Feeding habits of three sparid breams, Argyrops spinifer Forsskål, 1775, Sparidentex hasta Valenciennes, 1830, and Rhabdosargus niger Tanaka & Iwatsuki, 2013 (family: Sparidae) in the coastal waters of Pakistan

The availability of data on the feeding habits of sparid fishes from the north Arabian Sea is very scarce. In the present study, a total of 1,148 sparid fishes were collected from July 2012 to June 2013 ranging from 75 to 100 fish specimens on monthly basis. The diet of three sparid species was determined based on feeding intensity or vacuity index (%VI), numerical abundance (%Cn), and frequency of occurrence (%Co) of each dietary group by examining stomachs of 475 specimens of Argyrops spinifer, 169 of Sparidentex hasta, and 504 of Rhabdosargus niger. The overall highest vacuity index (59.76%) was found for S. hasta, followed by A. spinifer (51.37%) and R. niger (40%), whereas seasonal and size variation among the three species were also noted. The diet contents of these species consisted of sixteen major groups: teleost, brachyuran, penaeids, stomatopods, palinurids, anomurans, gastropods, pelecypods, nudibranch, echinoderms, cephalopods, cirripeds, amphipods, isopods, polychaetes, and marine algae. The percent index of relative importance (%IRI) was used to explain each dietary group consumed by A. spinifer, S. hasta, and R. niger. One-way ANOSIM (analysis of similarities) result shows that the examined sparid species are somewhat identical in consumption of major diet groups (R=0.81; p= 0.007). A pairwise ANOSIM value of 0.192 between A. spinifer and S. hasta is found closer than A. spinifer and R. niger (0.093) whereas S. hasta and R. niger (0.102) showed closer diet contents with A. spinifer and R. niger (0.093).