Feeding eology of 0-group fishes from Shatt Al-Basrah, Basrah-Iraq

Abstract EN

The food and feeding of four species of the young (0-group) fishes in Shatt al-Basrah were studied from February 2011 to April 2012.

Twelve food groups were recorded during this study.

Crustaceans (copepods, amphipods, shrimps and crabs) were the most important prey for tilapia (Tilapia zilli) and mosquitofish (Gumbosia affinis) (Relative Importance indices (% RII) = 82.7 and 40.2 respectively).

Plant was the most important food for mullet (Liza subviridis) (86.8 %).

Plant and fishes were considered most important food for whitehead's thryssa (Thryssa white headi) (32.3 % and 32.7 % of the total RII respectively).

Tilapia (T.

zilli) clearly shows only significant overlap with (G.

affinis) (Cλ = 0.76).

The overall degree of dietary overlap among all the species was 41.7 %.

This information is when the complex association between fishes and identifying groups of species using similar resources.