Food and feeding habits of two-bar seabream, Acanthopagrus bifasciatus (Forsskål, 1775) from Southern Red Sea, Egypt

Abstract

The food and feeding habits of the two-bar seabream, Acanthopagrus bifasciatus fishes from Southern Red Sea, Egypt were studied to know its feeding behavior in relation to sex, length and season as well as its preference for food items. Fish samples were collected monthly covering a period of 12 months from January 2015 to December 2015 and a total of 227 fish stomachs were examined for this study. The results indicated that Acanthopagrus bifasciatus fish feed on a variety of food materials mainly Mollusks (gastropods, bivalves and chitons), crustaceans (hermit crabs, crabs and eggs of hermit crab), fish scales, cnidarians (soft coral), Echinodermata as well as food remains. The variety of food substances in the stomach of Acanthopagrus bifasciatus shows that the species is a carnivorous. The feeding intensity showed its highest value during spring (76.74%) followed by winter (73.58%), while the lowest value was recorded during summer (57.14%). Acanthopagrus bifasciatus shifted their fullness index as they grow in length where the lowest value of this index was recorded for a length group 17-25 cm TL and the highest value was recorded for a length group 36-45 cm TL. The feeding habits of Acanthopagrus bifasciatus showed no significant difference between males and females and both sexes have the same diet composition with nearly the same concentration and distribution except for bivalves which were recorded only in the stomachs of female.