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Food consumption and growth of larvae and juveniles of three cyprinid species at different food levels

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The relationships between food availability, consumption and growth were analyzed from the onset of feeding to an age of 90 days in three cyprinid species. Fish were held at 20 ± 0.5° C and given two (three) constant rations of approximately 30, (40) or 100% dry body weight (dbw) ind-1 day-1. Food consisted of living zooplankton, the size of which correlated with fish size. At high food densities consumption rates decreased rapidly with fish size in all three species. At reduced rations, fish consumed most of the food offered until they were larger than 10 mg dbw. In all species and at each feeding level daily rations consumed increased allometrically with body size. Respiration rate, expressed as routine metabolic rate differed insignificantly between the three species. At high ration levels, growth rates of small bleak, Alburnus alburnus, were distinctly lower than those of roach, Rutilus rutilus, and blue bream, Abramis ballerus. At low food supply all three species grew at similar rates. Assimilation efficiency at low food conditions was approximately twice that of the well-fed groups. If the caloric equivalents of oxygen consumption as measured in well-fed fish are applied to fish fed at low rations their energy budgets do not balance. This indicates the limitations of fish larvae in the partitioning of energy for growth or activity at such conditions.

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  1. Department of Limnology, Institute of Zoology, Althanstraβe 14, A-1090, Vienna, Austria

    Hubert Keckeis & Fritz Schiemer

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  1. Hubert Keckeis
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  2. Fritz Schiemer
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Keckeis, H., Schiemer, F. Food consumption and growth of larvae and juveniles of three cyprinid species at different food levels. Environ Biol Fish 33, 33–45 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00002551

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00002551

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