Summer food of juvenile turbot, Psetta maxima (L.) and flounder, Platichthys flesus (L.), at Świętouść, Pomeranian Bay

Abstract

Summer food of 0- and I-age group turbot and flounder utilizing shallow, inshore nursery ground at Świętouść, Pomeranian Bay were examined. Juvenile turbot fed mostly on mysid. Neomysis integer, Pisces and Crangon crangon. Amphipod Bathyporeia pilosa was of little importance. Juvenile flounder fed on polychaete, Nercis diversicolor, and amphipod Bathyporeia pilosa and Gammarus spp. Tiny bottom-stages of Mollusca were of minor importance. Shifts in diet preferences as a function of fish size were observed in both species. Owing to differences in diet composition practically no diet-overlap was found between larger turbot and flounder, from age group I. Between 0-group fish, of these species, diet-overlap high as 36% for two food items shared, Calanoida and Bathyporeic pilosa, occurred.