Abstract

The Joso Sciades couma (Pisces:Ariidae) is one of the most common catfishes in the mouth of the caño Macareo (lower Orinoco delta) and its dependents being an important source of food and income for the Warao community that inhabits there. With the intention of collecting information about the feeding behavior of this specie 96 stomachs were collected in 4 fishing areas during dry season (February 2009) with 3 gears used by the local community. The contents were studied using the numeric, gravimetric and frequency of occurrence methods, the Index of Relative Importance (IRI) and stomach repletion were also determined. According the analysis the Joso is an Omnivorous catfish with a wide range of preys with preference for the crustaceans. In the contents were identified 23 items divided in 11 categories of which the most representative values in frequency of occurrence were the crustaceans (shrimp: 54,90%, crabs: 47,06%), fish (23,53%), insects(23,53%) and plant material (23,53%). The smaller sizes show preference for the crustaceans especially shrimp and insects, the medium sizes prefer crabs and shrimp while bigger sizes prefer crabs and fishes.

PDF Preview