I received some interesting anecdotal comments on my previous blog (www.thefishvet.com) via LinkedIn and would like to share with you.
“A lot of mumbo jumbo for those uninitiated in science speak, but the summary [of the scientific article] is that there are hormonal changes help them to very efficiently convert everything they eat into growth during the spring/summer period. (link to the original post)”
Kabir Chowdhury Very interesting! Although we suspected the prioritization of the resources consumed in fishes, this article clearly describes the physiological changes inside the animal responsible for the variations in resource allocations. Could similar changes happen in any other migratory species? Or in any other species in response to the seasonal environmental modulations? Any reference?
Richmond Loh This same thing could happen in other species too. Rainbow trout show a similar growth pattern, but not to the same extent as Atlantic salmon.
Dominique Bureau Anecdotal evidence but we have seen the same significant increase in growth when moving Atlantic salmon, held in fresh water for their entire life cycle and that went through smoltification ( incomplete), from small tanks to much larger tanks. It was not compensatory growth. I always though that vision played a role.
- Richmond Loh
Are you saying that the salmon have their growth spurt even if left in freshwater?
- Dominique Bureau
I have to be cautious since we did not systematically and specifically study this issue. However, we did observed very significant improvement in the growth rate (expressed as TGC) in two or three experiments with a wild Atlantic salmon strain (LaHave River) held in freshwater when we moved the fish to larger tanks.
