Studies on the feeding ecology of Cyprinion mhalensis dwelling in Wadi Bua, Taif, Saudi Arabia

An investigation was made to examine the feeding ecology of Cyprinion mhalensis, a fish species endemic to Saudi Arabia. The fishes were collected from Wadi Bua, Taif. The food recovered from the stomach of fishes indicated that it is an omnivorous fish. It has been observed that this fish species prefer to feed on phytoplankton mostly on the members of bacillariophyceae. There were insignificant differences in the quality of food consumed by the fishes of different size groups. The frequency of occurrence of various food items in the diet of C. mhalensis of various sizes was high. The higher values of diet overlap index predicted the sharing of various food items in C. mhalensis of different sizes. The highest overlap index (1.00) was recorded in summer between group2 (g₂) and group3 (g₃) whereas lowest (0.78) in fall between group1 (g₁) and group3 (g₃). The diet breadth index for all size groups were low (0.28-0.33) and showed little variations among the fishes of various sizes in different seasons.