The dynamics of food and feeding habits of some marine fishes

The siudy of food and feeding habits of marine fishes can be attempted from the standpoint of transfer of energy from one trophic level to the other. For a proper insight into the problem, it seems desirable to obtain some information on the environment from where the material for the study is taken. Ecologically the food organisms can be divided into seven broad groups. These can further be placed arbitrarily into three main trophic levels. From this type of approach, the trophic spectrum of some of the marine fishes from the Indian waters, on which data are available, can be drawn. These relationships can be interpreted as food chain models showing the groups of organisms which directly form a pari of the food chain. A large assemblage of animals with a similar food requirement gives rise to competition within the same trophic level or ecological cannibalism, which makes the food chain long and complex. A suitable approach for the analysis of food seems the determination of organic carbon of the stomach contents. From the carbon content, the. caloric value of the food can be determined. The knowledge of the energy contents of food is of much value for making an appraisal of the food conversion efficiency or ecological efficiency. From the ingested food it is possible to work out the the total energy losses and energy utilization