Premium
The effect of feeding frequency on growth performance of juvenile cobia, R achycentron canadum ( L innaeus, 1766)
Author(s) -
CostaBomfim C. N.,
Pessoa W. V. N.,
Oliveira R. L. M.,
Farias J. L.,
Domingues E. C.,
Hamilton S.,
Cavalli R. O.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of applied ichthyology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.392
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1439-0426
pISSN - 0175-8659
DOI - 10.1111/jai.12339
Subject(s) - biology , juvenile , zoology , fish meal , fishery , meal , fish <actinopterygii> , feed conversion ratio , aquaculture , body weight , ecology , food science , endocrinology
Summary The present study was carried out to investigate the number of daily feeding sessions that results in maximum growth of juvenile cobia under laboratory conditions. Groups of eight fish (110 g) were randomly distributed in twenty 500‐L tanks and hand‐fed a commercial diet for 60 days. The same amount of feed was offered daily, divided in 1, 2, 3, four or six meals. None of the parameters associated with growth performance (survival, weight gain, specific growth rate, feed intake, condition factor or size variation) showed any significant differences among treatments. Although under the present conditions feeding frequency had no effect on the growth performance of cobia larger than 110 g, in commercial farming operations where large numbers of fish are kept within a single rearing structure, fish may have aggressive interactions during feeding. Under these conditions, it is difficult to ensure that all cobia are fed to satiation and thus it is usual to provide two or more meals per day. The present results indicate that for an individual cobia the provision of more than one daily meal has no significant effect on growth performance.