Food and Feeding Habits of Two Dominant Fish Species in Ureje Reservoir Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria

Nutrition is one of the key components of living and the study of food and feeding habits of fish species constitute the basis for the development of a successful fish culture and management. This study was designed to investigate the food and feeding habit of two dominant fish species in Ado-Ekiti Reservoir, Ekiti State. The reservoir was demarcated into three zones based on the inputs from its tributaries, the fish samples were collected using fishing gears and chilled with iced blocks from point of collection to the aquaculture unit where each fish sample was identified, biometric measurement was taken, dissected and stomach was examined for the degree of fullness. The stomach content was analysed using frequency of occurrence, numerical and volumetric methods. Sarotherodon galilaeus and Coptodon zillii were found as the two dominant fish species. A total of one hundred and fifty-five samples were collected from the reservoir comprising seventy-three (73) Sarotherodon galilaeus and eighty-two (82) Coptodon zillii . This gives a male/female ratio of 2:1 and 1:1 respectively. It was observed that a total of 114 (73.55%) out of 155 fish species had food items in their stomachs while the remaining 41 (26.45%) specimens had empty stomach. The diet observed in both fish species are phytoplankton, zooplankton, insects, insect larvae, worms, sand grains and unidentified mass/mud. Volumetrically, phytoplankton was the dominant food item in S.galileus (18.49%) and C. zilli (28.12%) followed by zooplankton in S.galileus (17.15%) and C. zilli (20.62%). The results were also similar for the frequency of occurrence and numerical methods except for some minor diet which are worms, insect larvae and sand grains. This suggests that fish species examined are predominantly planktivorous and there is a level of possible competitiveness for food between the two species considering the similarity in their feeding behaviour