Compensatory growth: Fitness cost in farmed fish and crustaceans

Abstract

Feed restriction in fish and crustaceans is gaining interest due to its unusual acceleration of growth after a feed deprivation period. This phenomenon, known as compensatory growth, allows deprived organisms to reach the weight of never‐stressed counterpart organisms. Since feed is the major economic and ecological burden of fish and crustaceans farming, succeeding to reduce its quantity without loss of production may enhance a sustainable aquaculture development. A wide variety of restriction/feeding protocols, involving differences in nature, duration and intensity, have been tested on aquatic organisms. However, not all of them lead to optimal compensatory growth. Furthermore, before extending this practice to industrial setting, it is essential to assess physiological costs associated with both food restriction and compensatory growth. Indeed, although fish and crustaceans appear to be tolerant to dietary restriction, it involves metabolic, digestive, oxidative and immune changes. Nevertheless, return to basal values is not always achieved through refeeding. Compensatory growth has been observed and described in many taxa; however, physiological mechanisms during this process are poorly understood. On the other hand, the acceleration of growth itself appears to generate physiological consequences in organisms, particularly through the generation of oxidative stress. This review provides an overview of the fitness consequences associated with dietary restriction and the subsequent enigmatic compensatory growth in fish and crustaceans.

Metabolic turnover rate, digestive enzyme activities, and bacterial communities in the white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei under compensatory growth

“…One of the main challenges for the expansion of shrimp culture is securing the supply of balanced feeds, which in turn can represent more than 50% of the production costs ( Cummins et al, 2013 ; Jatobá et al, 2014 ). In this regard, different strategies of feed management have been proposed to reduce the production costs, including the use of trays ( Casillas-Hernández et al, 2007 ), variations on feed frequency ( Pontes, De Lima & Arruda, 2008 ; Ullman, Rhodes & Davis, 2019 ), and temporary feed restriction ( Py, Elizondo-González & Peña-Rodríguez, 2022 ). In this regard, temporary feed restriction may promote an increased growth rate when optimal feeding conditions are restored (including decapod crustaceans); this biological response has been called compensatory growth.…”

“…During compensatory growth, and after returning to favorable feeding conditions, new physiological adaptations occur, and these include metabolic adjustments promoting elevated growth efficiencies, as described for different farmed fish and crustacean species ( Py, Elizondo-González & Peña-Rodríguez, 2022 ). The increase of feed intake allows the reactivation of digestive enzymatic activities that enhance digestion and absorption of nutrients ( Rocha et al, 2019 ; Zaefarian et al, 2020 ).…”

“…The promotion of compensatory growth to reduce operating costs during animal production is a well-documented strategy ( Py, Elizondo-González & Peña-Rodríguez, 2022 ); nevertheless, there is still relevant information to disclose on the physiological effects occurring in the white shrimp L. vannamei . In this context, the present study aims to provide new insights on the physiological responses occurring during compensatory growth, by evaluating the metabolic turnover rate of nitrogen in muscle, by measuring the digestive enzyme activities and changes in the bacterial communities of the digestive tract of juvenile L. vannamei .…”

Pacific oysters do not compensate growth retardation following extreme acidification events

“…Research on nutritional physiology reveals that compensatory growth can be partial, i.e. when individuals exhibit accelerated growth without reaching the weight/size of unstressed ones, or complete, aka individuals' catch-up growth [13], or no longer possible, beyond a certain stress intensity or duration threshold [14,18]. Here we investigate if such a threshold of irreversibility exists in the context of ocean acidification.…”

Identification of Novel Genes Associated with Fish Skeletal Muscle Adaptation during Fasting and Refeeding Based on a Meta-Analysis

“…In this context, the availability of nutrients is a factor that stimulates the remodeling of the skeletal muscle, given that the availability of food in nature changes over time and space [ 12 ]. Fasting periods are common in nature and fish farming, where periods of food restriction followed by refeeding are used as a compensatory growth strategy [ 13 ].…”