Salt water recirculation systems using automatic feeders are a new frontier for marine aquaculture. It is possible to decrease the vulnerability of the traditional fish farming in open systems and reduce wasteful feeding and discharge of effluents, as well as increase the economic returns. An experiment with common snook fingerings (4.31 ± 1.42 g and 8.4 ± 1.0 cm) was performed. Three feeding treatments were evaluated: six, twelve and eighteen feeding times per day. Each treatment had three replications. Among the three tested frequencies (fed 6, 12 and 18 times a day), the feeding frequency of 12 times per day (every two hours) showed the best values of the parameters evaluated for production performance. The final weight values, condition factor, specific growth rate and daily weight gain of the treatment 12 feeding times per day were all significantly higher than the lower and higher frequencies. Our results demonstrate that high feeding frequency is not synonymous of higher performance, but is extremely necessary to find out the best range for the target species. Besides, this relationship between feeding frequency and growth performance might change over weight range. Therefore, future studies should address higher weight ranges for comparison to our results.

The objective of this work was to evaluate the growth performance of common snook (Centropomus undecimalis) subjected to different feeding rates and frequencies using automatic feeders. Two experiments of 60 days each were carried out. In the first one, 20 fishes per tank were distributed in three feeding rates of: 5, 10, and 15% body weight per day. In the second experiment, 20 fishes per tank were distributed in nine tanks, in three feeding frequency: once a day, three times a day, and six times a day. Water parameters were maintained at the recommended level for the species. Final weight, body weight gain, specific growth rate, and feed conversion rate did not differ significantly between the 10 and 15% feeding rates. However, both rates differed from the 5% one. The feeding frequency of six times a day resulted in better values for final weight, final biomass, body weight gain, and specific growth rate. Therefore, common snook fingerlings should be fed at the feeding rate of 10% body weight per day, six times a day, in order to achieve the best growth performance.

Resumo -O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o efeito da privação alimentar e a ocorrência de crescimento compensatório sobre o desempenho produtivo de formas jovens do robalo-flecha (Centropomus undecimalis). O experimento teve duração de 60 dias, em que os peixes -35 indivíduos por tanque -foram divididos nos três seguintes grupos de tratamentos: com alimentação todos os dias (controle); com alimentação cinco dias por semana, seguidos de dois dias de jejum; e com alimentação quatro dias por semana, seguidos de três dias de jejum. Os tratamentos de privação alimentar proporcionaram indicadores de desempenho significativamente inferiores aos do controle. Formas jovens da espécie não devem ser submetidas a períodos de privação alimentar, pelos prejuízos que esta prática acarreta ao desempenho produtivo.Termos para indexação: Centropomus undecimalis, hiperfagia, manejo alimentar, maricultura. Compensatory growth and food deprivation in common snook growth performanceAbstract -The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of food deprivation and the occurrence of compensatory growth on the performance of common snook fingerlings (Centropomus undecimalis). The experiment lasted for 60 days, when fish -35 individuals per tank -were divided into three groups of treatments, as follows: daily feeding (control); feeding for five days a week, followed by two days of fast; and feeding for four days a week, followed by three days of fast. The treatments of alimentary restriction provided performance indicators significantly inferior to those of the control. Common snook fingerlings should not be subjected to food restriction because of the damages that this practice entails to productive performance.

Industrial fish processing generates a significant amount of wastes, which are high-value nutritional by product. Therefore, the use of fish residues could be a sustainable practice for fattening marine finfishes. In the present study, we have evaluated the benefits of feeding cobia juveniles with three different diets based on residues of salted sardine: (i) formulated with acid silage of salted sardine residue; (ii) formulated with salted residue combined with an acidity regulator; and (iii) pure salted sardine residue. Fishes that were feed with pure salted sardine residue had significant body weight gain and also expressed a lower feed conversion rate. Fishes feed with the other two diets presented a similarly lower zootechnic performance. Also, no significant changes indicating a harmful effect of salted sardine residue for cobia feed were observed in the digestive tract of any the fishes. However, the diet based only on salted sardine residue showed higher organosomatic indexes. That can be attributed to the rich lipid and fatty acid contents of pure residue and it can be an indicative that silage processing was unable to provide the same amount of fatty acids, as pure residue diet did. In conclusion, our results indicate that pure salted sardine residue was the best choice of feed for the cobia. The use of salted sardine residue as diet complementation should be further evaluated, since its use can improve aquaculture development as an instrument of fishery resources conservation.