A PRELIMINARY STUDY ON GROWTH AND FEEDING HABITS OF ICE--FISH IN TAIHU LAKE

Ice-fish (Protosalanx hyalocranius Abbott) is an econmically important fish inTaihu Lake. Investigation on its growth and feeding habit was made from Fibrary1981 to Fibrary 1982 in order to understand the potentiality of the ice-fish resourceand the correlation among other fish resources in the lake.The results are summarized as follows:1. Ice--fish is a lake-dweller and has one-year lifespan. The fry grows relatively fastand the average body length may reach to 110 mm in seven months.2. Ice-fish is a predatory fish eating smaller fishes and sbrimps. The main food oflarvae less than 60 mm consists of cladocera tal copepod. 36 genera or species of foodorganism were found in the digestive tract of the fish of 5.4--181 mm in body length.3. The adult individuals feed mainly on lake ancovy (Coilia ectenes taihuensis)andanother ice-fish (Neosalanx tangkahkeii taihuensis) in Taihu and hence it has beenconsidered ss a potential danger to them.4. It is proposed that the catchable size of ice--fish should be increased to 60 mm intotal length (about 52.4 mm in body length).