Food and Feeding Habit of Some Selected Fish Species from Lower River Benue, Makurdi, Nigeria

Abstract

Studies on food and feeding habit of chrysitchthys nigrodidgitatus, Bagrus bayad and Synodontis clarias was conducted from July 2018 to June 2019 using frequency of occurrence, numerical and gravimetric methods the result of this investigation revealed that Bagrus bayad had 40%, full stomach,31.6% empty stomach 10% quarter full stomach,16.80% half full stomach and 1.6% three quarter full stomach. Chrysitcthy nigrodigitatus had 26.03%, full stomach ,47.65% empty stomach 1.14 quarter full stomach,14.43% half full stomach and 2.42% three quarter full stomach. Synodontis clarias had 31.62%, full stomach ,30.88% empty stomach, 10.29% quarter full stomach,19.85% half full stomach and 7.35% three quarter full stomach. Chrysitchthys had the lowest number of full stomachs (26.03) and highest number of empty stomachs (47.65) Stomach content in B. bayad for frequency of occurrence method ranged from 1.93-17.76,C. nigrodigitatus 3.06-15.24  and S. clarias 7.17-27.91 .Numerical method B. bayad ranged from 5.48-17.81,C.nigrodigitatus 8.22-17.81,S.clarias 6.85-26.03. Gravimetric method B. bayad ranged from19.13-95.88, C. nigrodigitatus 25.00-93.48 and S.clarias 8.70-30.43. The result of the index of relative importance showed that the food content from B. bayad ranged from 0.05-1.87,C.nigrodigitatus 0.3-1.47,S.clarias 0.13-1.3 respectively with animal parts been the highest and the lowest been plant parts this showed that these fish species are omnivores and a top predator.