The Neotropical region presents a high number of freshwater fish species, whose capability to explore different kinds of food is particularly evident in reservoirs, and reflects a considerable feeding plasticity. Characiformes is the most diversified fish order in the region, and Anostomidae one of its most speciose families, evidencing Leporinus and its 80 valid species. Although its species are mainly considered omnivorous, some present herbivorous diet, and the food plasticity of the genus is a common feature in environments subject to a seasonal variation of water level. In the present work, the diet composition of Leporinus reinhardtii Lütken, 1875 in the Sobradinho reservoir and the influence of its seasonal water level variation is analyzed along a three-year period (2006-2009). Among the 876 individuals analyzed, 302 were collected in the dry phase, and 574 in the flooding phase. The diet was composed of 47 items, grouped into nine categories: Mollusks, Microcrustaceans, Insects, Insect (parts), Chironomidae, Plants, Seeds, Sediment and Others. Chironomidae represented a mean of 60% of total weight of all food categories, followed by Seeds with 25% and the remaining categories with less than 10%. In the flooding phase, Seeds prevailed in the diet in the lentic and transition stretches, Chironomidae was most represented in the lotic one, and the remaining categories represented less than 20% in all stretches at this phase. In the dry phase, the prevailing items differed, with a higher dominance of Insetcs in the lentic stretch, mainly Coleoptera, and Plants in the lotic one, with greater participation of aquatic macrophytes, filamentous algae, Chlorophyceae and the diatom Oscillatoria. In the transition stretch, Microcrustaceans dominated in the diet, differing from the other stretches. The diet of L. reinhardtii was characterized by low values of frequence of occurrence for all food categories (mostly inferior to 50%), and high relative abundance (>80%) of all categories. Niche breadth was restricted in the different stretches in both periods, somewhat higher during flooding, due to a greater item diversity, particularly in the lotic stretch. Leporinus reinhardtii presents an omnivorous habit with specialized behaviour in the Sobradinho reservoir, whose prevailing food categories in the diet depend on the reservoir level, as well as the environmental characteristics of each stretch, thus reflecting a narrow trophic niche breadth for the species.
São Francisco River; omnivory; piau
