Diets of Three Cyprinid Species from Huai Pa Dang Reservoir, Thailand

Abstract

Gut contents of the cyprinid fish Barbodes gonionotus (Bleeker, 1850), Barbodes schwanenfeldi (Bleeker, 1853) and Puntioplites proctozysron (Bleeker, 1865) from Huai Pa Dang Reservoir, Phetchabun Province, northern Thailand were examined seasonally during May 2010 to February 2011. They were found to have consumed diverse food items, including aquatic insect fragments, copepods, cladocerans, ostracods and plant materials, with chironomid larvae being the main component in all three species. Although omnivorous, they all appeared to consume more animals than plants. The proportion of each food item in the diet depended on the season and fish species (P < 0.05). The niche breadth of B. gonionotus was higher than that of B. schwanenfeldi and P. proctozysron. The length-weight relationship of these three species ranged between 1.416 and 3.685, revealing that they have allometric growth. Their condition factors were higher than 1, indicating that they were in good condition. This basic ecological data, derived from gut analysis, may be useful to manage the development of fish food and in choosing species of fish for aquaculture in the future.