The fresh/brackish water prawns of the genus Macrobrachium comprises 243described species spanning the tropical and subtropical regions globally which include M. rude,M. dolichodactylus, M. equidens,,M. lepidactylus and M. niloticus species in Kenya. The importance of amphidromous Macrobrachium species as human food source and its ecological role is well recognized. However, there is limited information on their natural diet and feeding habits in Kenya limiting the aquaculture potential of some of these prawns.
A total of 343 specimen samples consisting of M. rude(220; 64.4%), M. lepidactylus (77; 21.9%) and M. dolichodactylus (46; 13.7%) per different sexes and size groups ranging from 20 to 231mm were analyzed. A total of 80 different types of food items identified (Figure 1). In terms of stomach fullness index, 70.2% of M. rude recorded &fraq14; full index while 29.4% of M. dolichodactylus and 33.3% of M .lepidactylus recorded full stomach indexes. The results revealed significant differences in frequency occurrence of food items between different Macrobrachium species, sites, seasons, size lengths, sexes and stomach fullness index (P<0.05). The most dominant food items were sand particles (16%), unidentified plant materials (9.5%), unidentified animal materials (6.8%), algae, Ankistrodesmus sp (6%) and microplastics (4.3%) (Figure2)