USE OF COMPENSATORY GROWTH RESPONSE OF FISH TO ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES TO IMPROVE FISH CULTURE OPERATIONS

Abstract

Nutrition is the most expensive item in aquaculture production it is often increased to more than 70% of the total variable costs depending on the culture density. Nutrition costs may be significantly reduced by decreasing feeding days per week. The present study aims to investigate compensatory growth of Nile Tilapia Oreochromis niloticus in structural size and live weight in response to different deprivation periods and re-feeding. This study was conducted in Fish Research Central (FRC), Faculty of Agriculture, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt. Four treatments were evaluated. The control group was fed to satiation two times a day and one day starvation and re-feeding six days throughout the experiment. The other three treatment groups were starved for 2, 3 and 4 days and re-feeding 7, 11 and 14 days, respectively. O. niloticus were constructed in two experiments with initial primary weights of 21.62 ± 0.08 g, 25.00 ± 0.05 g for the first and the second experiments, respectively. Fish were randomly fed twice daily and starved for four days and were constructed for fourteen days in three replicates to assess the cost of feeding, growth performance, feed use and survival rate for 84 days in 24 fiberglass tanks.