SEASONAL VARIATIONS OF NATURAL FOOD OF SHABOOT Arabibabus grypus (Heckel,1843) IN A EUPHRATES RIVER AT AL-MUSAYAB CITY, IRAQ

Abstract

This study was carried out in a Euphrates river at Al-Musayab city during the period from 2/1/2014 to 31/12/2014. 222 speciemens of Shaboot Arabibarbus grypus (Heckel,1843) (with lengths ranged between 15.5-35 cm and ages 2-5 years) were collected and divided to two length groups, the first (84 fish less than 20 cm), the second (138 fish more than 20cm). The results showed that the highest feeding intensity was observed during spring (30.05 and 31.31 points fish-1) for both length groups respectively. Fish were found to be more active in spring too (96% and 95.65%) for both length groups respectively. In the first group, the food animal origin formed %35.86 of gut contents and the food plant origin formed %56.56, while in the second group the food animal origin formed %45.59 and the food plant origin formed %47.90 according to Importance Ranking Index (%IRI). As a conclusion, the results indicated that the natural food was varied according to the seasons, and the Shaboot may described as omnivorous fish tended to plant food in small lengths, while it tended both animal and plant foods together in large lengths over all the year seasons.