Selection of prey from a seagrass/mangrove environment by golden lined whiting, Sillago analis (Whitley)

Most previous studies of food selection by fishes have been conducted on visually-feeding species in relatively unstructured environments. The food selection behaviour of Sillago analis (Whitley), feeding nocturnally in a complex seagrass/mangrove environment, was assessed. Crustacean prey were relatively accessible and displayed the highest electivity values. Annelids were usually buried at least 30 mm below the substrate surface and, like potential fish prey, were either not taken or showed consistently negative electivities. Although many mollusc species were accessible, only the siphon tips of the bivalve Glauconome virens (Linnaeus) were positively selected. Results from both field and laboratory indicated that S. analis is not a strongly size-selective predator. However, in contrast to the field study, the laboratory results showed that S. analis had a strong preference for annelids Marphysa sanguinea (Montague)] as well as crustaceans. The food selection patterns of S. analis could not be clearly described in terms of single parameters such as prey size, prey abundance or prey energy content, which have been used in the context of optimal foraging theory and are often described as strong determinants of food selection in visual predators. Instead, this nocturnally-feeding species takes a variety of the more vulnerable prey (i.e. those which are spatially accessible, weakly motile or thinly shelled) in an apparently opportunistic fashion.