Agricultural Research,Education and Extension Organization Iranian Journal of Fisheries Sciences 1562-2916 24 3 2025 05 01 Feeding habits of Epinephelus coioides and E. bleekeri, in the northern Persian Gulf and the Oman Sea 565 579 133445 10.22092/ijfs.2025.133445 EN S. Behzadi Persian Gulf and Oman Sea Ecology Research Center, Iranian Fisheries Science Research Institute (IFSRI), Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Bandar Abbas, Iran S. Pourmozaffar Persian Gulf and Oman Sea Ecology Research Center, Iranian Fisheries Science Research Institute (IFSRI), Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Bandar Abbas, Iran A. Salarpouri Persian Gulf and Oman Sea Ecology Research Center, Iranian Fisheries Science Research Institute (IFSRI), Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Bandar Abbas, Iran R. Dehghani Persian Gulf and Oman Sea Ecology Research Center, Iranian Fisheries Science Research Institute (IFSRI), Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Bandar Abbas, Iran Journal Article 2025 05 06 The feeding habits of <em>Epinephelus coioides</em> and <em>E. bleekeri</em> were studied from Oct. 2019 to Sep. 2020 in the northern Persian Gulf and the Oman Sea. According to the results of the stomach content analysis, pelagic and benthopelagic prey were predominant in two species, and bony fishes were the main food for both species. The results of the diet overlap index showed a high overlap for these species: 0.98 in the Persian Gulf and 0.99 in the Oman Sea. It was also found that 64.29% of the prey of <em>E. coioides</em> juveniles were from benthic communities, while 21.34% were from demersal communities. Additionally, it was estimated that 100% of <em>E. bleekeri</em> juveniles in two regions fed exclusively on benthic preys. The analysis comparing the length classes of <em>E.coioides</em> and food overlap revealed that there is a high overlap (0.99) in prey consumed between the Persian Gulf and  the Oman Sea, as indicated by the canonical correlation. The significance of the Wilks-Lambda test (<em>p</em>>0.05), also supports this finding. The results of the SIMPER analysis showed a high degree of uniformity in <em>E.bleekeri</em> between the Persian Gulf and the Oman Sea (86.92%). This suggests that the prey consumed in different length classes do not overlap between these regions. However, <em>Leiognathus lineolatus </em>is the main reason for this difference, accounting for 8.03%. Switching the feeding habits of the studied species from benthic and demersal prey to pelagic, semi-pelagic, and benthopelagic preys requires fisheries management of forage fish and control of fishing gear. https://jifro.areeo.ac.ir/article_133445_c10a61b392ec5d6971187489860b84eb.pdf