Compensatory growth in fishes: a response to growth depression

Abstract

Ali, M., Nicieza, A., Wootton, R. J. (2003). Compensatory growth in fishes: a response to growth depression. ? Fish and Fisheries, 4, (2), 147-190. Sponsorship: Royal Society of London ? Chinese Academy of Sciences Exchange awardCompensatory growth (CG) is a phase of accelerated growth when favourable conditions are restored after a period of growth depression. CG reduces variance in size by causing growth trajectories to converge and is important to fisheries management, aquaculture and life history analysis because it can offset the effects of growth arrests. Compensatory growth has been demonstrated in both individually housed and grouped fish, typically after growth depression has been induced by complete or partial food deprivation. Partial, full and over-compensation have all been evoked in fish, although over-compensation has only been demonstrated when cycles of deprivation and satiation feeding have been imposed. Individually housed fish have shown that CG is partly a response to hyperphagia when rates of food consumption are significantly higher than those in fish that have not experienced growth depression. The severity of the growth depression increases the duration of the hyperphagic phase rather than maximum daily feeding rate. In many studies, growth efficiencies were higher during CG. Changes in metabolic rate and swimming activity have not been demonstrated yet to play a role. Periods of food deprivation induce changes in the storage reserves, particularly lipids, of fish. Apart from the strong evidence for the restoration of somatic growth trajectories, CG is a response to restore lipid levels. Although several neuro-peptides, including neuropeptide-Y, are probably involved in the control of appetite, their role and the role of hormones, such as growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor (IGF), in the hyperphagia associated with CG are still unclear. The advantages of CG probably relate to size dependencies of mortality, fecundity and diet that are characteristic of teleosts. These size dependencies favour a recovery from the effects of growth depression if environmental factors allow. High growth rates may also impose costs, including adverse effects on future development, growth, reproduction and swimming performance. Hyperphagia may lead to riskier behaviour in the presence of predators. CG's evolutionary consequences are largely unexplored. An understanding of why animals grow at rates below their physiological capacity, an evaluation of the costs of rapid growth and the identification of the constraints on growth trajectories represent major challenges for life-history theory.Peer reviewe

Response and recovery of hybrid sturgeon from subchronic oral administration of cyanobacteria

“…Compensatory growth was well documented in fishes, particularly in salmonids, including Atlantic salmon Salmo salar (Nicieza and Metcalfe, 1997), rainbow trout (Dobson and Holmes, 1984), and arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) (Miglavs and Jobling, 1989). The accelerated growth of hybrid sturgeon agreed with those previous studies in many other fishes mentioned earlier typically induced by complete or partial food deprivation (Ali et al, 2003). Wootton (1998) demonstrated that compensatory growth is a process to buffer the effects of environmental variability or to cope with periodic food shortages, particularly in winter for wild fish (Dutil et al, 2003).…”

“…The compensatory growth was also found in hybrid tilapia after a 60-day exposure to dietary cyanobacteria. Several factors could contribute to the compensatory growth such as increased food consumption (hyperphagia), increased efficiency of feed utilization, enhanced growth efficiency, decreased metabolic costs, and reduced swimming activity (Ali et al, 2003). In our study, FR and digestibility of fish fed high level cyanobacteria diet were much higher than that of control after a 22-day recovery while significant elevated of FCE and PRE was observed in fish fed medium level cyanobacteria diet.…”

“…The difference between these studies might be due to the different MCs concentration in fish diets. Dietary MCs exposure doses in hybrid sturgeon in this study were 26.60-201.03 lg MCs/g diet and hybrid tilapia in Dong et al (2009) Compensatory Growth during the Recovery Period Ali et al (2003) indicated that accelerated growth (compensatory growth) occurs when favorable conditions are restored after a period of growth depression. In our study, partial compensatory growth was found in fish fed medium level cyanobacteria and high level cyanobacteria diets during the first recovery period.…”

Feeding strategies and energy to protein ratio on tambaqui performance and physiology

“…According to Ali et al (2003), animals can show several types of compensatory growth. Overcompensation occurs when animals subjected to fasting reach a size larger than that of the continuously fed animals, after refeeding.…”

“…2013 DOI: 10.1590/S0100-204X2013000800021 composition have been analyzed. No monitoring has been reported on the physiological changes in fish during the compensatory growth period or on the risks associated to fast growth (Ali et al, 2003).…”