title: [Diet composition and seasonal variation in feeding habits of Collichthy lucidus in Yangtze Estuary, China].
abstract: Spiny head croaker (Collichthy lucidus) is an important bottom fish distributing from the East China Sea to the Yellow Sea. In order to investigate the seasonal variation in diet composition and feeding habits, a total of 270 specimens were collected in the Yangtze Estuary from November, 2013 to August, 2014, and analyzed by using the stomach contents analysis method. The importance of different prey items was evaluated by the frequency of occurrence, abundance and mass followed by using these data to calculate the index of relative importance (IRI) and the index of preponderance (Ip) for each taxonomic category. The results showed that the diet of C. lucidus consisted of 30 species belonging to 8 orders, in which shrimps, with 38.5 IRI% and 79.1 Ip values, was the most important prey species. The followings were Mysidacea and Amphipoda. The dominant species in the diet of C. lucidus were Palaemon gravieri, Exopalaemon annandalei, E. carinicauda, Acanthomysis longirostris, A. brevirostris, Synidotea laevidorsalis and Calanus sinicus. The dominant species in the diet varied in different seasons. P. gravieri, E. annandalei and A. brevirostris were dominant species in spring and summer, A. longirostris, A. brevirostris and E. carinicauda in autumn, and P. gravieri, C. sinicus and Pesudeuphausia sinica in winter. There was 10.4% of total samples with empty stomachs, and the highest percent appeared in winter, and the lowest in autumn. The mean stomach fullness index of the whole samples was 0.6%, with the highest found in spring, the lowest in winter, indicating the feeding activity of C. lucidus varied significantly among seasons.
authors.forename: Jian-feng
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Jun-li
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhuang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002681:China; D003445:Crustacea; D004032:Diet; D063366:Estuaries; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005399:Fishes; D020387:Food Chain; D005766:Gastrointestinal Contents; D010473:Perciformes / Q000502:physiology*; D012621:Seasons