The influence of multiple meals on the gastric evacuation rate in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

Abstract

Rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (mean weight 70.8±1.0 g SEM) raised in the Sea of Marmara (Turkey), were used for a preliminary gastric evacuation study. After being starved 72 hours, three groups of 110 fish, each, were fed ad libitum once, twice or three times in a single day. Ten fish from each group were withdrawn and killed in an anesthetic solution during each sampling at 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27 and 30 hours following the last feeding. Gastric material was removed from the fish and dried for gastric evacuation modelling. Gompertz and logistic models (with fixed asymptotes) best explained the data. The gastric emptying rate of the trout offered a single meal (Group A) was faster than those fed two (Group B) or three (Group C) meals while the emptying patterns of Groups B and C were similar to each other. The time required to evacuate 95% of the gastric material from the first meal was estimated as 54.3, 68.0 and 67.8 h for Groups A, B and C, respectively, according to the Gompertz equations (with a fixed asymptote).