Diet composition of oil Sardine, <em>Sardinella longiceps</em> (Valenciennes, 1847) from Mumbai waters of Maharashtra, India

Abstract

Present study is based on the examination of gut contents of 422 fishes, collected from Mumbai coast, Maharashtra. Based on index of preponderance values, diatoms (60.97%) and zooplankton (25.79%) were found to be the major components of the food. Month wise gut content showed that among the diatoms <em>Cosinodiscus </em>spp. (17.43%), was most dominant followed by <em>Fragilaria oceanica </em>(14.34%) and<em> Pleurosigma </em>spp.(10.86%), in the zooplankton copepods were the most occurred throughout the year, contributing maximum in the May (15.94%) and least in January (4.79%). Gastro somatic index in males and females ranged from 0.80 to 1.41 and 0.72 to 1.60 respectively with there is no significance difference between males and females (P >0.05). Month wise feeding intensity was observed to be highest, for both sexes during May and length wise in smaller size groups (120-129 mm).