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Evaluation of Selected Commercial Starter Feeds for Sunfish Fry Culture
Author(s) -
Dudenhoeffer Gregory A.,
Wetzel James E.,
OmaraAlwala Thomas R.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
north american journal of aquaculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.432
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1548-8454
pISSN - 1522-2055
DOI - 10.1080/15222055.2011.602259
Subject(s) - biology , starter , lepomis macrochirus , composition (language) , zoology , nutrient , lepomis , larva , isoleucine , food science , fish <actinopterygii> , centrarchidae , fishery , proximate , ecology , amino acid , biochemistry , leucine , linguistics , philosophy , micropterus
Sunfishes Lepomis spp. are cultivated as sport fish, and recently interest has been shown in culturing them as a food fish based on commercially available feeds that vary in composition according to the life stage of the fish. We evaluated seven commercial larval starter feeds with northern bluegill L. macrochirus macrochirus and redear sunfish L. microlophus in the effort to relate growth performance to diet nutrient composition. The dependent variables were production weight, survival rate, feed conversion ratio, and mean individual weight and length. The proximate composition and fatty acid and amino acid compositions of feeds were related to the dependent variables. Survival rate ranged from 84% to 96% for bluegills and from 15% to 35% for redear sunfish, and individual mean weights ranged from 67 to 238 mg and from 31 to 78 mg for these two species. Relating the compositional analysis of feeds to the dependent variables indicated that isoleucine influenced mean individual weight for both species. Northern bluegill growth performance suggested a negative correlation with carbohydrates, while redear sunfish growth indicated a positive relationship with energy. This study shows that commercial starter feeds can vary greatly in how they influence sunfish growth performance. Further study is needed to determine what dietary variables, including factors other than nutrient profiles, are most important.