Effects of No Feeding, Maintenance Feeding, and Refeeding on Production and Processing Characteristics of Market‐Size Hybrid Catfish

Abstract

AbstractA pond study was initiated to evaluate effects of no feeding, maintenance feeding, and refeeding on production and processing characteristics of market-size hybrid catfish (female Channel Catfish Ictalurus punctatus × male Blue Catfish I. furcatus). Fish with an average weight of 644 g were stocked into 20 earthen ponds (0.04 ha) at 14,826 fish/ha at the end of May. They were either not fed (N2), fed once weekly (W2) to satiation for 2 months to simulate a long-term harvest delay, or fed daily (D2) to satiation. After 2 months fish in half the ponds in each of the two feed-restricted treatments were harvested, and all fish in the remaining ponds were fed daily for an additional month. After 2 months N2 fish experienced a 14.3% weight loss compared with a weight gain of 6.7% for FW2 fish. After 2 months both N2 and W2 fish had reduced visceral fat and fillet yield compared with fish fed daily, but there were no significant differences in visceral fat percentage and fillet yield between N2 and W2 fi...