Minimising waste through bioenergetically and behaviourally based feeding strategies

Most species in aquaculture are mew to cultivation and so behave like wild animals. They are products of evolution, with adaptations to specific habitat conditions. In the wild, food is mot available uniformly throughout the day or the year, or in space, and rarely exceeds the fishes needs. Competit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Water science and technology 1995, Vol.31 (10), p.29-40
Main Authors: Thorpe, J.E., Young Cho, C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activity patterns
Adaptation
Anorexia
Appetite
Appetite rhythms
Aquaculture
bioenergetics
Brackish
Cultivation
Eating disorders
Evolution
Feeding
Feeding behavior
feeding behaviour
Feeding regimes
Feeds
Fish
Fish populations
Food
Food availability
Food consumption
Food intake
food presentation
Food supply
Freshwater
Marine
Salmonids
Tables
waste
Wild animals
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Summary:Most species in aquaculture are mew to cultivation and so behave like wild animals. They are products of evolution, with adaptations to specific habitat conditions. In the wild, food is mot available uniformly throughout the day or the year, or in space, and rarely exceeds the fishes needs. Competition is energetically expensive, reducing growth efficiency. Consequently, feeding activity patterns have evolved, implying internal appetite rhythms, which optimise food intake under these various constraints. Salmonids cam adapt quickly to shat term variation in food availability, but show seasonal genetically determined anorexia. Rational feeding regimes in culture should take all such features into account. When appetite is high naturally, food should be presented so that it is economically indefensible - where every individual can eat, and where fighting does mot pay. At periods of anorexia it will be prudent to offer no food. Manufacturers, feed tables are usually regimes devised to meet the bioenergetic needs of fishes, as they are understood in a physico-chemical sense. While useful first approximations, they do mot take into account these evolutionary features of the fishes, and cam lead to waste. Methods of presentation are described which allow the fish to determine when food shall be available, and in ways which, by diminishing the advantages of social dominance, ensure relatively even opportunities to feed for all individuals in the population. Allowing the fish to set the time-table reduces the likelihood of waste.
ISSN:0273-1223
1996-9732
DOI:10.1016/0273-1223(95)00424-L