Evaluation of Experimental and Practical Diets for Bluegill Lepomis macrochirus and Hybrid Bluegill L. cyanellus × L. macrochirus

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to identify appropriate experimental and practical diets for bluegill Lepomis macrochirus and hybrid bluegill L. cyanellus × L. macrochirus reared in aquaria. In the first study, four experimental diets and five commercial diets were evaluated in juvenile hybrid bluegill initially weighing 4.8 g/fish. The experimental diets contained casein (CAS), casein + gelatin (CAWGEL), casein + L‐arginine‐HCI (CAS/ARG), or casein + gelatin + crystalline amino acids (CAS/AA) as sources of crude protein. The commercial diets included three diets formulated to meet the nutritional requirements of rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss and two diets formulated to meet the nutritional requirements of channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus. Each diet was fed twice daily at a rate of 4% of body weigh/d to triplicate groups of fish. At the end of the 8‐wk feeding trial, weight gain was significantly higher in fish fed the best commercial rainbow trout diets (205–217%) compared to fish fed diets formulated for channel catfish (87–104%). Weight gain and feed efficiency (FE) of fish fed the experimental diets (5346% and 0.19–0.32, respectively) were significantly lower than those of fish fed the commercial rainbow trout diets (143–217% and 0.49–0.64, respectively). In the second experiment, the same dietary treatments were fed for 8 wk to juvenile bluegill initially weighing 3.7 g/fish. Each diet was fed twice daily at a rate of 4% of body weight/d to triplicate groups of fish. Weight gain was significantly higher in fish fed commercial trout diets (291–402%) compared to fish fed diets formulated for channel catfish (164–191%). Weight gain and FE of fish fed CAS/ARG were significantly higher than those of fish fed the commercial catfish diets, but significantly lower than those of fish fed the best commercial trout diets. Results of this study indicate that commercial rainbow trout diets are preferable to commercial channel catfish diets for culture of bluegill and hybrid bluegill. More research is needed to identify appropriate experimental diets for this group of fishes.

Comparison of dietary essential amino acid requirements determined from group-housed versus individually-housed juvenile bluegill, Lepomis macrochirus

“…Determinations of AGR for group‐reared bluegills from other nutrition studies have shown similar values: 0.1 g day −1 AGR for 6 g bluegill reared for 75 days (Hoagland et al. 2003), and 0.14–0.23 g day −1 of AGR for 8–14 g bluegill reared for 56 days (Twibell et al. 2003).…”

“…Bluegills are often fed high‐protein trout diets and were reported to perform better on such diets than on catfish diets (Twibell et al. 2003).…”

“…(2003), for example, determined the protein requirement of juvenile bluegills to be ≥44%. Twibell et al. (2003) demonstrated that juvenile bluegill performed better with high‐protein (≥44%) trout diets than with lower‐protein (≤36%) catfish diets.…”

Suitable Dietary Protein/Lipid Ratio for Hybrid, Female Red Sea Bream Pagrus major and Male Black Sea Bream Acanthopagrus schlegeli in the Juvenile Stage, Compared with Red Sea Bream

“…It is known that some hybrids have similar or different dietary protein and lipid requirements compared with their parents (Brecka et al, 1995;Twibell et al, 2003). Moreover, there are some suggestions that the hybrids showed heterosis in growth, survival and disease tolerance, distinguishable from their parent species (Logan, 1968;Blanc and Chevassus, 1982;Tuncer et al, 1990;Brecka et al, 1995;Moreau and Pauly, 1999;Harel and Place, 2003).…”

Growth and Survival of Largemouth Bass following Supplemental Feeding of Bluegills in Small Impoundments

“…Although the feeding of Bluegills can increase their size and condition (Schmittou 1969;Berger 1982;Murnyak et al 1984;Hoagland et al 2003;Twibell et al 2003), the effects of supplemental feeding on their reproductive rates is unknown. Mature female Bluegills in unfertilized ponds had lower gonad weights than mature females in fertilized ponds, suggesting preferential allocation of energy to somatic tissue when food is scarce (Aday et al 2006).…”