Morphology, Food and Feeding Habit of Goby Fish, Parachaeturichthys ocellatus from the Creeks of Mumbai

Bindu Panicker

doi:10.47607/ijresm.2020.382

Abstract

Goby fish Parachaeturichthys ocellatus, native to the creeks of Mumbai coast forms a major part of creek fishery for the fishing community inhabiting areas near the creeks. The food and feeding habits of the fish were studied by collecting fish samples every month in from June 2010 to September 2011 from the creeks of Mumbai. The length of the fishes studied ranged between 66mm to 185mm.The body morphology of fish revealed it to be carnivorous benthic and predatory fish. The gut contents of the fish showed the presence of crustaceans as basic food, mollusc and pisces formed the secondary food while detritus formed obligatory food and planktons and other miscellaneous food (larvae of insects, worms, rotiferons, dinoflegellates foraminiferons etc.) were incidental food. An analysis of seasonal variation in food preference and feeding intensity reveal that the male and female P.ocellatus had the same preference throughout the seasons but was different for the juveniles. In P.ocellatus cannibalism was observed, but its occurrence was not regular in the general diet. The relative gut length was 0.68 in male, 0.70 in female and 0.79 in juvenile. The empty guts of P.ocellatus seem to indicate predatory mode of feeding. P.ocellatus occupy the position of secondary and tertiary consumers in the food chain determined by the size and type of the food consumed by the fish.

Highlights

The feeding behaviour in a fish is a species characteristic formed during its evolutionary history (Nikolsky, 1963)
The following morphological features which are important for understanding food and feeding of P.ocellatus were observed
All the observed characters in terms of the position and the form of mouth and the dentition in jaws, all indicate that P.ocellatus is carnivorous

Summary

Introduction

The feeding behaviour in a fish is a species characteristic formed during its evolutionary history (Nikolsky, 1963). The general nature of a fish’s feeding habits can be inferred from the knowledge of its functional morphology (Weatherly, 1972). Food habits of gobies are very diverse consisting of crabs, shrimps, small crustaceans like copepods, amphipods and ostracods, molluscs and fishes (Jonna, 2004). Parachaeturichthys ocellatus is native to Western Indian Ocean and Western Central Pacific Ocean at 30o E - 80o E and 45o S - 30o N. It was identified by Day (1873) from the creks of Mumbai. The food and feeding habits will help in prediction of availability of fishes based on the availability of the food, prediction of migration with knowledge of decrease in preferred food, designing of suitable feeding strategy for maximum production

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Conclusion