Abstract

PALMA-CANCINO, David Julián et al. Evaluation of feeding strategies in tropical gar (Atractosteus tropicus Gill) larvae: growth, survival and cannibalism. Ecosistemas y recur. agropecuarios [online]. 2019, vol.6, n.17, pp.273-281. ISSN 2007-901X.  https://doi.org/10.19136/era.a6n17.2092.

The design of specific feed based on digestive physiology, and an adequate feeding schedule, are important to reduce cannibalism and increase survival rate in larvae fish. The first objective of this study was evaluating growth, survival and cannibalism during tropical gar (Atractosteus tropicus Gill) larviculture, using four feeding schedules: CT (10 day co-feeding of Artemia nauplii and commercial trout feed), T1 (commercial trout feed), T2 (10 day co-feeding of Artemia nauplii and A. tropicus larvae designed feed) and T3 (A. tropicus larvae designed feed). The second objective was to determinate correlation between survival and cannibalism, using a linear regression model. We observed better growth and survival in the co-feeding treatments CT and T2. Cannibalism was observed in all treatments, with higher presence in T1 and T3 (treatments without Artemia nauplii co-feeding). It was observed a strong correlation between survival and cannibalism (r = -0.88, p < 0.05), demonstrating that cannibalism has a considerable effect on survival rate. We concluded that T2 represent the best alternative for A. tropicus feeding during larviculture, since they present better growth and less cannibalism.

Keywords : Cannibalism; larviculture; linear regression model; co-fedding; tropical gar.

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