Gastric evacuation and growth of aquacultured juvenile Florida pompano (Trachinotus carolinus).

摘要

Florida Pompano (Trachinotus carolinus) is a rapidly emerging aquaculture candidate species, having high market value and fast growth rate. However, little is known about nutritional requirements and protocols to optimize growth of the species. This study therefore investigated the gastric evacuation time and growth of aquacultured juvenile Florida Pompano given two different feed types to direct production of young life stages. For gastric evacuation experiments, fish were fasted for 48 hours prior to ensure stomach emptiness, and then fed diets of NOAA Montlake meal or Otohime EP2 pellets until satiation. Three fish were randomly sampled from the population at 60 minute intervals then euthanized in MS-222, weighed (g), measured (SL), frozen immediately (-10°C), and stored for a period of 24-48h prior to dissections. Fish were thawed and stomach contents were emptied, patted dry, and weighed. For pompano growth experiments, fish were fed Otohime EP2 or NOAA's proprietary Montlake meal two or four times per day and group-weighed once weekly over a weight gain of 40g to determine feed frequency, feed conversion ratio, and feed efficiency. Linear and nonlinear models of evacuation and growth were fitted separately to the respective data using maximum likelihood, and best fitting models were selected via Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC) using an information theoretic approach. Collectively, results indicated that temperature and diet affected gastric evacuation rates for Florida Pompano, with equivalent growth between the two diets. Results suggest that NOAA's proprietary fishery byproduct Montlake diet is a viable alternative to fishmeal based diets.