The investigation of the effects of different feeding strategies on the growth of dolphin cichlid ( Cyrtocara moori Boulenger, 1902) fish

This study was designed to investigate the effects of restrictive and cyclical feeding on the growth parameters of dolphin cichlid ( Cyrtocara moorii Boulenger, 1902). In the study, 300 dolphin cichlid with an initial average weight of 1.12 ± 0.23 g were placed in 15 aquariums (each of them were 60 L). The five experimental groups, were designed as; the control group (A), feeding until satiation twice a day for 90 days, starvation for 1 week (B), starvation for 2 weeks (C), starvation for 1 day/satiation for 3 days (D), starvation for 1 day/satiation for 1 day (E); and the study was carried out in three repetitions. At the end of the study, groups B, C and D showed partial compensatory growth. The highest weight gains and specific growth rates were observed in control group (A), followed by groups B, C and D ( p  > 0.05). The lowest weight gain was observed in group E ( p  < 0.05). The feed conversion ratio did not show any significant difference between the groups ( p  > 0.05). In terms of feed consumption ratio, Control, C and D groups consumed similar amounts of feed ( p  > 0.05), while B and E groups consumed less feed ( p  < 0.05) than the other groups.