Observational study reveals specialized piscivorous feeding and high dietary overlap across sizes in daggertooth pike conger, indicating a narrow trophic niche.
The feeding habits of daggertooth pike conger Muraenesox cinereus were studied using 380 specimens collected in the coastal waters off Goseong, Korea, from June to September, 2011. The M. cinereus ranged from 10.0-23.7 cm in anal length (AL). M. cinereus is a piscivore that consumes mainly fish. Engraulis japonicus was the preferred prey, but its diet also included small numbers of crabs, shrimps, cephalopods, and bivalves. The feeding strategy graphical method revealed that M. cinereus is a specialized feeder with a narrow niche width. All size classes of M. cinereus consumed fish and M. cinereus did not show significant ontogenetic changes in feeding habits. The diet overlap index between size classes was >0.96, indicating high diet similarities. The prey size increased significantly with M. cinereus size.
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AN et al. (2012) studied this question.
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