Food and Feeding Habits of Pterois Russelli from Cuddalore, South East Coast of India

Abstract

India has a rich aquatic resource of rivers, lakes, canals and ocean. There were living different varieties of ornamental fishes. Still, there is no clear cut information especially the list of ornamental species. In recent days, many people are interested and main hobbies are keeping fish in aquarium. While the keeping ornamental fish popularity and trades in India are dominated by the exotic species. Fish keeping in such water requires prober management which is perhaps more important. And also the developing aquarium fishes are main problems of feed management and schedule of feeding. Studies on the food and feeding habits of ornamental fishes are important in the successful with aquarium keeping, farming and export trade. In the present study, the food and feeding habits of Scorpionfish members of the Russell’s Lionfish specifically refer to the class Actinopterygii, family Scorpaenidae, subfamily Pteroinae, genus Pterois and species russelii were undertaken respectively. The russell’s lionfish Pterois russelli is known having a many different names viz., soldier lionfish, red volitans lionfish, clearfin lionfish, largetail lionfish, plaintail turkeyfish, military turkeyfish, plaintail firefish, spotless firefish, russell's firefish and spotless butterfly-cod. Analysis of the stomach contents revealed Fish, Crustacean, Zooplankton, Phytoplankton, Polychaetes, Nematodes, Gastropods, Bivalves, Sand, Digested matter and Miscellaneous as a main food items were observed in the male and female P. russelli from Cuddalore coastal waters environment.