Feeding habits of four species of mesopelagic fishes from the Northern Chilean

Eduardo Oliva A,Raul Ulloa H,Jorge Bleck Z

doi:10.15517/rbt.v54i2.13936

Abstract

The feeding habits of four species of mesopelagic fishes from northern Chile are described: Triphoturus mexicanus, Diogenichtys atlanticus, Vinciguerria lucetia and Cyclothone acclinidens. Samples were captured in September 1988 between 18 degrees 25' and 19 degrees 09'S in the South West Pacific. The quantitative and qualitative analyses of the stomach content showed that the species have a zooplanktophagous opportunistic behavior, mainly predating on Crustaceans, especially on Copepods. The evaluation of the trophic spectrum and diversity of T. mexicanus and C. acclinidens suggests that these are nictoepipelagic species, while D. atlanticus and V. lucetia would be typical mesopelagic.

Highlights

Mid water fishes generally form dense groups, so they represent a good alternative for the production of fish flour. Gjosaeter and Kawaguchi (1980) estimate a standing stock of 51 millions of tons for the South West Pacific
The aim of this study is to describe the feeding habits of four mesopelagic species, which are abundant in front of the subtropical coasts of Northern Chile (18°25’ S - 19°09’ S) during September 1988
The diet for T. mexicanus and D. atlanticus coincides with that reported by Parín (1968) for this family, which is constituted mainly by calonoid copepods, euphasiids, amphipods and decapods larvae

Summary

Introduction

Mid water fishes generally form dense groups, so they represent a good alternative for the production of fish flour. Gjosaeter and Kawaguchi (1980) estimate a standing stock of 51 millions of tons for the South West Pacific. The possible variations of its diet depending on certain parameters such as the depth where it is located, the time of the day and the season of the year can be determined This can give information about the position of an individual while eating as well as its function as a part of the biocoenosis (Amezaga 1988, Gual-Frau and Gallardo-Cabello 1988). The study of the trophic relations on ichthyc populations begins in Chile in the decade of the 50’s (Silva and Stuardo 1985) About this subject, there are a few publications that focusing mainly on species supporting traditional and industrial epipelagic fisheries (Moreno 1972, Chong et al 1974, Martínez et al 1990). The aim of this study is to describe the feeding habits of four mesopelagic species, which are abundant in front of the subtropical coasts of Northern Chile (18°25’ S - 19°09’ S) during September 1988

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Results

Conclusion