods, pagurid decapods, molluscs and nematodes. Other items found in the stomachs of some species were pebbles in P. jubelini, A. regius, P. senegalensis, P. elongatus and D. margaritas; and in D. margarita; and mud in P. Jubelini, P. sebae and D. margarita. Extraneous insect wing reproductive termite, Termes flavipes was found in the stomach contents of A. gigas and P. sebae. The food items in the stomach of the fish species indicated that they were euryphagous, i.e. feeding on a wide range of organisms, except for bottom feeders in the family’s Cichlidae and Mugilidae. The predatory fishes were either benthopelagic or benthic feeders. Unspecialised flexible dietary habits, an optimal strategy for survival in habitats where food sources are subject to fluctuation was the overall picture of the diet that emerged from the fishes.
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