The dietary habits of the upside-down catfish, Synodontis membranaceus (Osteichthyes: Mochokidae) in Jebba lake, Nigeria

Abstract

Dietary habits of the up side-down Mochokid catfish, Synodontis membranaceus were investigated for 24 months (April 2002-March 2004, in Jebba lake, Nigeria) using frequency of occurrence, numerical, gravimetric and index of relative importance (RI) methods. The fish is euryphagus and feeds more at night. RI values indicate that 10 of the 16 food items were major diet components. The main five food categories are detritus (10.64 %), Aspatharia (9.08 %), plant parts (8.85 %), seeds (8.61 %) and Spirogyra (8.43 %), while the 5 less prominent food categories were gastropods (7.05 %), insect appendages (6.88 %), copepods (6.31 %), adult Povilla adusta (5.89 %) and coleoptera larvae (5.36 %). The remaining six food items, dragon flies, P. adusta larvae, chironomid larvae, Daphnia, water mites and fish scales had RI values considerably under 5 %. The prominence of detritus in the diet indicated that the fish is a bottom or benthic feeder. The wide variability in food supply enables S. membranaceus to maintain its overwhelming prominence in Jebba lake, and its euryphagus habit makes it suited for pond culture. Rev. Biol. Trop. 56 (2): 931-936. Epub 2008 June 30.

Diet and feeding habits of the small catfish,Clarias liocephalusin wetlands ofWesternUganda

“…This could be a strategy by C. liocephalus to build up energy reserves in preparation for the breeding period. This has been observed in other catfishes as reported by Owolabi (). The low FI in the month of November coincides with the peak breeding period for C. liocephalus (Yatuha 2012, unpublished data).…”

Estimation of Dietary Composition and Fecundity of African Carp, <i>Labeo Coubie</i>, Cross River, Nigeria

“…The percentage was similar to those recorded by Ayotunde et al, (2007); Ugwumba and Adebisi, (1992) on the food and feeding habits of L. coubie and juveniles of culturable freshwater fishes respectively. Suresh et al, (2006) recorded about 81.8% empty guts which is higher than that obtained in this study but lower values were also recorded for S. membranaceus and Brycinus nurse (Owolabi, 2008;Saliu, 2002). A higher percentage of empty stomachs may reflect short period of feeding followed by period of rapid digestion.…”

Preliminary data on the feeding habits of the endemic speciesSynodontis koensisPellegrin, 1933 (Siluriformes, Mochokidae) in a West African River (Sassandra River Basin, Côte d’Ivoire)

“…Indeed, in the present study, the vacuity index showed markedly lower values during the night, suggesting that S. koensis is a nocturnal in feeding habits. This trend has been also evidenced for Synodontis schall (Lock, 1982;Idodo-Umeh, 2005) and S. membranaceus (Owolabi, 2008). On the other hand, Meye et al (2008) reported that S. ocellifer fed mostly at night.…”