Food organisms and feeding habits of larval and juvenile Japanese flounder Paralichthys olivaceus at Ohama Beach in Hiuchi-Nada, the central Seto Inland Sea, Japan

The abundance of food organisms and feeding habits of larval and juvenile Japanese flounder were examined during the period from May to August in 1999, 2000 and 2001 at the sandy Ohama beach, the central Seto Inland Sea. The food organisms collected with a sledge net consisted of 40 families from 18 orders, dominated by mysids, crangonids and gammarids. The mean densities of mysids, crangonid shrimp (Crangon spp.), gammarids and fish were 2.74, 6.74, 2.91 and 0.15 individuals/m sup(2), respectively. The main prey of the flounder (n=202; range of total length 9.80?75.95 mm) was mysids and small crangonid shrimp (