The food of barramundi, Lates calcarifer (Bloch), in coastal and inland waters of Van Diemen Gulf and the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia

Abstract

Examination of the diet of Lates calcarifer, based on 3684 specimens of 4–1200 mm total length (T.L.), from two localities in north Australia showed it is an opportunistic predator with an ontogenetic progression in its diet from microcrustacea to macrocrustacea to fish. The increasing importance of fish in the diet of L. calcarifer in salt water (up to 87% of food consumed) involved a dietary shift from feeding on bottom‐dwelling forms to pelagic forms. There were few differences in the diet of L. calcarifer between the two localities. Cannibalism was rarely encountered in the Gulf of Carpentaria although it was significant (11–4% of the diet of L. calcarifer of 1001–1200 mm T.L.) in Van Diemen Gulf. A significant correlation between predator and prey length was found for Ariidae, Dorosomidae, Engraulidae, L. calcarifer, Mugilidae and Polynemidae. The maximum prey/predator length ratio observed was 0–61 for the dorosomid, Nematolosa erebi.