Food and feeding habits of Mugil cephalus (Linnaeus, 1758) in Elechi Creek, Niger Delta, Nigeria

Abstract

The present study is aimed to provide information on the abundance of natural foods needed by Mugil cephalus in the Elechi Creek. The natural food of M. cephalus in the Elechi Creek was studied from stomach contents of the fish. The stomach contents were analyzed using two methods; the frequency of occurrence and numerical methods. Plant materials, diatoms, algae and dinoflagellates constituted its main food. Plant materials were found to be the most preferable food where it occurred in 67.0% of the examined fish. Annelids, fish larva, fish parts, insect parts and crustaceans comprised the food of animal origin. Sand/mud and organic matter occurred in about 11.0 and 73.0% of the examined stomachs respectively. These results indicate that M. cephalus is omnivorous plant materials were the most abundant food items by numerical and occurrence methods in the gut of the fish species.   Key words: Algae, food items, frequency of occurrence, numerical method, stomach content.