Published in Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science, Vol. LXI, Issue 1
Written by Magda-Ioana NENCIU, George Emanuel HARCOTA, Aurelia TOTOIU, Elena BISINICU, Adrian FILIMON, Victor Nicolae NITA, Carmen Georgeta NICOLAE
The long-snouted seahorse (Hippocampus guttulatus Cuvier, 1829) is a representative species of the Romanian coast, due to its charismatic appearance and extraordinary biology. Although it is not a commercial fish in Romania, it is subjected to harvesting to be sold as curio or for the aquarium business, and many times is by-caught in trawl or pound net fishery. The current research aimed at the examination of the gut content of wild seahorse specimens, in order to determine the prey preferences of the species along the Romanian Black Sea coast. In the wild, large prey items (Amphipoda, Balanus larvae) were identified as the preferred prey of adult specimens, indicating that size and availability are important factors in prey selection. Adult seahorses appear to prefer larger prey both in wild and controlled environments, as previous research has indicated.
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