Food and feeding habits of the large cyprinid fishes in the upper Blue Nile River, Ethiopia

Abstract

Food and feeding habits of large cyprinid fishes (Labeobarbus intermedius, Labeobarbus nedgia, and Labeo forskalii) had been investigated in the upper Blue Nile River, Ethiopia. Four sampling sites were selected and specimens were sampled during the post-rainy (November 2016) and dry (March 2017) seasons by gillnets of 6 cm, 8 cm, 10 cm, 12 cm, and 14 cm mesh sizes. Totally 401 fishes were collected and about 30.4% (122) of the samples were documented with empty guts and 279 (69.6%) of them were with non-empty guts. The whole contents of all non-empty gut specimens were taken, labeled, and preserved using a 5% formaldehyde solution for further analysis. In the laboratory, gut contents were examined and identified using compound and stereo microscopes. The relative importance of different food items in the diet compositions was analyzed using a frequency of occurrence and volumetric analysis. During the post-rainy season, insects and phytoplankton were mostly ingested as food items. However, during the dry season, phytoplankton was the most important food item in the diet of all cyprinid fishes of the river. Based on current study results, L. intermedius and L. nedgia might be omnivores in their diet but Labeobarbus forskalii seemed to be detritivorous.