2044

Food and Feeding Habits of Three Cichlid Species Inhabiting Damietta Branch of the River Nile, Egypt

Article

Last updated: 01 Jan 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

Fisheries

Abstract

The present study is concerned with the seasonal analysis of the stomach contents of three species of cichlid fishes inhabiting Damietta branch of the River Nile, Egypt, namely Oreochromis niloticus (Linn., 1758), Sarotherodon
galilaeus (Linn., 1758) and Tilapia zillii (Gerv., 1848). The natural food was studied from the stomach contents of fish ranging from 12-29, 11- 24 and 10- 21 cm in total length of the previous species, respectively. Stomach contents were
analyzed using the frequency of occurrence and Percentage of composition methods. Additionally, feeding intensity, index of relative importance (IRI) and selectivity index (S) were calculated. The results showed that, food from plant
origin dominates the diet of the three studied species and occurred frequently in more than 60.0% of the examined stomach. Values of IRI emphasized the importance of diatoms, blue green and green algae as major food resources in
the stomach of O. niloticus followed by rotifers and organic detritus. S. galilaeus and T. zillii followed nearly the same trend as O. niloticus, but plant tissues follow blue green and green algae in the diet of T. zillii. IRI indicates also the
importance of food of animal origin in the diets of O. niloticus and S. galilaeus than T. zillii. The feeding intensity is strongly influenced by season, since the highest stomach fullness occurred during summer. In conclusion, Cichlid fish
species in Damietta Branch of River Nile are omnivorous, and did not consume food at random but have the ability to select and choose the preferred food stuff even during different seasons. These seasonal variations in preferred food makes the intraspecific competition between these species very low.

DOI

10.21608/ejabf.2009.2044

Keywords

River Nile, Damietta Branch, O. niloticus, S. galilaeus, T. zillii, feeding, Habits, Feeding intensity, frequency of occurrence

Authors

First Name

Kariman

Last Name

Shalloof

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, 101 Kaser El- Eini St. Egypt.

Email

dr_kariman88@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

0000-0002-3040-8213

First Name

Midhat

Last Name

El-Kasheif

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, 101 Kaser El- Eini St. Egypt.

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Mohammad

Last Name

Authman

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Hydrobiology, National Research Center, Dokki 12622, Giza, Egypt.

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

13

Article Issue

4

Related Issue

425

Issue Date

2009-04-01

Receive Date

2017-04-03

Publish Date

2009-04-01

Page Start

49

Page End

66

Print ISSN

1110-6131

Online ISSN

2536-9814

Link

https://ejabf.journals.ekb.eg/article_2044.html

Detail API

https://ejabf.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=2044

Order

4

Type

Original Article

Type Code

103

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries

Publication Link

https://ejabf.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Food and Feeding Habits of Three Cichlid Species Inhabiting Damietta Branch of the River Nile, Egypt

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023