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Growth of Juvenile Scup Fed Two Commercial Diets
Author(s) -
Perry Dean M.,
Redman Dylan H.,
MercaldoAllen Renee,
Kuropat Catherine A.,
Widman James C.
Publication year - 2013
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 - 10.1080/15222055.2013.786007
Subject(s) - biology , juvenile , zoology , feed conversion ratio , weight gain , compensatory growth (organ) , body weight , fish <actinopterygii> , aquaculture , fishery , ecology , endocrinology , kidney
Juvenile Scup Stenotomus chrysops 0.35–0.95 g were fed two different commercial diets for 9 weeks to determine growth rates. Diets were hand‐distributed to four replicate groups of 45 fish, four times a day. Survival among all treatments was high (90.0–92.5%), and both diets supported good growth. After five weeks, Scup fed diet 1 were significantly greater in length and weight than fish fed diet 2. These differences remained significant throughout the rest of the study. Specific growth rate (SGR) values were 5.8%/d for fish fed diet 1 and 5.5%/d for diet 2, while feed conversion ratios (FCR) were 1.22 for diet 1 and 1.25 for diet 2. Relative growth rate (RGR) values were diet 1 = 3,689% and diet 2 = 3,077%, and daily weight gain (DWG) values were diet 1 = 0.38 g/d and diet 2 = 0.31 g/d. Scup fed diet 1 had significantly greater final live weight, total length, weight gain, SGR, RGR, and DWG measurements than did fish fed diet 2. Juvenile Scup exhibited high growth rates and low feed conversion ratios when fed the two commercial diets, identifying them as a strong candidate species for commercial aquaculture.