MEDIUM AND LARGE FISH 
SALT WATER 
SMALL FISH 
SALT WATER 
Fig. 2. Diagrams illustrating the food of small aholehole from fresh water, small aholehole from salt water, 
and medium and large aholehole from salt water. 
fish, the gonads were either spent or in early 
stages of development of the eggs and sperm. 
In two samples taken by poisoning from 
Diamond Head (Dec. 22, 1951, and Dec. 23, 
1952), the stomachs of all 199 fish were empty 
except for one which contained sand and 
gravel. In these fish the gonads were almost 
fully ripe; in some cases eggs and milt would 
"run” with pressure on the sides of the fish. 
This indicates that the aholehole, like several 
other species, ceases to feed when ready to 
spawn. 
SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION 
As illustrated in Table 1 and Figure 2, there 
are certain differences in the food of small 
aholehole in fresh water, small aholehole in 
salt water, and medium and large aholehole 
in salt water. The small fish living in streams 
eat mostly algae and insects. The small fish 
living in tide pools and along rocky shores 
eat mostly Crustacea and insects. The medium 
and large fish living along surf-pounded cliffs, 
in the caverns of the outer reef, and in other 
exposed localities eat mostly Crustacea and 
annelids. Whereas the crustacean diet of the 
small salt-water fish consists mostly of small 
copepods and amphipods, that of the medium 
and large fish consists mostly of the larger 
crab and stomatopod larvae. These differences, 
although striking, are not unexpected. They 
are doubtless related to differences in the 
