Diet and Food Ethology of Largehead Hairtail Trichiurus Lepturus Linnaeus, 1758 (Perciformes, Trichiuridae) in Coastal Waters of Cote d’Ivoire

Kouassi Martial KOFFI^{1, 2,} , Tape Gnahore Toussaint JOANNY², Marcelle Iridjé BODJI¹ and Nahoua Issa OUATTARA¹

¹Department of Biosciences, Felix Houphouet Boigny University, Abidjan-Cote d’Ivoire, Hydrobiology Laboratory, 22 BP 582 Abidjan 22

²Aquatic Living Resources, Oceanological Research Centre BPV 18 Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire

Cite this paper:
Kouassi Martial KOFFI, Tape Gnahore Toussaint JOANNY, Marcelle Iridjé BODJI and Nahoua Issa OUATTARA. Diet and Food Ethology of Largehead Hairtail Trichiurus Lepturus Linnaeus, 1758 (Perciformes, Trichiuridae) in Coastal Waters of Cote d’Ivoire. Applied Ecology and Environmental Sciences. 2020; 8(2):40-46. doi: 10.12691/aees-8-2-1

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the food ecology of Trichiurus lepturus. 876 specimens of Trichiurus lepturus were collected monthly from January 2018 to December 2018 in Abidjan fishing port and their stomachs contents examined. The number of stomachs non-empty examined in this study is 176 stomachs out of the 876 obtained. The index of preponderance (%PI) showed that T. lepturus had a carnivorous diet piscivorous tendency. Twelve items grouped into three categories, Fishes (PI = 97.99%), Crustaceans (PI = 2.10%) and Molluscs (PI = 0.002%) were the major feed. Juveniles (Total Length (TL) < the length at first maturity (L₅₀= 48.02 cm)…) consumed crustaceans (PI = 59.18%) as main preys and fishes (PI = 40.18%) as secondary preys. In adults (Total Length (TL) > the length at first maturity (L₅₀= 48.02 cm) …), Fishes (PI = 97.59%) were the main preys eaten. According seasons, T. lepturus feeds Fishes (PI = 89.02 %) and Crustaceans (PI = 10.98%) during miner warm season and mayor cold season Fishes (PI = 94.26%) and Crustaceans (PI= 5.65%). They only feed on Fishes (PI = 99.91%) during the miner cold season (mcs) and mayor warm season (PI= 99.1%) (MWS). Bray-Curtis similarity showed no significant difference (p ˃ 0.05) between diet of juveniles and adults of Trichiurus lepturus in all seasons.

Keywords:
largehead hairtail Trichiurus lepturus feeding habits coastal waters Cote d’Ivoire West Africa

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