Optimum food particle size in relation to body size of common carp, Cyprinus carpio L., fry

Abstract

Abstract. An investigation was conducted under laboratory conditions to determine the optimum food particle size of an inert diet for common carp fry ranging in size from 15 to 466mg body weight and 13 to 31 mm total length (TL). Speed of consumption of a standard quantity of food was used as a measurement of feeding preference/efficiency for different particle size ranges. It was observed that for carp of this size range preferred food particle size increases with fish size. On the basis of ingestion time and feeding behaviour, food particle sizes in the ranges 125‐300μm. 300‐500μm, 300‐790μm and 500‐1000μm diameter were found to be most appropriate for carp fry weighing 15‐23mg(TL 13‐18), 46‐97 mg(TL 17‐22), 105‐209 mg (TL 20‐25) and 210‐466mg (TL 24‐31) respectively. This study also demonstrated that for carp fry of these size ranges the mean preferred food particle sizes are about 02‐04 that of mouth size. Based on this relationship, general recommendations are made on the optimum food particle sizes for different size classes of carp fry reared under hatchery and nursery conditions.

Do cannibalistic fish forage optimally? An experimental study of prey size preference, bioenergetics of cannibalism and their ontogenetic variations in the African catfishHeterobranchus longifilis

“…A similar interest has been raised in aquacultural studies aiming to understand the relative benefits of using a small or large food particle size (for fishes: Wankowski and Thorpe 1979;Goldan et al 1997;Hasan and Macintosh 2008;Azaza et al 2010). Small prey are more difficult to detect at long distance (Folkvord 1997), but easier to capture and handle (Knights 1983;Mittelbach and Persson 1998), and unless their gut residence time is excessively brief (Hossain et al 2000) they can be digested more completely (Persson 1986;Jobling 1987).…”

Controlling feed losses by chewing in gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) ongrowing may improve the fish farming environmental sustainability

“…Optimum feed size has an important influence on fish rearing efficiency (Hasan and Macintosh, 1992;Wankowski and Thorpe, 1979). Normally, optimum pellet size has been determined based on mouth width; for example, Scophthalmus maximus larvae (Cunha and Planas, 1999), Cyprinus carpio fries (Hasan and Macintosh, 1992), Scophthalmus maximus juveniles (Irwin et al, 2002), Salmo salar juveniles (Wankowski and Thorpe, 1979), Salvelinus alpinus adults (Linnér and Brännäs, 1994;Tabachek, 1988). Following this approach, optimum food size for GHSB has only been established for larvae (Fernández-Diaz et al, 1994), and we have found no information concerning the criteria that should be followed for determining optimum pellet size for the development of GHSB.…”

Effects of food particle size on Perca fluviatilis larval growth

“…A possible explanation is that the diameter of the oesophagus is smaller than that of the opening of their mouth. The size of the food particles for fish larvae suggested by Thorpe and Wankowski (1979) and Hassan and Macintosh (1992) is 0.2 to 0.4 × the mouth size. Assuming that perch follow the same relationship in selecting food particles, the largest particles used in the experiment (class D, 0.16-0.20 mm) would be far from a satisfactory choice since it is 0.56 times the mouth size at D0.…”

“…Obviously, larvae have some difficulty in detecting small size particles and are unable to swallow very large particles (Hassan and Macintosh, 1992). Confer and Lake (1987) have shown that feeding Perca flavescens on either small or large Daphnia resulted in a slower growth rate than did a diet based on Daphnia of medium size.…”