Food and feeding habits of the larval and young stages of Barbus sharpeyi (Gunther, 1874) reared in earthen ponds.

S.M,; Abdullah,; Mahdi,; A.A,; M.A,; Al-Mokhtar,; KH.W,; Farnar,

	Food and feeding habits of the larval and young stages of Barbus sharpeyi (Gunther, 1874) reared in earthen ponds.
Mesopotamian Journal of Marine Science
Article 1, Volume 23, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 129-147 PDF (0 K)
Authors
; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Abstract
Feeding and feeding habits of larvae (Barbus sharpeyi) studied after 7 days of hatching .in order to investigate the natural food and feeding habits of larvae from this stage until fingerling. The study started during March to the end of October 2006. Fullness index and food item percentage were determined for each larvae using point and Numerical methods. The environmental parameter for the ponds shows that all of the parameters were suitable for the culture of Bunnei. The result showed that a significant shift in food habits was occurred according to age. In the first weeks only plants remain and green algae (Oscillatoria sp., Cladophora sp., Spirogyra sp.) occurred with a percent of 23%, protozoa (Euglena sp.-Volvox sp.) 49.3% with some artificial food 9.9% and unidentified materials 9.4%. During the fifth week the food items showed increase in the percent of phytoplankton (Nitzschia sp., Gymnodinium sp., Navicula sp., Fragilaria sp., Diatoma sp., ladophora sp., Cyclotella sp. and Keratella sp.), and zooplankton (Rotifera-Copepoda) both with 12.7%, crustacean (Trichotria sp., Brachionus sp., Moina sp., cartia sp.) and shrimp larvae (Metapenaus sp.) 13.4%. All these items were appeared during the last months, and increased during the last fifth rearing month (May) to reach 35%. During the last months of the study there was increase in the occurrences of aquatic remains, filamentous algae and Alpha alpha remains, which was used by the farmer as daily supplementary food in the last months of the study. All food and feeding habits were exhibits fluctuations with age, length and environmental conditions.

Statistics Article View: 175 PDF Download: 109