Food composition of diamondback puffer Lagocephalus guentheri Miranda Ribeiro, 1915 from the northeastern Mediterranean Sea

Abstract

Stomach content analysis of fish not only helps document their food spectrum but also provides an overview of the food network they are involved in. In this study, we aimed to investigate the food composition of L. guentheri from the Iskenderun Bay, northeastern Mediterranean Sea. Specimens were collected from between January 2022 and August 2022. A total of 215 L. guentheri specimens stomachs were examined during the study for stomach content analysis. About 215 stomachs analysed, 60 (27.9%) stomachs were empty and 155 (72.1%) stomachs contained food items. Analysis of the diet composition showed that the fish are carnivorous and prey on pisces, crustacea, bivalves and cephalopoda. Based on the index of relative importance, pisces were identified as the most important prey (68%), followed by crustaceans (14%), bivalves (5%), cephalopoda (0.5%) and digested materials (12.5%). The results show that L. guentheri has a high feeding tendency to fish. This study increases the knowledge of the feeding preferences of L. guentheri. The present paper is also the first document on the diamondback puffer Lagocephalus guentheri food composition in the Mediterranean Sea.