Resumen

MEDINA, Marianela; ARAYA, Miguel  y  VEGA, Claudio. Feeding and trophics relationships of coastal fish off northern Chile. Investig. mar. [online]. 2004, vol.32, n.1, pp. 33-47. ISSN 0717-7178.  doi: 10.4067/S0717-71782004000100004.

The feeding and trophic relationships of the fish species from the coastal zone of northern Chile were analyzed. The analysis was carried out considering the relative importance of the preys, diversity and inter-specific trophic superposition. A total of 632 individuals belonging to 16 species were collected through dive during the period between May 1998 and May 1999. Out of these, eight species were selected considering their highest frequency in the samples: Paralabrax humeralis, Hemilutjanus macrophthalmos, Cheilodactylus variegatus, Pinguipes chilensis, Anisotremus scapularis, Acanthistius pictus, Semicossyphus maculatus and Oplegnathus insignis. The results showed that the analyzed species are carnivorous with carcinophagous and ichthyophagous behaviors. This is more evident in P. humeralis and H. macrophthalmos, for which the principal prey was Rhynchocynetes typus. For the other ones the principal preys were gastropods mollusks, polychaetes and echinoderms. Except from S. maculatus and O. insignis most of the species showed a tendency to euriphagy. The trophic interactions showed a low dietary overlap with a 30% of similarity wich indicates that the species would have a trophic range that would allow them to be able to change their alimentary strategy avoiding competition for preys

Palabras clave : feeding; trophic relationships; coastal fishes; northern Chile.