• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.413-422
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• 1997

To know the food chain of an intertidal community, feeding habits of Acanthogobius elongata were studied by analyzing stomach contents. A. elongata were monthly collected and the environment conditions of the habitat were investigated in the intertidal zone of Naecho-do, Kunsan from July 1993 to June 1994. Ratio of stomach contents to weight of A. elongata was $1.78\%$, and fullness of stomach showed a similar value to ratio of stomach contents to weight. Fullness of stomach was increased twice a day in the morning and the afternoon. The most important food item was copepods amounting to $54\%$ of the total stomach contents. Of these, Paracalanus parvus was most abundant in spring, Calanus sinicus in summer, Acartia sp. in autumn, and Calanus sinicus in winter. Degree of overlapping for the food items between seasons was not very high, except between spring and summer. There were little differences in feeding habits among the size groups. For all size groups of A. elongata, the occurrence rates of copepods, decapods, molluscs and cirriped larvae were high. As the fish grows, those of amphipods, polychaete larvae, isopods, cumaceans and stomatopods increased gradually. The importance index of the major food items was in the order of Calanus sinicus, Corycaeus affinis and Acartia sp..