Similarity of Feeding Strategies of Two Mugilidae Liza falcipinnis (Linnaeus, 1758) and Mugil cephalus (Linnaeus, 1758) in Ebrié Lagoon (Ivory Coast)

Food similarity of Liza falcipinnis and Mugil cephalus was studied in Ebrié lagoon from January 2006 to December 2007. The data were analysed according to size and hydrological seasons. A total of 762 stomachs were analyzed for 276 L. falcipinnis and 486 for M. cephalus. On the stomachs 276 L. falcipinnis, 92 did not contain a rate of prey emptiness of 33.33% for this species. M. cephalus, the rate of emptiness was 36.21 % for a total of 176 empty stomachs. Food similarity of Bray-Curtis indicates that there is no significant difference between the diets of different size classes of the both species. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) of food similarity between size classes indicates a stress of 0.1 indicating that the dietary overlap between L. falcipinnis and M. cephalus is satisfactory. Seasonal variation in diet similarity revealed that food similarity was more pronounced during the rainy season (16.74%) than the dry season (7.22 %). Cyanophyta species with a predominantly Microcystis aeruginosa and consumed Diatomophytes with a variety of species including Gyrosigma balticum, are the preferred prey of both species regardless of size classes and seasons.