ABSTRACT

The food and feeding habits of the Africa catfish, Claries gariepinus in River Esin Ufot were studied from samples caught in each month during October 2016 to September, 2017. Analysis of the stomach content (n = 340) showed that the fish ingests a variety of items of plant origin, animal origin, detritus and sand grains. The items that comprises the plant origin were algae and macrophytes whereas those of animal origin and crustacean, insects, fish, mollusks, nematodes and fish eggs. The insects ingested by the fish were most diverse as they were developmental belonging to several taxa such as Hemiptera, Diptera and Odonata. Oreochromis niloticus, was the only fish species ingested by Clarias gariepinus in the study. There were differences  in the relative importance of the various items ingested by the fish. Thus, the frequency of occurrence of insects was the highest (80.8%), and this was followed by macrophytes (6.04%)and zooplankton (59.2%), fish (26.4%) and fish eggs (14.0%). Numerically the most important food were crustacean (90.8%) followed by insects (5.31%), mollusks (0.85%) and O. niloticus (0.82%). Based on the results from frequency of occurrence and numerical abundance, crustacean zooplankton, insects and fish are considered as the major food of the studied C. gariepinus. The items of plant origin, detritus and sand grains were believed to be accidentally ingested while the fish was pursuing its prey. This shows that C. gariepinus in River Esin Ufot is considered to have a carnivorous feeding habit. The study also found size-based and seasonal  differences in the relative importance of the major food items. The frequency shows that the fish feeds progressively less on zooplantation and insects, but more of O.niloticus as it grows larger. In addition, it feeds relatively more on O.niloticus than any other major items in March through August. This is attributed to increased abundance of prey following intensive breeding in the rainy seasons (February–April and July–September). High frequencies of C gariepinus with empty stomach were recorded during the rainy seasons in which time the fish breeds intensively. This shows that at this time the fish could be engaged more in spawning than in feeding activity.