The present experiment was conducted to quantify dietary copper (Cu) requirement for juvenile yellow catfish Pelteobagrus fulvidraco. The six experimental diets were formulated to contain the graded levels of CuSO4·5H2O (0, 0.005, 0.01, 0.02, 0.04 and 0.08 g kg−1 diet respectively) providing the actual dietary copper values of 2.14 (control), 3.24, 4.57, 7.06, 12.22 and 22.25 mg Cu kg−1 diet respectively. Each diet was fed to triplicate groups of yellow catfish (initial body weight: 3.13 ± 0.09 g, means ± SD) in an indoor static rearing system for 7 weeks. Fish fed the diet containing 3.24 mg Cu kg−1 diet had the highest weight gain and specific growth rate, but they were not significantly different from that of fish fed the 4.57 and 7.06 mg Cu kg−1 diets (P > 0.05). The poorest feed conversion rate, the lowest protein efficiency ratio, the lowest hepatosomatic index and viscerosomatic index were observed in fish fed the diet containing the highest Cu content diet (P < 0.05). Condition factor showed no significant differences among the treatments (P > 0.05). Proximate composition of fish body was significantly affected by dietary copper level (P < 0.05). Cu contents of whole body and liver increased with dietary Cu levels (P < 0.05), but muscle Cu content remained relatively stable (P > 0.05). Analysis by the second‐order regression of SGR and linear regression of whole‐body Cu retention of the fish indicated that dietary Cu requirements in juvenile yellow catfish were 3.13–4.24 mg Cu kg−1 diet.

2011. A study of morphology and histology of the alimentary tract of Glyptosternum maculatum (Sisoridae, Siluriformes). -Acta Zoologica (Stockholm) 92: 161-169.The structure of alimentary tract has been studied in a cold water fish Glyptosternum maculatum, an endemic teleost species of notable economic importance and with high potential for controlled rearing of the species in Tibet, by light and electron microscope. Glyptosternum maculatum has short oesophagus, large caecal-type stomach and short intestine, and the digestive tract with four layers: mucosa, submucosa, muscularis and serosa. Taste buds were found in the epithelium of lips, buccopharynx and oesophagus. The stratified epithelium of buccopharynx and oesophagus was located with numerous goblet cells. The U-shaped stomach has three parts, corresponding to mammalian cardiac, fundus and pyloric portion, lined with a single-layered columnar epithelium, and tubular gastric glands are present in cardiac and fundic portion, but absent in pyloric portion. No pyloric caeca was detected. The intestine is separated from the stomach by a loop valve. The intestine epithelium is composed of simple columnar cells with a distinct microvillus brush border and many goblet cells. Meanwhile, the intestinal coefficient was 0.898. At the ultrastuctural level, three type cells (mucous, glandular and endocrine cell) were found in the stomach, and glandular cell with a great amount of pepsinogen granules. The enterocytes of the intestinal mucosa display abundant endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria and well-developed microvilli.

This study investigated the effects of different stocking densities on growth and serum concentrations of thyroid hormones and cortisol in Amur sturgeon, Acipenser schrenckii. Fish were reared at low, medium, and high stocking densities (initial experimental densities were 0.30, 0.75, and 1.78 kg m(-2), respectively) for 70 days. The results showed that high stocking density had negative effects on growth and feeding efficiency, and altered serum levels of thyroid hormones and cortisol in Amur sturgeon. A significant decrease in specific growth rate was observed as stocking density was increased. The feeding rate decreased significantly in the medium and high density groups, indicating that high stocking density reduced the food consumption of sturgeon. Food conversion ratio increased with increasing stocking density, suggesting that high stocking density might inhibit fish growth through decreasing food conversion efficiency. Serum concentrations of total triiodothyronine, free thyroxine, and free triiodothyronine were inversely related to stocking densities, whereas serum total thyroxine level of sturgeon stocked at different densities remained stable. Also, higher stocking density resulted in an elevation of serum cortisol level, indicating that the sturgeon stocked at the higher density experienced density-dependent physiological stress. These results suggest growth suppression caused by high stocking density might be related to both crowding stress and the declines in peripheral circulating levels of thyroid hormones, as well as associated with the reductions in both food consumption and food conversion efficiency.

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