Diet of the mesopelagic fish Notoscopelus japonicus (Family: Myctophidae) associated with the continental slope off the Pacific coast of Honshu, Japan

Abstract

The diet of Notoscopelus japonicus, one of the dominant mesopelagic fishes in the transitional waters of the western North Pacific, was examined in 106 specimens collected over the continental slope off the Pacific coast of northern Japan during April and October 1996. The prey comprised mainly crustaceans, such as copepods, ostracods, euphausiids and amphipods. Euphausia pacifica was the dominant prey, representing 83.1% by number and 72.4% by wet weight of the total diet. Between April and October, there was no shift in prey species consumed, but prey size decreased significantly and prey number per fish stomach increased in October. These results indicate that, in October, N. japonicus consumed larger numbers of smaller E. pacifica, rather than shifting to other prey taxa. The pronounced importance of E. pacifica in the diet was ascribed to its co-occurrence with N. japonicus at night in the surface layer and during the daytime in the near-bottom layer.