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Feeding Habits of Three Species of Gars, Lepisosteus, along the Mississippi Gulf Coast
Author(s) -
Goodyear C. Phillip
Publication year - 1967
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1967)96[297:fhotso]2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - callinectes , fishery , predation , biology , brackish water , predator , alligator , ecology , geography , crustacean , salinity
During the summer of 1965, stomach contents of three species of gars from brackish water of the Mississippi Coast were examined. An attempt was made to correlate the types and amounts of food items eaten with ecological conditions which prevailed at the time of the capture. The alligator gar, Lepisosteus spatula, fed heavily on Galeichthys felis and other fishes which were periodically discarded around docks and piers as refuse. The longnose gar, L. osseus, which fed primarily on Brevoortia patronus at night, was a more active predator. In contrast, L. oculatus, the spotted gar, was found to prey extensively on Uca pugnax and Callinectes sapidus in the shallows during rising and high tides.