MODEL FOR CALCULATING FEED INTAKE OF FISH IN AQUACULTURE NUTRITION EXPERIMENTS

Abstract

In aquaculture nutrition experiments, mortality is inevitable as the experiment progresses. Thus feed consumed by live and dead fish may errorneously be assumed as feed consumed by live fish. This error manifests when measuring feed intake as a component of nutrient utilization parameters. In order to accurately evaluate feed intake with due consideration of mortality encountered during aquaculturenutrition experiment, a model was developed which is: Total feed consumed by number of survived fish = Where D = Number of Days fish were fed within each period before it is adjusted (e.g fortnight), it is constant throught period of experiment. F = Quantity of feed fed per day for a fortnight before the quantity is adjusted, it changes every fortnight. L = Number of Live fish at the end of experimental period. N = Number of fish at each weighing period, it may change every fortnight or may be constant if no mortality occurred. While n = Number of times fish were weighed and quantity of feed was adjusted but this does not include the final weighing at the termination of experiment. However, if the fish were weighed weekly, then D = 6.