title: Meals for two: foraging activity of the butterflyfish Chaetodon striatus (Perciformes) in southeast Brazil.
abstract: The banded butterflyfish (Chaetodon striatus) from the tropical and subtropical western Atlantic is a territorial, diurnal forager on benthic invertebrates. It is usually seen moving singly or in pairs, a few meters above the sea floor. We studied the foraging activity of C. striatus on rocky reefs in southeastern Brazil. This fish spent about 11 h and 30 min per day on feeding activities, and preferred colonies of non-scleratinian anthozoans over sandy and rocky substrata while foraging. The lowest feeding rates were recorded in the early morning and late afternoon, but we found no further differences between feeding rates throughout the day. We also found no differences between the feeding rates of paired and single individuals.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Zoologia e Museu de História Natural, C.P. 6109, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, CEP 13083-970, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. robertabonaldo@yahoo.com
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Bonaldo
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Krajewski
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sazima
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001938:Brazil; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D010473:Perciformes / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors