Food and Feeding Habits of Johnius carutta (Bloch, 1793) off Visakhapatnam, East-coast of India

M. Swamy Kumar; G. Rajeswari; B. Kishore

doi:10.56093/ft.v52i2.48196

Authors

M. Swamy Kumar Research Centre of Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Ocean View Layout, Pandurangapuram, P.O. Andhra University, Visakhapatnam - 530 003, India
G. Rajeswari Research Centre of Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Ocean View Layout, Pandurangapuram, P.O. Andhra University, Visakhapatnam - 530 003, India
B. Kishore Research Centre of Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Ocean View Layout, Pandurangapuram, P.O. Andhra University, Visakhapatnam - 530 003, India

https://doi.org/10.56093/ft.v52i2.48196

Keywords:

Johnius carutta, gastro-somatic index, composite index

Abstract

Specimens of Johnius carutta (Bloch, 1793) collected from off Visakhapatnam during 2008-09 were used for gut content analysis. J. carutta was observed to be euryphagic, carnivorous, benthic, moderate feeder feeding mostly on teleost fish, free living crustaceans, polychaetes and molluscs. Analysis of gut revealed contents different food items with dominance of squilla (17.72%) followed by Acetes spp. (11.40%), shrimps (10.81%), teleost fish (9.10%), polychaetes (7.10%), crabs (5.10%) and crustacean appendages (3.20%). Quantitative analysis revealed the non-penaeid shrimp Acetes spp. (32.51%) dominating the food items followed by squilla (15.20%), shrimp,Â (11.50%), fish (9.73%), polychaetes (8.63%), crustacean appendages (6.10%) and crab (3.90%). The composite index values indicated that squilla (35.62) is the most preferred food followed by Acetes spp. (18.03), teleost fish (16.62), shrimp (10.38) and polychaetes (6.26). The average gastro-somatic index values are relatively low during pre-monsoon (1.27%), moderate during monsoon (1.74%) and relatively high during post-monsoon (1.95%).