Effect of feeding frequency in juvenile croaker, Micropogonias fmnieri (Desmarest) (Pisces: Sciaenidae)

Abstract

The relationship between food consumption and growth is an important ecological variable and is a necessary base for the development of aquaculture (Klaoudatos & Apostolopoulos, 1986). No information is available on feeding frequency and its effect on food utilization in the Argentine coastal sciaenid, Mic'ropogonias,furnieri (Desmarest).The fishes used for this study were between 16.6-21.7 g and 115-125 mm and were obtained from Bahia Samborombon (36"lS'S: 56'SO'W) and Laguna de Mar Chiquita (37'45's: 57"30'W) on the Buenos Aires Province coast, during spring and summer 1988. They were placed in a rectangular 60 1 aquarium and acclimatized for 2 weeks. The aquarium was divided into four sections by plastic nets. The feeding schedule was: section A, once in 3 days; section B. once in 2 days; section C, once a day; section D, twice a day. The test fish of section D were fed at 08.00 and 18.00 hours, leaving at least 10 h between both meals to allow stomachs to empty (Chiechomski, 1980). The experiment was done in duplicate for 17 days, with salinity at 19%0 and a temperature range of 19-21" C . Water was replaced every 4 days to prevent ammonia accumulation. Faeces were collected daily by sucking the bottom of each section and filtering through filter paper. Subsequently, the faeces were dried in a stove at 60" C for 72 h. Minced squid muscle, I1le.u argentinus (Castellanos) were offered as food at 10% fish wet weight. The energetic equivalents were determined by a Baird and Tatlock calorimetric bomb. The energetic budget was obtained from the formula C = F + U + G + Mwhere C is the total energy of food; F, the energy lost in the faeces; U , the energy of nitrogenous excretory wastes; G, the energy assimilated as new tissue (growth); and M, the total metabolic energy. All values are in cal. wet weight-' day-'. Excretion ( U ) , was assumed as 7% of food energy (Valiela et al., 1977).The feeding rate increased with increasing feeding frequency (Fig. I). The highest feeding frequency. section D, yielded decreased feeding, absorption and growth rates. Absorption efficiency was not affected during the experiment, and remained around 98%, while metabolic rate increased up to 7.3% with the highest feeding frequency (Table I). The energetic expenditure produced by specific dynamic action (SDA) of food, increased the metabolic level with increasing feeding frequency. These processes subtract energy to build new tissue, diminishing growth and showing the smallest conversion efficiency in section D (18.84%). According to Vahl(l979), blood should have a maximum carrying capacity and the level of SDA should reflect the degree of negative feedback from the metabolites in blood. Because of the time lag between ingestion and the contribution of the meal to the level of metabolites, the 10 h interval between meals in section D was insufficient for good food utilization. According to our data, the trophic optimum of food utilization in this species was reached 987 0022-1 I12:90f012987+02 $03.00/0 0 1990 The Fisheries Society of th...

Diel changes in food and feeding activity of sciaenid fishes from the South-western Atlantic, Brazil

“…The whitemouth croacker has been intensively studied (Isaac, 1988;Vazzoler, 1991) and there are some references to the diel feeding of this species (Puig, 1986;Aristizabal-Abud, 1990;ManickchandHeileman;Ehrhardt, 1996;Figueiredo & Vieira, 1998). For the other species there is some information on food habits (Lowe-MacConnell, 1966;Braga et al, 1985;Rodrigues & Meira, 1988;Soares, 1989;Teixeira et al, 1992;Amaral et al, 1994), but none is available on diel changes.…”

Feeding frequency mediates aggression and cannibalism in larval hatchery-reared spotted seatrout, Cynoscion nebulosus

“…A more consistent trend was found for hatchery-reared Florida pompano (Trachinotus carolinus), which showed a direct relationship between feeding frequency and growth when fed the same total daily ration (Weirich et al, 2006). Conversely, growth was lowest at the highest feeding frequency for cultured whitemouth croaker (Micropogonias furnieri) (Aristizabal- Abud, 1990). In the present study, fish from both the 1-h and the 4-h frequencies exhibited high levels of aggression, which possibly reflects increased energy expenditures and/or stress levels.…”

The effect of feeding frequency and feeding rate on growth performance of juvenile Black Sea Turbot (Psetta maxima, Linneaus, 1758)

“…Optimum feeding frequency, for maximum growth of fish, may vary with species and size of fish, and culture conditions, including food quality, amount of feed provided and water temperature (Lee et al, 2000a;Kestemont and Baras, 2001), although feeding to satiation once daily seems adequate for species such as estuary grouper Epinephelus tauvina (Chua and Teng, 1978), stinging catfish Heteropneustes fossilis (Marian et al, 1981), Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus (Jobling, 1983), striped snakehead Channa striatus (Sampath, 1984), croaker Micropogonias furnieri (Abud, 1990), Korean rockfish Sebastes schlegali (Lee et al, 2000b) and yellowtail flounder Limanda ferruginea (Dwyer et al, 2002). Another factor that determines the most suitable feeding frequency is the time interval between meals, because the intake of food is related to the capacity of the stomach and the rate of digestion and evacuation (Brett, 1971;Kono and Nose, 1971), and evacuation time is related to the feeding sequence and the size of the fish (Pandian, 1967;Noble, 1973).…”