Background/Objectives: Seahorses might render them vulnerable to overfishing or other disruptions such as habitat damage. Different species of Hippocampus are harvested on a large-scale, and traded by at least 50 na-tions in high volumes and various product forms. The unsustainable exploitation has focused attention on the large gaps in our knowledge of wild seahorse biology and ecology. Hippocampus kelloggi is one the most widely held species in public aquaria and also used for traditional medicines.
Methods/Statistical analysis: Seahorse H. kelloggi samples were collected from Cuddalore coast during Oct. 2000 – Sept. 2001 for gut content analysis. The point’s method and percentage occurrence method have been adopted. The gut contents were estimated based on the frequency of occurrence of different food materials following the point’s method. The guts were considered ‘full’ when the gut was packed with food with thick wall and intact, ‘3/4 full’ when it was partly full ‘½ full’, ‘¼ full’, ‘trace’ and ‘empty’ according to the relative condition of the gut as indicated above.
Findings: The diet of H. kelloggi mainly considered of Acetes sp., copepods, mysids, tanaids, megalopa larvae, amphipods, shrimp larvae, polycheates , nematodes etc. Acetes sp. was dominant food item for adult and it was contributed 48.6 to 64.1% during different months. The other food items of amphipods (5.0 to 9.5%), tanaeids (2.4 to 9.1%), copepods (.33 to 0.7%), lucifer (2.8 to 10.0%), mysids (2.3 to 2.5%), shrimps (larvae and juveniles) (3.7 to 9.0%), polychaetes (5.3 to 12.5%), nematodes (1.2 to 6.3%) and the fish larvae (3.0 to 3.3%) were recorded. Copepods were the major food items in juveniles which contributed 15.4 to 29.8% for the whole year. The other food items were amphipods (11.3 to 18.5%), mysids (8.5 to 16.9%), tanaeids (6.4 to 17.4%), megalopa larvae (4.4 to 9.4%), Acetes sp. (4.3 to 16.6%), lucifer (2.2 to 8.5%), shrimps (larvae and juveniles) (2.5 to 4.3%), polychaetes (2.5 to 12.2%), and nematodes (4.4 to 16.0%). Active feeding was showed after spawning season in adult.
Application/Improvements: Through this work may hope to increase our understanding of seahorse feeding ecology, and to stimulate the development of sampling approaches that can help to balance the need to use specimens in research and the conservation needs.