Feeding ecology and daily food consumption of common sole, Solea vulgaris Quensel, juveniles on the French Atlantic coast

Abstract

This study describes feeding rhythms in juvenile sole (0‐ and I‐groups) and differences in choice of prey according to age and feeding time. In the same biotype, 0‐group fish select amphipods or young opisthobranchs, whereas I‐group fish eat chiefly polychaetes such as Pectinaria koreni. The daily food consumption for juvenile soles in the field (T = 19.8°C) is estimated at 7% body dry weight in 0‐group and probably less in I‐group. When compared with estimates from previous methods or models, these rations are intermediate between estimates from Kuipers' method, with a gastric evacuation rate (R) per hour representing three times the amount of food in the stomach, and those from Elliott & Persson's model with R value around 1.46.