Studies on the food and feeding relationships of the halfbeak fishes (Hemirhamphidae) from the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay

Abstract

As a part of the investigations of the biology of the hemirhamphids in the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay from 1957-59, the contents of 2221 guts belonging to four species, viz., Hyporhamphus georgii (C.V.), H. quoyi (C.V.), Hemirhamphus marginatus (Forsk.) and H. far (Forsk.) were examined. No detailed information on the food and feeding habits of the half beaks is available and the accounts given by Schlesinger (1909), Uchida (1930), Smith (1933), Devanesan (1933), Graham (1938), Suyehiro (1942), Gnanamuthu (1943), Chacko (1949), Tham Ah Kow (1950), Thompson (1957 and 1959), Vijayaraghavan (1957) and Kuthalingam (1958) relate mainly to observations confined to limited periods in a year and do not give a picture of the variations of the seasonal composition of the gut contents. The present study deals with the seasonal composition of the food items of four species of halfbeaks and its relation to the environmental biota and their stages of sexual maturity.