Effects of Frequency of Feeding on Growth and Food Conversion of Channel Catfish Fry

Abstract

Three feeding studies were conducted with channel catfish fry, Ictalurus punctatus, to determine if growth could be enhanced by increasing the frequency of feeding. When fish were less than 1.5 g the best growth rate was obtained by feeding 8 times a day (once every 3 hours); however, for larger fry (more than 1.5 g) growth rate obtained from fish fed 4 times a day between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. was not significantly different from other treatments. The feed intake rate (% biomass/day) decreased from approximately 10% to 5% as fish grew from 0.25 to 4 g and feed conversion efficiency was not affected greatly by frequency of feeding. These data suggest that the high frequency of feeding requirement of smaller catfish is related to their high feed intake rate. © 1976, The Japanese Society of Fisheries Science. All rights reserved.