The relationship between mouth gape size (height and width) and
prey size has been extensively investigated in many fish (Planas and
Cunha, 1999; Lemly and Dimmick, 1982; Luczkovich et al., 1995), but
none of these studies considered the prey as a three-dimensional
object, taking into account only the length and the width of the dorsal
aspect of the prey's body. The present work reports some observations
carried out on the feeding preferences (gut contents) of dusky grouperlarvae reared in semi-intensive conditions on a mix of wild and
cultured live preys. In addition, the relationship between the size of
the prey, defined as a 3-D object, and the larva's mouth, was
investigated. The same observations were repeated in 2002, but
poor egg quality led to the failure of the rearing trial, a problem very
often found when complex protocols of induced reproduction (e.g.,
hormonal reversion of males) are applied. The data reported in this
paper, collected for a total of 1170 dusky grouper larvae, probably
represent the only data available on the feeding preferences of dusky
grouper larvae in captive conditions.