Prey availability and selective feeding of sea trout (Salmo trutta L., 1758) fry stocked in small forest streams

The food base and stomach contents of stocked sea trout (Salmo trutta) fry were determined in the first 4 months (April–August 2010) of life in two small lowland streams after resorption of the yolk sac. In each stream, 600 individual trout were released in a 200 m stocking‐section. The macrozoobenthos given as a food base for the fry were collected once a month from the streams using a bottom scraper. Three subsamples of macrozoobentos were considered as one sample from the stocking‐section. On the same day, 50 stocked fry were captured in each stream using electric fishing gear. Preferred food components were usually the taxa represented by number in a given stream in a particular month. Width size range of the prey in fish stomachs in May was from 0.10 to 1.47 mm, and from 0.11 to 3.78 mm in August. All food items found in both streams during the study months were also represented in intensity in the fish: Cyclopoida, and larvae of Baetidae and Chironomidae. Almost all Helodidae and Simuliidae larvae as well as the majority of Limoniidae and Nemouridae larvae were available as food each month.