Growth and survival of juvenile red drum, Sciaenops ocellatus , acclimated to freshwater at three different stocking densities in a partial recirculation system

Preliminary technical baseline information for the inland culture of juvenile red drum, Sciaenops ocellatus , in a freshwater fish hatchery is presented. Three initial stocking densities (d 1  = 83, d 2  = 167, and d 3  = 250 fish/m 3 ) were tested in a semirecirculation system for 575 days using a commercially available feed (48.1% protein, 25% lipids, and 0.13% fiber). Initial and final mean fish weight were 7.11 ± 0.02 g and 287.6 ± 27 g. As carrying capacity appeared to have been reached, only data from Days 1–333 were analyzed. One‐way ANOVA analyses indicated that the survival rate of the smaller density (d 1  =40 ± 3.7%) was significantly different from the other two densities (d 3  = 21 ± 1.1% and d 2  = 23 ± 1.0%), which did not differ between them. Absolute growth rate (0.87 ± 0.02 g/day) was not significantly different between densities ( F  = 0.23. p  = .801). Neither was weight significantly different between treatments. There were significant differences in the feed conversion rate (FCR) between densities ( F  = 8.54; p  = .02). FCR for d 1 was significantly lower than for the two other densities, which did not differ from each other. A von Bertalanffy growth model was adjusted ( R 2  = 0.95), and weight–length relationship presented negative allometric values ( b  = 2.85, R 2  = 0.98).