Bull. Jpn. Soc. Fish. Oceanogr. 76(2), Page 66-76, 2012   Interspecific comparisons of feeding habit between Japanese anchovy Engraulis japonicus and Japanese sardine Sardinops melanostictus in eastern Hiuchi-nada, central Seto Inland Sea, Japan, in 1995 Masayuki Yamamoto1 † and Satoshi Katayama2 1 Kagawa Prefectural Fisheries Experiment Station, 75-5 Yashima-higashi, Takamatsu, Kagawa 761-0111, Japan 2 Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tohoku University, 1-1 Amamiya-machi, Tsutsumidori, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 981-8555, Japan † e-mail: ky0554@pref.kagawa.lg.jp To examine the potential food competition between Japanese anchovy Engraulis japonicus (range in total length: 30-102 mm) and Japanese sardine Sardinops melanostictus (23-116 mm), stomach contents and nitrogen stable isotope ra- tios were compared between the two species simultaneously caught by drag-net in eastern Hiuchi-nada, central Seto In- land Sea, Japan, from July to September 1995. The stomach content items of Japanese anchovy were very similar to those of Japanese sardine, and the dominant prey items in percentage of weight of the both species were Corycaeus affinis, Microsetella norvegica, Paracalanus parvus, cypris larva of Balanomorpha, Penilia avirostris and alima larva of Stomatopoda. Compositions of zooplankton prey items of the two species in the same day showed a greater similarity than for the same species in different sampling days. Moreover, the values of the stable isotope ratio were not different between the two species. The results suggest the feeding habits of Japanese anchovy and Japanese sardine were similar, and hence there is an interspecific food competition in the case of limited food availability. Key words: stomach contents, Japanese anchovy, Japanese sardine, stable isotope, Seto Inland Sea