NATURAL FEEDING OF FISH FROM HABBANYIA LAKE 3-KATTAN Barbus (luciobarbus) xanthopterus  (HECKEL, 1843)

A. Al- Shamma, A.; J. Al-Mashhadany, A.; H. Alasha, M.; N. Nasser, E.

	NATURAL FEEDING OF FISH FROM HABBANYIA LAKE 3-KATTAN Barbus (luciobarbus) xanthopterus (HECKEL, 1843)
IRAQ JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE
Article 1, Volume 14, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 0-0
Authors
A. A. Al- Shamma; A. J. Al-Mashhadany; M. H. Alasha; E. N. Nasser
Abstract
A 133 Kattan Barbus fish (Luciobarbus) xanthopterus (Heckel, 1843) with lengths ranged between 15.0-45.0 cm, were collected from Habbanyia Lake at Al-Angoor and Al-Mejara regions. The foreguts contents were examined. Fish were fed mostly on animal origin food, which formed 76.2% of the total consumed diet (carnivorous( according to ranking index. The unidentified digested food (UDF) (animal origin) formed (25.6 and 31.8%) of the fish diet according to volumetric and ranking index respectively along the year. Whereas, mollusca was ranked second (19.5 , 21.5%); insects and their larvae came third (11.7 , 15.0%) according to the previous two methods of analysis respectively. Insects and their larvae had the highest occurrence percentage (16.3%) during the investigation period. However, unidentified digested food ranked first during winter (27.8 , 35.1 and 15.1%), followed by mollusca (17.5 , 19.4 and 12.5%). Mollusca was also ranked second (20.2 , 24.0 and 15.0%) after UDF during spring. While mollusca ranked first (25.2, 27.4 and 14.7% during summer and insects and its larvae were first (15.3, 22.1 and 16.2%) during autum according to the volumetric, ranking index and occurrence methods respectively. Fish were found to be more active during spring (100%), but high feeding intensity was observed during autumn (30 points). Similarily index (CH) showed no obvious differences in the diet of different sizes and sexes of fish groups during the study period (CH=0.85-0.95).

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