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Journal of Taiwan Fisheries Research
Diet and Feeding Habits of Dolphin Fish (Coryphaena hippurus) in the Waters off Eastern Taiwan
- Date:2006-06-30
- Volume:14
- No:1
- Page:13-27
- Auther:Chuen-Chi Wu, Jiun-Chern Lin and Wei-Cheng Su
The diet and feeding habits of the dolphin fish (Coryphaena hippurus) were examined using stomach contents of 1318 specimens, caught in waters off eastern Taiwan by long-line (> 90% of specimens), driftnet, and set net between September 1996 and August 1997. The dolphin fish is carnivorous, and mainly preys on a wide variety of pelagic migratory fishes. In the annual composition of food items, teleosts were dominant, consisting of 38 species in 26 families accounting for 79.9% of the total food items. The important prey species were Spratelloides gracilis (9.8%), Engraulis japonicus (8.6%), Cypselurus spp. (6.3%). The seasonal compositions of the major food items included Sardinella hualiensis (27.1%), Engraulis japonicus (16.0%), Diaphus sp. (15.4%), and Spratelloides gracilis (8.7%) in spring; Cypselurus spp. (10.4%), Diodon sp. (8.1%), Thamnaconus sp. (7.7%), and Ostracion sp. (6.5%) in summer; larval fish (19.9%), Diodon sp. (11.0%), Cypselurus spp. (8.7%), and Loligo chinensis (6.6%) in autumn; and Engraulis japonicus (20.5%), shirasu-larvae (10.7%) and eels and eel larvae (5.2%) in winter. The feeding habits of both sexes and fish of various body sizes did not significantly differ. It was concluded that dolphin fish off the eastern coast of Taiwan migrate for spawning and feeding.