Diet composition in summer of rosefish Helicolenus hilgendorfii on the southeastern coast of Korea

Abstract

The feeding habits of Helicolenus hilgendorfii were studied using 93 specimens (35-135 mm in standard length) collected from the southeastern coast of Korea during the summer season (June-August) from 2005 to 2007. Helicolenus hilgendorfii is a carnivore that mainly consumes shrimps and fishes. Its diet also includes small quantities of mysids, amphipods, euphausiids, copepods, and isopods. Our graphical method for feeding habits revealed that H. hilgendorfii is an opportunistic and specialized predator on shrimps, especially Crangon hakodatei, although H. hilgendorfii showed an ontogenetic dietary shift, the proportion of shrimp decreasing and the consumption of fishes gradually increasing with the increase of fish size.