Description of the feeding morphology and the food habits of the butterfly blenny, Blennius ocellaris Linnaeus, 1758, from north-eastern Aegean Sea (Turkey)

Abstract

Stomach contents, external morphology, jaw dentition, and gill raker morphology were studied in Blennius ocellaris Linnaeus, 1758, from the north-eastern Aegean Sea, Turkey. All of the examined stomachs (n = 11) contained such varied items as polychaetes, molluscs, crustaceans, echinoderms, bryozoans, ascidiaceans and unidentified tissues. I.R.I. values of each prey item show that B. ocellaris mainly consumed, in order of importance, crustaceans (I.R.I. = 4066.50) and echinoderms (I.R.I. = 1572.66). Among the examined crustacean remains, decapoda was the major prey group (I.R.I. = 2588.91, PW% = 30.797, PO% = 63.63). No plant matter was observed in the examined stomach contents. B. ocellaris can be categorized as a demersal carnivorous fish which feeds on zoobenthos. Its' deep and laterally compressed body form, and other morphological characters suggest that it obtains food by picking.