Seasonal Feeding Biology of Catfish, Pachypterus atherinoides (Bloch, 1794) with Special Reference to Lentic and Lotic Ecosystem

Abstract

The study of food and feeding biology is extremely crucial in fishery. Pachypterus atherinoides (Bloch, 1794) is a good food and ornamental catfish in the world. The present study aims to examine the seasonal variation of feeding habits of P. atherinoides in both lentic and lotic ecosystems. The study was conducted over two years in selected lentic and lotic aquatic ecosystems of the Jhargram and Paschim Medinipur districts of West Bengal, India. The study reveals that P. atherinoides shows carni-omnivorous nature. Pearson’s correlation represents gastro-somatic index, relative gut length, and hepato-somatic index have significant positive correlation among them. Based on posthoc tests, it has been observed that the gastro-somatic index, relative gut length, and hepato-somatic index vary significantly both seasonally and in both lentic and lotic ecosystems. This study would help aquaculturists in the culture, captive breeding, and conservation of P. atherinoides and also help researchers in the biometric study of another fish.

Keywords

• carni-omnivorous
• catfish
• feeding biology
• lentic
• lotic
• pachypterus atherinoides