Analysis of stomach contents of freshwater catfish,Eutropiichthys vacha (Hamilton,1822) from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa rivers,Pakistan

This study was carried out from summer till winter of 2011 to find out the diet of adult catfish,eutropiichthys vacha. a total of 216 fish stomach contents were analyzed to find out food items of this fish. out of these,63 (29.2%) stomachs were empty and the remaining 153 (70.8%) fish stomachs had prey. stomach contents of 58% samples had small fishes,36.8% had small aquatic and terrestrial insects and the remaining 5.2% had shrimps. in addition phytoplankton,consisting of lyngbya and oscilatoria and diatoma (bacillariophyceae),were also found as an important ingredient of diet of this fish. some contents of phytoplankton could not be identified due to its partial digestion and change of colour. the feeding intensity was also studied to find out any cessation of feeding. the study confirmed that there is no discontinuation of feeding in this fish from summer to winter,as the weight of stomach contents remained unchanged during the study period. the structure of mouth,dentation,gills and stomach were also studied as they are associated with food intake.