Effect of Feeding Regime on Compensatory Growth of Juvenile Abalone, Haliotis discus hannai, Fed on the Dry Sea Tangle, Laminaria japonica

Abstract

Effect of feeding regime on compensatory growth of juvenile abalone (Haliotis discus hannai) fed on the dry sea tangle (Laminaria japonica) was determined. Thirty juvenile abalone averaging 15.7 g were randomly stocked into 18 50-L plastic rectangular containers each. Six treatments were prepared in triplicate: Abalone were fed the dry sea tangle once a day at a satiation level with a little leftover for 16 wk as the control (Con) and other abalone were fed the dry sea tangle once a day at a satiation level with a little leftover for 15 wk after 1-wk starvation (S1 treatment), 14 wk after 2-wk starvation (S2 treatment), 13 wk after 3-wk starvation (S3 treatment), 12 wk after 4-wk starvation (S4 treatment), and 10 wk after 6-wk starvation (S6 treatment), respectively. A linear relationship between weight change of abalone and wk of starvation was observed: Y (Weight of abalone) = −0.17X (Wk of starvation) + 15.89 (R 2 = 0.9462) (P < 0.0001). The highest survival of abalone was achieved in the S2 treatment, but not different from that of abalone in the Con, S1 and S3 treatments. Weight gain of abalone in the Con treatment was higher than that of abalone in the S4 and S6 treatments. Abalone fed on the dry sea tangle seemed to be able to achieve full compensatory growth up to 3-wk starvation.