Impact of higher stocking density of juvenile Atlantic sturgeon, Acipenser oxyrinchus Mitchill, on fish growth, oxygen consumption, and ammonia excretion

Abstract

Abstract. The impact of stocking density on the growth, feed conversion, oxygen consumption, and ammonia excretion of juvenile Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus Mitchill) was studied. Three initial stocking densities were used in the experiment: 1.27, 2.49, and 3.80 kg m -2 . The length of the experiment was 64 days. The mean water temperature was 15.0°C. The fish were fed commercial feed Nutra T 1.9 (Trouv, France). Atlantic sturgeon body weight growth was the highest in the group stocked at the lowest density. The fish from this group attained a final body weight of 130.1 g, which was statistically significantly higher than that of the groups stocked at densities of 2.49 kg m -2 (P < 0.05) or 3.80 kg m -2 (P > 0.01).Stocking density had a substantial impact on the value of the feed conversion ratio (FCR) in the different groups. The lowest FCR was noted at the density of 1.27 kg m -2 at 0.67. This value differed statistically significantly from group 2.49 kg m -2 , in which it was 0.74 (P < 0.05), and it differed highly statistically significantly from group 3.80 kg m -2 at 0.83 (P < 0.001). The differences in the FCR value between groups 2.49 and 3.80 kg m -2 were also highly statistically significant.

Influence of Stocking Density on Growth and Physiological Responses of Beluga, Huso huso (Brandt, 1869), and Ship Sturgeon, Acipenser nudiventris (Lovetsky, 1828), Juveniles in a Flow‐through System

“…In this study, despite the high rearing density tested, no effect on sturgeon survival was found in either species, as has also been reported in other studies on acipenserids (Rafatnezhad et al 2008;Szczepkowski et al 2011;Ni et al 2016). However, at the end of the trial, the FI in beluga from the HSD group was 6.6 and 12.7% lower than in fish from the MSD and LSD groups, respectively, which led to a 7.9 and 18.3% reduction in WG in the HSD group in comparison with the MSD and LSD groups, respectively.…”

“…Several studies in sturgeons have demonstrated that an inappropriate stocking density resulted in a reduction in growth performance and feed efficiency (Rafatnezhad et al ; Szczepkowski et al ; Yang et al ; Ni et al ), immune suppression (Ni et al ), and chronic stress induction (Cataldi et al ; Wuertz et al ; Li et al ). Overcrowding, as a stressful condition (Ashley ), generally activates primary stress responses in fish by increasing plasma catecholamines, which in turn induce an enhancement of metabolic processes such as glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis for supplying energy, as well as an increase in the hematocrit (Hct) levels and red blood cell (RBC) counts in order to enhance oxygen capacity of blood to cope with the stressor (Ellis et al ; Di Marco et al ).…”

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“…Several studies carried out on different fish species, including sturgeons, showed that high stocking density causes reduction in growth rate and increases variation of weight between individuals (Justice et al, 2009;Szczepkowski et al, 2011). As suggested by Biswas et al (2013) high fish density adversely affects the growth rate of fish from the same cohort due to stress and increased interaction between individuals, including competition for access to food.…”

“…Therefore, it is essential to recognize the most important causes of this phenomenon, to minimalize the differences in growth rate. Main factors affecting fish growth described so far are: environmental conditions (Szczepkowski, Szczepkowska & Piotrowska, 2011), exercise training (Martin & Johnston, 2006), diet, including quality and availability of food (Ostaszewska, Dąbrowski, Wegner & Krawiec, 2008;Kamaszewski, Prasek, Ostaszewska & Dąbrowski, 2014) and genetic background (Valente et al, 2013).…”

EFFECT OF STOCKING DENSITY ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF DOMESTICATED BARB (Barbonymus balleroides)

“…Stocking density is one of external factors which determine growth performance of farmed fish. Several studies on growth performance of the fish under different stocking density have been conducted in various species (Yi et al, 1996;Huang & Chiu, 1997;Szczepkowski et al, 2011;Yang et al, 2011;Samad et al, 2014;Hernandez et al, 2016;Liu et al, 2016;Rahman et al, 2016). However, observation of growth performance regarding different stocking density on Barbonymus balleroides has not studied yet.…”