Plankton intake as a function of body weight by common carp fry in different feeding conditions

Abstract

Plankton intake by common carp fry was investigated in relation to composition and abundance of plankton as well as water quality in five culture systems: live-food system (LFS), manured system (MS), exchanged manured system (EMS), intermediate system ((IS), and reference control system (CS). The amount of plankton consumed by the common carp fry tended to rise gradually with increase in average body weight of carp held in all five culture systems. At a given time, the plankton intake for LFS was significantly higher than for the remaining four systems. Related to maximum intake, the maximum concentration of plankton in the live-food system was a consequence of improved water quality. Food consumption varied as a function of W b , and estimates of the power b ranged from 0.479 to 0.864 in relation to culture systems and from 0.033 to 0.908 among age groups.