Food habits of fishes associated with marshland developed on dredged material.

The food habits of Micropogon undulatus, Leiostomus xanthurus, Fundulus similis, Cyprinodon variegatus, Menidia beryllina, and Membras martinica, were studied in conjunction with the development of a man-made salt marsh planted during 1976 on Bolivar Peninsula, Galveston Bay, TX. Each of the fishes studied fed to a considerable extent on the benthos community, utilized at least some zooplanktonic and terrestrial insect foods. The dominant food organism in the fish stomachs examined corresponded, in general, with those previously reported by other investigators. The artificially created salt marsh on Bolivar Peninsula appeared to provide habitatis, both for fishes and their foods, similar to those of natural marshland areas along the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico and the southeastern United States.