The morphometric food and feeding studies on tiger tooth croaker Otolithes ruber from off Paradeep coast was studied. High degree of correlation has been observed in the total length and head length with different morphometric characters except snout length and eye diameter. This indicated that the fish maintained a specific body dimension throughout its life. The distance between the tip of snout and the base of anal fin followed by depth of caudal peduncle have the fastest growth rate while eye diameter shows the lowest growth rate. Any noticeable relation in preference of food was not observed for the O. ruber where gut content analysis showed that younger size prefers Acetes spp. and larger size for both fish and prawns. The semi digested matter comprised mostly of fish and shrimp was recorded in higher percentage for all the months. The gastro-somatic index of this species was maximum during July(7.85) and August(7.59) and as low as 1.738 in the month of May. Index of preponderance for semi-digested fish (56.9%) was found to be maximum followed by semi digested shrimp (20.2%)

Morphometry, food and feeding habit, ruber

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S.K. Bhuyan, S.K. Chakraborty and Goodly Samal (2021). Morphometry, Food and Feeding Biology Study of Tiger Tooth Croaker Otolithes ruber (Schneider, 1801) from off Paradeep Coast, Odisha, India. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 13(2): 759-765