The use of food resources by 0+ snapper, Chrysophrys auratus, from northern Spencer Gulf, South Australia
Richard J. Saunders A B C D , Anthony J. Fowler B and Bronwyn M. Gillanders CA School of Earth & Environmental Sciences & Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture, James Cook University, Douglas Campus, Townsville, Qld 4811, Australia.
B South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences), PO Box 120, Henley Beach, Adelaide, SA 5022, Australia.
C Southern Seas Ecology Laboratories, DP 418, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.
D Corresponding author. Email: richard.saunders@jcu.edu.au
Marine and Freshwater Research 63(8) 680-686 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF11266
Submitted: 4 December 2011 Accepted: 6 June 2012 Published: 27 July 2012
Abstract
Food availability is an important factor in survival and growth of juvenile fish and has been proposed as a major factor shaping the patterns of distribution and abundance of 0+ snapper, Chrysophrys auratus, in New Zealand and Japan. Thus, we tested the hypothesis that diet of 0+ snapper would exhibit spatial variation related to their abundance within a major nursery region. Therefore, we described the stomach contents of 0+ snapper collected from within a nursery region in areas of low and high abundance of 0+ snapper. The data also provided the opportunity to consider sized based differences in diet and temporal feeding patterns. 0+ snapper were generalist carnivores that preyed on a wide range of invertebrates and fish. No evidence of sized based dietary variation was identified but feeding either ceased or was much reduced during the hours of darkness. The major finding was that more polychaetes were present in the stomachs of 0+ snapper in the area of high 0+ snapper abundance than in the areas of low 0+ snapper abundance. The spatial differences in diet observed supports the hypothesis that prey availability is important as a driver of habitat selection by 0+ fish.
Additional keywords: diet, nursery, Pagrus, recruitment.
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