Alejandro Yafe, Marcelo Loureiro, Flavio Scasso, and Federico Quintans.
Abstract:
Diet of two cichlid species, Cichlasoma facetum (Jenyns, 1842), and Gymnogeophagus rhabdotusLink to full article: http://www.scielo.br/pdf/isz/v92n4/a09v92n4.pdf
Hensel, 1870, was studied in Rodó Lake, an urban hypertrophic lake in Uruguay. The stomach contentsfrom 192 individuals of C. facetum and 202 of Gg. rhabdotus, obtained through seasonal sampling in the year 2000, were analyzed. The occurrence frequency and the alimentary importance index of each food item were calculated for each season and size class in both species. Cichlasoma facetum fed upon insects (mainly chironomid larvae and pupae), fish (Cnesterodon decemmaculatus Jenyns, 1842), and vegetals (algae, periphyton and macrophytes debris); large individuals also fed upon the freshwater shrimp Palaemonetes argentinus Nobili, 1901. Gymnogeophagus rhabdotus consumed zooplankton (mainly copepods), vegetals (algae and detritus) and Chironomidae larvae in a lesser extent.
