FOOD HABITS OF GEORGIA ESTUARINE FISHES 



I. FOUR SPECIES OF FLOUNDERS 



(PLEURONECTIFORMES: BOTHIDAE) 



Robert R. Stickney/ Gary L. Taylor/ and Richard W. Heard III^ 



ABSTRACT 



The food habits of four species of bothid flounders from Georgia coastal waters were examined by 

 means of stomach content analyses. Ocellated flounders, Ancylopsetta quadrocellata (Gill); bay 

 whiff, Citharichthys spilopterus (Giinther); and windowpane, Scophthalmus aquosus (Mitchill) 

 fed heavily on the mysid shrimp, Neomysis americana, without regard to season of the year or 

 location within the estuary. The food habits of both A. quadrocellata and C. spilopterus changed 

 to some extent as the fish became larger. Organisms larger than N. americana dominated the 

 stomach contents of A. quadrocellata larger than 150 mm standard length and C. spilopterus 

 larger than 125 mm. S. aquosus, in the size range examined, fed almost exclusively on A^. americana. 

 Fringed flounder, Etropus crossotus (Jordan and Gilbert) primarily consurried the calanoid 

 copepod, Pseudodiaptomus coronatus, during the spring, summer, and fall and diversified their 

 food habits during the winter. P. coronatus dominated the stomach contents both in the rivers 

 and sounds of Georgia estuarine waters and was the dominant organism in fishes of all sizes up 

 to 100 mm when polychaete annelids became important. The food of E. crossotus did not appear 

 to vary with time of day; however, E. crossotus did not actively feed at night. The difference in 

 food habits between E. crossotus and the other three bothid species appears to be associated with 

 the relative size of the mouth. 



Pleuronectiform fishes of the family Bothidae are 

 common in the estuarine waters of the southeast- 

 ern United States. Otter trawl samples taken 

 within the sounds and rivers of Georgia indicate 

 that fishes of the family Sciaenidae are the most 

 common, with bothids being among the next 

 most common species. Summer flounder, Para- 

 lichthys dentatus and southern flounder, P. letho- 

 stigma, are common, but are not present in com- 

 mercially exploitable quantities. P. albigutta 

 has also been reported from Georgia waters, but 

 appears to be relatively rare (Dahlberg and 

 Odum, 1970). Ocellated flounder, Ancylopsetta 

 quadrocellata, while not commercially valuable, 

 is occasionally caught by sport fishermen. 



Bothid flounders are generally associated with 

 the bottom, either lying on the surface of the 

 substrate or buried to a greater or lesser extent 

 in the sediments. The feeding behavior of floun- 

 ders under various conditions (both in nature and 

 in culture) has been described (Steven, 1930; 



' Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, P.O. Box 13687, 

 Savannah, GA 31406. 



^ Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, P.O. Box AG, Ocean 

 Springs, MS 39564. 



011a, Wicklund, and Wilk, 1969; de Groot, 1970; 

 011a, Samet, and Studholme, 1972; Stickney, 

 White, and Miller, 1973), but little information on 

 the selective food habits of bothids is presently 

 available. The food habits of Paralichthys sp. 

 have been examined by Darnell (1958) in the 

 Gulf of Mexico and by Poole (1964) in New 

 England waters. A limited amount of additional 

 information on P. albigutta is also available 

 from samples taken off the southwestern coast 

 of Florida (Topp and Hoff, 1972). Examination 

 of the stomachs from a few specimens of A. 

 quadrocellata and Etropus crossotus, fringed 

 flounder, demonstrated that both feed on crusta- 

 ceans in Florida waters (Topp and Hoflf, 1972) 

 with E. crossotus also utilizing polychaetes and 

 chaetognaths for food (Reid, 1954; Topp and 

 Hoff, 1972). Fourteen species of bothid flounders 

 were examined by de Groot (1971) who found 

 that they divided into three groups by food 

 preference: fish feeders, crustacean feeders, and 

 polychaete-mollusc feeders. 



The food habits of bothid flounders along the 

 Georgia coast have not been previously elabor- 

 ated. For purposes of the present study, four 



Manuscript accepted September 1973. 

 FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 72, NO. 



1974. 



515 



