Feeding habits of long-spined black sea urchin, Diadema setosum from Pangkor Island, Peninsular Malaysia

The tropical sea urchin, Diadema setosum is considered as a commercially important Echinoid nowadays due to its nutritional and pharmaceutical values. In the present study, feeding habits and range of food items consumed by D. setosum were investigated through the examination of gut content of 60 live urchins. Sea urchin samples were collected from the intertidal reefs of Pangkor Island, Peninsular Malaysia during January-May, 2011. The diet compositions of D. setosum were grouped into 10 categories including algae, sea urchin spines, plantlike matters, juvenile of sea cucumber, juvenile of sea urchin, gastropod, crustacean appendages, coral fragments, debris and unidentified items. Majority of the gut was filled up with food. Analysis on the percentage of numerical of occurrence (Ci) showed that the highest value was algae (66.94%), while coral fragments (18.78%) were the second highest followed by plant-like matter (4.75%), sea urchin spines (4.47%), debris (1.68%), unidentified items (1.3%), juvenile of sea cucumber (0.39%), crustacean appendages (0.23%), and the least was juvenile of sea urchin (0.16%). Besides this, percentage frequency of occurrence (Fi) values for algae, sea urchin spines, plant-like matters, juvenile of sea cucumber and juvenile of sea urchin, gastropod, crustacean appendages, coral fragments, debris and unidentified items were 34.11, 12.99, 7.91, 1.97, 0.77, 5.17, 0.65, 23.46, 7.39, and 5.58%, respectively. The results obtained from the present study indicate that D. setosum is an omnivorous marine invertebrate as it consumes a variety of food items associated with their natural habitat.

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