research article: feeding habits of epinephelus coioides and e. bleekeri, in the northern persian gulf and the oman sea

The feeding habits of epinephelus coioides and e. bleekeri were studied from oct. 2019 to sep. 2020 in the northern persian gulf and the oman sea. according to the results of the stomach content analysis, pelagic and benthopelagic prey were predominant in two species, and bony fishes were the main food for both species. the results of the diet overlap index showed a high overlap for these species: 0.98 in the persian gulf and 0.99 in the oman sea. it was also found that 64.29% of the prey of e. coioides juveniles were from benthic communities, while 21.34% were from demersal communities. additionally, it was estimated that 100% of e. bleekeri juveniles in two regions fed exclusively on benthic preys. the analysis comparing the length classes of e.coioides and food overlap revealed that there is a high overlap (0.99) in prey consumed between the persian gulf and  the oman sea, as indicated by the canonical correlation. the significance of the wilks-lambda test (p>0.05), also supports this finding. the results of the simper analysis showed a high degree of uniformity in e.bleekeri between the persian gulf and the oman sea (86.92%). this suggests that the prey consumed in different length classes do not overlap between these regions. however, leiognathus lineolatus is the main reason for this difference, accounting for 8.03%. switching the feeding habits of the studied species from benthic and demersal prey to pelagic, semi-pelagic, and benthopelagic preys requires fisheries management of forage fish and control of fishing gear.