Studying diet of Neogobius melanostomus at south west coast of Caspian Sea (Guilan Province)
Subject Areas : New Technologies in Aquaculture Development
Keywords: Caspian Sea, Keywords: Guilan province, Feeding habits, Round goby,
Abstract :
Abstract[1] Round goby (Neogobius melanostomus), like other gobiid fishes in the Caspian Sea, is ecologically important because of its feeding on unavailable food items for other fish species, as a competitor for bentophagus fishes, as a main food source for predator fishes and birds, and bringing about an increase in the number of marine fish. There are few studies on Gobiidae in Iran. The present study has been carried out to fill the gap about the feeding of these species. Sampling was carried out from 3 stations including west (Astara coast), central (Anzali coast) and east (Chaboksar coast), all located in the southwest of the Caspian Sea (Iranian coasts). Three depth zones including 0–5 m, 5–10 m and 10–15 m were selected. Every month the fish were captured by special bed trawl and then were transferred tolaboratory to identify the food items in their gut (stomach). The results showed that the empty index of alimentary tract (CV) increased with increasing the temperature but relative gut length showed no difference with changing the age, sex and station. There was no difference in Feed intensity index (IF) regarding the sexes but there were some differences based on station and depth of sampling. The present study showed that round goby is a carnivore of benthophagous and euryphagous species. 21 different animal groups in its alimentary canal or gut were observed which showed it preferred mollusks and benthic crustaceans. Food preferable index of this goby showed it did not have any main food at Iranian coast of the Caspian Sea. * Corresponding Author; Email: abdollahpour51@yahoo.com
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