MAKANAN ALAMI IKAN SIDAT KACA DI MUARA SUNGAI CIMANDIRI, PELABUHAN RATU, JAWA BARAT

The availability of glass eel stock was relatively abundant in the  estuary in Cimandiri rivers Pelabuhan Ratu, West Java. These fish seeds must be managed and used properly, so that it could make a major contribution to the welfare of the society. Food was a key factor to suport the survival and growth of glass eel. Information about the excact food during the glass eel stade was very important. This study aims to investigate the natural food of glass eel in the Cimandiri estuary. Samples of glass eel were taken from  Cimandiri  Estuary, West Java from October to December 2013. Analysis of the contents of  digestive tract were analyzed using the index of preponderance method (combination of occurance frequency and volumetric). The result showed that the  natural food of glass eel found in the digestive tract consist of the group of phytoplankton namely class Cyanophyceae (Oschilatoria sp., Coscinosdiscus sp., and Rhizoclonium sp.), class Bacillariophyceae (Navicula sp., and  Nitzschia sp., and class Clorophyceae (Chorella sp.). and zooplankton such as  Notholca sp., Nauplius sp. The size of natural food of glass eel was in the ranged from of 3,7 – 90,0 µm or range between  1,1% - 24,7% of the width of its mouth opening.