The Effects of Different Feeding Strategies on the Growth of Young Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus L., in a Freshwater Recirculating System during Summer

Abstract

We evaluated the effects of different feeding strategies on the growth of young Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus L., in a freshwater recirculating system during summer. Each of twenty fish (Mean body weight<TEX>$\pm$</TEX> SD; 37. 7<TEX>$\pm$</TEX>0.10 g) were randomly distributed into each of 24 tanks. Eight treatments were prepared in triplicate. Control fish were hand-fed commercial feed twice daily without starvation. The other seven treatments employed different feeding and starvation strategies ranging from I day starved and 1 day fed (1DS+ 1DF) to 7 days starved to 7 days fed (7DS+7DF). All fish survived to the end of the 44-day feeding trial. The amount of food supplied was highest for the control fish in the control. Food supplied to fish in the 3DS+3DF and 4DS+4DF treatments was significantly lower than that of fish in the 1DS+1DF and 2DS+2DF treatments, but significantly higher than that of fish in the 5DS+5DF, 6DS+6DF and 7DS+7DF treatments. The weight gain of control fish was significantly higher than that of fish in other treatments. Feed efficiency ratio (FER) for fish in the 7DS+7DF treatment was significantly higher than that of fish in the control group, but it did not differ from that of fish in the 1DS+1DF and 2DS+2DF treatments. We concluded that young Nile tilapia raised with different starvation and feeding regimes during the summer in a freshwater recirculating system did not catch up in growth to fish fed daily. However, the enhanced FER of Nile tilapia in the 7DS+ 7DF, 2DS+ 2DF, and 1 DS+ I DF treatments partly explains the compensatory growth of the fish, although their weight gain was relatively low.