Structural environmental enrichment, that is, a deliberate addition of physical complexity to the rearing environment, is sometimes utilized to reduce the expression of the undesirable traits that fish develop in captivity. Increasing demands and regulations regarding usage of enrichment to promote fish welfare also make investigations on the effects of enrichment important. Here, we sythesize the current state‐of‐the‐art knowledge about the effects of structural environmental enrichment for fish in captive environments. We find that enrichment can affect several aspects of the biology of captive fish, for example, aggression, stress, energy expenditure, injury and disease susceptibility. Importantly, these effects are often varying in direction and magnitude, and it is clear that just addition of structure is not a solution to all problems in fish rearing. Each species and life stage needs special consideration with respect to its natural history and preferences. A multitude of different enrichment types has been investigated and many studies investigate several enrichment components at the same time, making comparisons among studies difficult. To the present date, the majority of efforts have been directed to investigate salmonid fish in stock‐fish hatcheries and cichlids from a basic research perspective. Some contexts are under‐studied with respect to environmental enrichment, for instance effects on results in basic research and welfare effects in display aquaria. There are many research opportunities left within this field. However, future studies could utilize experimental designs which make it possible to discriminate between effects of different environmental manipulations to a higher degree than what has been performed to this date.

Why do captive-reared fishes generally have lower fitness in natural environments than wild conspecifics, even when the hatchery fishes are derived from wild parents from the local population? A thorough understanding of this question is the key to design artificial rearing environments that optimize post-release performance, as well as to recognize the limitations of what can be achieved by modifying hatchery rearing methods. Fishes are generally very plastic in their development and through gene-environment interactions, epigenetic and maternal effects their phenotypes will develop differently depending on their rearing environment. This suggests that there is scope for modifying conventional rearing environments to better prepare fishes for release into the wild. The complexity of the natural environment is impossible to mimic in full-scale rearing facilities. So, in reality, the challenge is to identify key modifications of the artificial rearing environment that are practically and economically feasible and that efficiently promote development towards a more wild-like phenotype. Do such key modifications really exist? Here, attempts to use physical enrichment and density reduction to improve the performance of hatchery fishes are discussed and evaluated. These manipulations show potential to increase the fitness of hatchery fishes released into natural environments, but the success is strongly dependent on adequately adapting methods to species and life stage-specific conditions.

Stocking programs using hatchery-reared salmon are often implemented for augmenting natural populations. However, survival of these fish is often low compared with wild conspecifics, possibly because of genetic, physiological, and behavioural deficiencies. Here, we compared presmolt Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) from three different environmental treatments (barren environment, plastic tube enrichment, and plastic shredding enrichment) with regard to plasma cortisol levels, shelter-seeking behaviour, and fin deterioration. Basal plasma cortisol levels were higher in barren-reared fish, indicating higher stress levels, while no differences were found in acute cortisol response after a 30 min confinement test. Shelter-seeking was higher in salmon reared in enriched tanks when tested alone, but not when tested in small groups. Barren-reared fish had higher levels of fin deterioration over winter, potentially owing to higher aggression levels. These results suggest that enrichment can reduce the impact of stressors experienced in the hatchery and thus increase fish welfare. Tank enrichment may also be used to produce salmon better adapted for the more complex environment encountered after release.

In hatcheries, fish are normally reared in barren environments, which have been reported to affect their phenotypic development compared with wild conspecifics. In this study, Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar ) alevins were reared in conventional barren hatchery trays or in either of two types of structurally enriched trays. We show that increased structural complexity during early rearing increased brain size in all investigated brain substructures. However, these effects disappeared over time after transfer to barren tanks for external feeding. Parallel to the hatchery study, a group of salmon parr was released into nature and recaptured at smoltification. These stream-reared smolts developed smaller brains than the hatchery reared smolts, irrespective of initial enrichment treatment. These novel findings do not support the hypothesis that there is a critical early period determining the brain growth trajectory. In contrast, our results indicate that brain growth is plastic in relation to environment. In addition, we show allometric growth in brain substructures over juvenile development, which suggests that comparisons between groups of different body size should be made with caution. These results can aid the development of ecologically sound rearing methods for conservational fish-stocking programs.

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Hatchery-reared salmonids released into the wild generally have poor survivability compared with wild conspecifics. To assess potential hatchery rearing improvements, behavioral and physiological effects of reducing animal density and adding in-tank shelter were investigated. Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) parr were placed in barren or shelter-enriched tanks at high or low density up until release as smolts. Lowered density rendered positive effects on growth and intestinal barrier function, and both lowered density and shelter decreased conspecific aggression, as inferred by fin damage. Furthermore, while the presence of shelter decreased stress hormone levels following human disturbance, it also decreased growth and smolt migration success, an effect particularly pronounced at high densities. Therefore, we suggest that this type of structural enrichment should be avoided for Atlantic salmon smolts held at high densities and conclude that a lowered animal density with or without shelter has the highest potential in producing a more resilient smolt for stocking.

External conditions can drive biological rates in ectotherms by directly influencing body temperatures. While estimating the temperature dependence of performance traits such as growth and development rate is feasible under controlled laboratory settings, predictions in nature are difficult. One major challenge lies in translating performance under constant conditions to fluctuating environments. Using the butterfly Pieris napi as model system, we show that development rate, an important fitness trait, can be accurately predicted in the field using models parameterized under constant laboratory temperatures. Additionally, using a factorial design, we show that accurate predictions can be made across microhabitats but critically hinge on adequate consideration of non‐linearity in reaction norms, spatial heterogeneity in microclimate and temporal variation in temperature. Our empirical results are also supported by a comparison of published and simulated data. Conclusively, our combined results suggest that, discounting direct effects of temperature, insect development rates are generally unaffected by thermal fluctuations.

After a period of food deprivation, animals often respond with a period of faster than normal growth. Such responses have been suggested to result in decreased chromosomal maintenance, which in turn may affect the future fitness of an individual. Here, we present a field experiment in which a food deprivation period of 24 days was enforced on fish from a natural population of juvenile brown trout (Salmo trutta) at the start of the high-growth season in spring. The growth of the food-deprived fish and a non-deprived control group was then monitored in the wild during 1 year. Fin tissue samples were taken at the start of the experiment and 1 year after food deprivation to monitor the telomere dynamics, using reduced telomere length as an indicator of maintenance cost. The food-deprived fish showed partial compensatory growth in both mass and length relative to the control group. However, we found no treatment effects on telomere dynamics, suggesting that growth-compensating brown trout juveniles are able to maintain their telomeres during their second year in the stream. However, body size at the start of the experiment, reflecting growth rate during their first year of life, was negatively correlated with change in telomere length over the following year. This result raises the possibility that rapid growth early in life induces delayed costs in cellular maintenance.