The food and feeding habits of Goldsilk Seabream, Acanthopagrus berda (Forsskal, 1775)

Abstract

The feeding habits of Picnic seabream, Acanthopagrus berda (Forsskal, 1775) from estuarine waters of Calicut, southwest coast of India was investigated. The study was conducted by collecting thirty fishes monthly from January 2016 to December 2016. The highest value of gastro-somatic index was obtained in January (2.65±2.31) and lowest in October (0.12±0.31) with an annual average of 0.64 ± 1.07. The highest level of vacuity index was observed in October (70.17 ± 4.71) and the lowest in June (6.00 ± 2.71). The results of gastro-somatic index and vacuity index revealed that feeding activity of A. berda is reduced during the spawning season. Barnacles, crab and bivalves are the major food items found in the stomach of A. berda which altered according to season and size of fish. The Index of relative importance (%) was 26.65 for barnacles, 24.96 for crabs, 21.56 for Modiolus spp and 14.87 for oyster. The secondary food items ingested were clam (mainly Paphia sp. and Meretrix sp. (5.04)) green mussel (Perna viridis (4.46)) and shrimp (1.96). The other smaller proportion of food items ingested include fish, aquatic plants and squid. The average relative length of gut was 1.11 ± 0.11cm showing that A. berda is omnivorous.