Food and feeding habits of the snapper, Lutianus kasmira (Forskal) from the Andaman sea

Abstract

The paper deals with the food and feeding habits of the snapper, Lutianus kasmira (Forskal), a common lutianid fish around Andaman Islands. Teleost fishes, juvenile crabs and megalopa, and young prawns constituted the chief items of the diet of the fish in that order. Isopods, amphipods, ostracods, polychaetes, stomatopods, asteroids, ophiuroids, gastropods, holothurians, hermit crabs, pteropods, lucifers, caprellids and cypris contributed an insignificant percentage to the diet. The major items of the diet of the fish did not differ significantly from year to year. No marked change in the diet of the fish as it grew from yoting to adult was noticed. Generally active feeding was noticed during April to October with a peak during April to August and a poor feeding dtiring the rest of the period. The available data suggest a slackness in feeding dui'ing the spawning season and an active feeding after spawning. Small-sized food organisms were swallowed whole, while large-sized organisms were bitten and swallowed. L. kasmira is essentially a column feeder occasionally resortng to feeding at the boottom.