Natural diet and feeding habits of the red frog crab (Ranina ranina) from southwestern Mindanao, Philippines
2012
Baylon, J.C., Philippines Univ. Visayas, Miagao 5023, Iloilo (Philippines). Div. of Biological Sciences | Tito, O.D., Philippines Univ. Visayas, Miagao 5023, Iloilo (Philippines). Coll. of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences
The natural diet of the red frog crab (Ranina ranina Linnaeus, 1758) collected in Sakol Island, Southwestern Mindanao, Philippines was examined for 1 yr. Stomach fullness, frequency of occurrence and variety of food items between males and females, class sizes, ovigerous and non-ovigerous females and at different stages of gonodal development were determined. The content of the stomach consisted of Sardinella, crab, shrimp, bivalve, ray, hydroid, copepod, squid and highly undigested food materials classified as amorphous. There was no significant difference (P.05) in the frequency of occurrence of each food item between males and females based on monthly samples, class sizes, and between dry and rainy season. A highly significant difference (P.01) was shown in the frequency of occurrence among the five categories of gut fullness indices for males, females and total number of crabs. A higher number of food items was found in females with gonads in developing, ripe, spawning and spent stages compared with females that had immature gonads. Sardinella was the dominant food item in the gut of non-ovigerous females while undigested food material was commonly found in ovigerous females.
Show more [+] Less [-]AGROVOC Keywords
Bibliographic information
This bibliographic record has been provided by University of the Philippines at Los Baños