Potential for Improvement of Common Carp Production Efficiency by Mechanical Processing of Cereal Diet

Abstract

The effect of supplemental feeding with modified cereals (pressed triticale, barley, rye and pressed wheat in combination with rape) on the growth of common carp was studied under semi-intensive pond farming conditions. Nonpressed triticale, barley and rye were used for comparison. Two groups were selected as a control dependent only on natural zooplankton. For the evaluation, we employed five models designated M1 - linear mixed models with a random intercept; M2 - linear mixed models with a random slope; M3 - a linear mixed model with a random intercept and slope; M4 - written as model M3 with a power variance function, where the error variance was modelled and M5 - written as model M4 with a power variance function, with a different model of error variance. Model M5 took heterogeneous errors with respect to differing strata. Common carp that were fed supplements of modified cereals showed a significant lower variability of weight (lower SD and narrower 95% CI) compared to the non-pressed diets and pressed barley and rye that yielded higher production. These results suggest that pressed cereals increase yield in commercial production of common carp under semiintensive conditions.