Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India

Food and feeding habits of the Chinese pomfret Pompus chinensis Euphrasen from the Bay of Bengal.

Volume 19 Issue 1&2

S. Pati

Abstract

A detailed investigation of the food and feeding habits of the Chinese pomfret Pampus chinensis Euphrasen was undertaken from the Bay of Bengal during 1972 and 1973. The fish is a carnivore feeding mainly on zooplanktonic organisms, the phyto plankters contributed to a minor part of the diet. Copepods formed tie main item in the diet followed by smaller jellyfishes and decapods. Amphipods, crustacean larvae, polychaete larvae, cuttlefish, chaeiognaths, fish scales, fish eggs and larvae occurred in small quantities. Ostracods, cladoceran, marine insects and molluscan larvae were occasional in the diet. The semidigested food was highly macerated and pulpy, resembling shredded jelly fishes. The stomachs were heavily infested with digenetic trematodes. In contrast with other stromateids, the Chinese pomfret does not change its larval habitat and remains a surface feeder throughout life. This behaviour accounts for its effective fishing with drift gill-nets and a poor representation in the bottom trawls.

Date : 30-12-1977