Ontogenetic food habits of the four most abundant fish species in seagrass neadows of Redfish Bay, Texas, were examined quantitatively during 1982-1983. The darter goby (Gobionellus bolelsoma) and pinfish (Lagodon rhomboides) were trophic generalists,...
Ontogenetic food habits of the four most abundant fish species in seagrass neadows of Redfish Bay, Texas, were examined quantitatively during 1982-1983. The darter goby (Gobionellus bolelsoma) and pinfish (Lagodon rhomboides) were trophic generalists, which used a wide range of food items. The darter goby had relatively diverse, omnivorous diet which included amphipods, copepods, polychaetes, filamentous algae, diatoms, and detritus. This species did not show distinct ontogenetic changes in foodpreferences. Unlike the darter goby, the pinfish showed ontogenetic progression of four feeding stages. An initial feeding stage was a planktivorous stage in which copepods were int major food items, followed by a carnivorous stage in which amphipods became the major food items, an omnivorous stage in which filamentous algae, diatoms, amphipods, and polychaetes were the major food items, and finally a herbivorous stage in which seagrass pieces with attached epiphytes and their debris were the major food items. The code goby (Gobiosoma robustrm) and Gulf pipefish (Syngathus scovelli) appeared to be relatively specialized in food havits as carnivorous. Similar ontogenetic changes in food habits were observed for these two species, i.e.initially, copepods were the major food items, followed by a gradual transition to amphipods with growth.