In some aquaculture industries, it is good going if you can get 50% survival through weaning (i.e. moving fish from live feeds to artificial diets). So if you’re using barramundi as an example, it’s quite lucky then that they are highly fecund, with a single female (> 120 cm total length) capable of producing up to 46 million eggs! With numbers like these, each 1% increase in survival could give you about half a million more fingerlings! Imagine that!
In traditional aquaculture, there are usually abrupt husbandry changes made – e.g. when changing diet, changing tank size, grading, etc. This research paper gives us a new way of thinking. Could we perhaps incorporate some overlaps in feeding practices. Instead of going ‘cold turkey’ from live foods (e.g. artemia) to finely ground artificial diets, would it be a better idea to offer both foods at the same time?
Fish do learn off each other, just as other animals (and humans!). Some fish are more adventurous and are more willing to try different things. Some fish may recognise the artificial diet as food earlier than others, and when tank mates observe others eating this, they too will give it a go.
So, even though the article below may not be exactly the species you’re dealing with, you can draw parallels from other industries. There’s no point ‘re-inventing the wheel’.
Research
Volume 44, Number 3 (February 2013)
Fine tuning of feeding practices for hatchery produced Persian sturgeon, Acipenser persicusand Beluga sturgeon, Huso huso
Authors: N. Agh, F. Noori, A. Irani, G. Stappen, P. Sorgeloos
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Source: Aquaculture Research, Volume 44, Number 3 (February 2013)
Page Numbers: 335 – 344
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Abstract: In this work, we investigated the effects of various feeding treatments on the survival and growth of Huso husoand Acipenser persicuslarvae during a 20-day culture period. Three replicate groups (250 fish/replicate) of first-feeding larvae were fed according to four main feeding regimes: (1) live food (live nauplii of brine shrimp Artemia urmiana); (2) indirect transition (5–7 days live food followed by gradual transition to formulated diet); (3) direct transition (using different combinations of live and formulated diet from the start feeding onwards); and (4) formulated feed (FD) from the start of feeding. In H. husolarvae, combining live food and manufactured diets (co-feeding) from the first feeding stage onwards (direct transition) resulted in significantly higher weight gain than the other regimes. Survival was significantly higher in H. husolarvae fed solely live food or the direct transition regimes compared with indirect transition and FD. In A. persicuslarvae, growth and survival were higher in the indirect transition feeding regime than in the other regimes. On the basis of the results of this study, we recommend co-feeding of H. husoimmediately from the commencement of exogenous feeding, but co-feeding of A. persicusshould start 7 days after prior feeding with live food.
Citation: N. Agh, F. Noori, A. Irani, G. Stappen, P. Sorgeloos . Fine tuning of feeding practices for hatchery produced Persian sturgeon, Acipenser persicusand Beluga sturgeon, Huso huso. Aquaculture Research, Volume 44, Number 3 (February 2013), pp. 335-344,
URL: http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=47E39FD102DC4D2ACEEB
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Yours sincerely,
Dr Richmond Loh
BSc, BVMS, MPhil (Vet Path), MANZCVS (Aquatics), MANZCVS (Pathobiology), DipPM.
Veterinarian | Adjunct Senior Lecturer Murdoch University | WAVMA President-Elect |
Secretary Aquatic Animal Health Chapter – Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists (ANZCVS)
The Fish Vet, Perth, Western Australia, AUSTRALIA.
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