Feeding habits and morphology of the digestive tract of some intertidal pool’s fishes of Ceará State, Brazil.

Abstract

The reef present a great variety of feeding adaptions considering the biggest diversity of shape amongst them. The fish are separated in four major categories in accordance with the feeding classification: detritivores, scavengers, herbivores and carnivores. The feeding habits and the type of food are directly connected with the body’s shape and the digestive tract which make it easier to capture and eat (swallow) the prey. The purpose of this paper is to describe species that are found in Ceará State’s coast as well as registrer the morphology of the digestive tract and their feeding habits. The fish were either collected with a nylon net or harpoon while snorkeling in rocky intertidal pools. After the classification of all the anatomy parts, including the digestive tarct, a qualitative analysis of the stomach contents was performed. The results obtained were a consequance of analyses of 107 stomachs relating to 23 species belonging to 16 families. Some similarities with the literature was observed as to the feeding habits of the species. It was the case of the species belonging to the genus Sparisoma spp. e Lutjanus spp. The anatomy structure of the Haemulon plumieri and Lutjanus apodus agree with the carnivore feeding habits, in other words, large stomach, pyloric caeca and short gut while Anisotremus virginicus, Bagre marinus and Labrisomus nuchipinnis presented structures that diverged with their feeding classification, like the absence of pyloric caeca and long gut to carnivores species.