Aspects of food and feeding by the coral, favites abdita in Redang Island, Terengganu

Abstract

The variety of food eaten by the coral Faviles abdita and their rate of digestion at the Marine Park, Pulau Redang were described, as well as the effects of artificial light on feeding at night. The method used was a slight modification of that by Porter (1974). Zooplanktons found in the guts of Favites abdita were decapods, copepods, cumaceans, polychaetes, amphipods and ostracods. The rate of digestion in 11/i hour showed 60.6% of the food in the gut had been digested. Within this duration, no new ingestion happened. Zooplankton were attracted using underwater torchlight in order to concentrate the water colwnn with zooplankton. Several treatments were applied to test the effects of artificial light to the feeding of corals at night namely no light, direct light and indirect light.