Citharichthys arenaceus and C. spilopterus form together almost 70% of the flatfishes abundance in the mangrove of the Guaratuba Bay. The other important Pleuronectiformes species are Symphurus tessellatus, Etropus crossotus and Achirus lineatus. The main food items of this assemblage are composed by crustacea, fishes, Gastropoda and Polychaeta. None of these species was found to have a highly specialized diet, but they present some particularities: Citharichthys spp and S. tessellatus have a diet based on Caridea and fish, E. crossotus based on Amphipoda Gammaridae, and A. lineatus based on Polychaeta. The partially overlapping habits correspond to the most generalized diets, so any interspecific competition would be reduced by the nature of the complementary food items. Additiortal support for this hypothesis is provided by the results conceming both the species density and the percent occurrence of the prey categories.
Pleuronectiformes; Feeding; Mangrove; Brazil