EFFECT OF FEED RATE ON GROWTH AND SURVIVAL RATE OF JUVENILE SNUBNOSE POMPANO

Abstract

A completely randomized experiment with five feed rates: 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15% of the body weight (BW) per day has been tested to evaluate an optimal feed rate for rearing juvenile snubnose pompano (2.0-5.0 cm). The initial fishes with 19.76±1.23 mm long and 0.35±0.04 g/fish have been stocked in 70-liter cylindrico-conical fiberglass tanks at the density of 2 fishes per litter during the period of 28 days. The results have shown that the optimal growth rates of fish weight have gained at the feed rates of 9, 12 and 15% BW per day. The lowest coefficient of variations have been founded at the treatment of 6, 9 and 12% BW. The feed consumption ratio has risen proportionally to the increase of feed rates from 3 to 15% BW. However, feed rates had no effect on the survival rate of fish. The result of this study has suggested that the feed rate of 9% BW should be applied for rearing the juvenile stage of snubnose pompano in order to achieve the optimal efficiency of technique, environment and economics.