Feeding Ecology of Fishes in the Brazilian Amazon - A Naturalistic Approach

Abstract

The Amazon system is composed by a multitude of rivers with varying water types and strikingly different productivities. This environmental diversity is accompanied by the presence of diverse fish species assemblages and ecological characteristics. Although a considerable amount of information about the trophic relations of the Amazonian fishes and their natural habitats have been generated in the previous few decades, most of the published literature deals only with descriptions of the main food items of the commercially most important species, and is based mainly on stomach contents analyses. We present here a quick look into the trophic interactions of the fishes and their natural environments, based on the diversity of the Amazonian fish fauna and its aquatichabitats. This chapter focuses on the main aquatic environments found in the Brazilian Amazon: the huge river-floodplain systems and their different water types; the multitude of small clear and black water streams that drains the "terra firme" (upland, non-floodable) forests, including their marginal temporary ponds; and the riffles and rapids zones of the rivers that drain the Brazilian and Guyana Shields and harbor a very rich and trophically specialized fish fauna.