Abstract
The Pacific white snook, Centropomus viridis, is considered a species with high farming potential in Mexico due to its high economic value and overall demand in the national market. Growth in farmed fish is largely determined by the dietary regimen, which includes feeding frequency, rate, time, and cycle. The aim of the present study was to determine the feeding frequency and appropriate feeding time for farmed C. viridis juveniles in order to optimize growth and survival. Juveniles weighing 0.36 ± 0.01 g were used to evaluate 1 and up to 5 ad-libitum feeding frequencies per day, with 3 to 24-h intervals, for 6 weeks. Gained weight (GW), growth rate (GR), specific growth rate (SGR), food conversion ratio (FCR), feeding efficiency rate (FER), coefficient of variation (CV), hepatosomatic index (HI), peritoneal fat index (PFI), and survival (S) were determined for juveniles. Regardless of the feeding hours, no significant differences were found in the GR and SGR values between juveniles fed 3 times a day and those fed 5 times a day. FCR was significantly higher and FER significantly lower in treatments with juveniles fed only once a day compared with the rest of the treatments. No significant differences were found in CV, HI, and S between treatments. PFI was significantly different only between juveniles fed once and 5 times a day. Considering the results obtained in this study, we suggest feeding C. viridis juveniles 3 times a day at 6-h intervals between doses. These results will contribute to the development of biotechnology for farming this species.
Highlights
Considering the results obtained in this study, we suggest feeding C. viridis juveniles 3 times a day at 6-h intervals between doses
In Mexico, natural populations of snook species are overexploited (Arreguín-Sánchez and Arcos-Huitrón 2011), so biotechnological developments have begun to be made at the marine fish production pilot plant at the Research Center for Food and Development (CIAD, for its acronym in Spanish), Mazatlán (Sinaloa, Mexico), for the production of high-quality C. viridis juveniles to promote the farming of this very important species in Mexico and to develop repopulation programs (Ibarra-Castro et al 2017)
The present study showed that growth (FCR and feeding efficiency rate (FER)) in C. viridis juveniles increased significantly when they were fed 3 times a day and that growth was not significantly different when they were fed 5 times a day
Summary
The Pacific white snook (Centropomus viridis) has a distribution that ranges from Baja California Sur and the Gulf of California to southern Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands (Fischer et al 1995). Food intake, feed conversion rate and efficiency, body chemical composition, fish survival, and the quality of farming water (Biswas et al 2010, Shipton and Hasan 2013, CostaBomfim et al 2014, Rahman and Lee 2017). Se ha demostrado que los juveniles de peces marinos necesitan, diariamente, altas frecuencias de alimentación para obtener un buen rendimiento en el cultivo (Schnaittacher et al 2005, da Cunha et al 2013, Luo et al 2015); sin embargo, la sobrealimentación reduce la eficiencia alimenticia, incrementa la acumulación de lípidos, principalmente en hígado y vísceras, deteriora la calidad del agua de cultivo e incrementa los costos de producción (Lee y Pham 2010, Mizanur y Bai 2014, Lee et al 2016, Guo et al 2018). There are currently no published data on the frequency and optimal feeding time for C. viridis; the objective of the present study was to determine the appropriate feeding frequency and time for optimal performance of C. viridis juveniles and, in this way, contribute to the development of farming biotechnology for the species
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