Value of fruits and seeds from the floodplain forests of Central Amazonia as food resource for fish.

Floodplain forests of Central Amazonia are heavily influenced by the period fluctuation of the water level. The regular change between terrestrial and aquatic phase in the forests has an impact on friut-shedding as well as on many fish species: during inundation, which lasts for months, they migrate into flooded forests to feed on fruits and seeds shed by trees and bushes in an area more than 300 000 km² in size. For the region near Manaus, Amazonia, Brazil, we report on: (1) the nutritional value and further chemical details of 19 fruits and seeds of those species used by fish as food, furthermore on an additional 11 species which probably serve or could serve as fish food, (2) the amount of fruits-shed in one bioto for 4 selected species, and (3) the percentage of different fish catches with fruits as stomach content. Total annual production of the whole inundated forest can be estimated to be 16-53 million tons of fruits, corresponding to a monetary value of the fish production from the floodplains in the range of US$ 320 to 530 million. The idea is discussed that since some of the fruits which are preferred by frugivorous fish are abundant in three different biotae, it could be possible to use them to feed farmed fish