Population, Temperature and Feeding Rate Effects on Individual Feed Efficiency in European Sea Bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)

Abstract

Assessment of Individual Feed Efficiency an equal feeding rate. When feed efficiency was studied in fish fed at 100% ADL, the temperature effect disappeared but the population effect remained. This highlights the complex interplay between population, temperature and feeding rate when evaluating individual feed efficiency.

An investigation of links between metabolic rate and feed efficiency in European sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax

“…Complete details of how the fish were produced, reared and evaluated for their individual FE are provided in Rodde et al (2020). Briefly, 200 European sea bass from the three populations (62 AT, 66 WM and 72 EM) were produced on a single day by controlled breeding at the Ifremer Experimental Aquaculture Research Station (Palavas-les-Flots, France).…”

“…Farmed fishes are, however, reared in large groups, where individual FI is technically very challenging to measure (Kause et al, 2006;Grima et al, 2008). An alternative is to rear individuals singly (Silverstein, 2006;Martins et al, 2011;Besson et al, 2019;Rodde et al, 2020), a technique that is widely used on terrestrial livestock de Haer and Merks, 1992;Nguyen et al, 2005;Drouilhet et al, 2016). This method has already been applied to European sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax, a major species for finfish aquaculture in Europe (Besson et al, 2019;Rodde et al, 2020).…”

“…An alternative is to rear individuals singly (Silverstein, 2006;Martins et al, 2011;Besson et al, 2019;Rodde et al, 2020), a technique that is widely used on terrestrial livestock de Haer and Merks, 1992;Nguyen et al, 2005;Drouilhet et al, 2016). This method has already been applied to European sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax, a major species for finfish aquaculture in Europe (Besson et al, 2019;Rodde et al, 2020). It involves holding hundreds of animals for several weeks, provided with individual daily rations, with all uneaten feed carefully collected and quantified each day (Besson et al, 2019;Rodde et al, 2020).…”

“…This method has already been applied to European sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax, a major species for finfish aquaculture in Europe (Besson et al, 2019;Rodde et al, 2020). It involves holding hundreds of animals for several weeks, provided with individual daily rations, with all uneaten feed carefully collected and quantified each day (Besson et al, 2019;Rodde et al, 2020). In the European sea bass it returned reliable estimates of individual FE, to the extent that individual FE in aquaria was clearly linked to the subsequent FE of groups, groups being composed of fish graded for individual FE (Besson et al, 2019).…”

“…European sea bass farming is by coastal cage mariculture so it is valuable to understand whether the populations may differ in their bioenergetics at different water temperatures, with potential implications for selection programs in different areas of Europe. Rodde et al (2020) measured individual BWG and FI, over a range of feeding rates from ad libitum down to fasting, in 200 European sea bass from AT, WM and EM populations, at two temperatures, 18 and 24°C. These two temperatures are representative of the coolest and warmest sites where European sea bass is reared across Europe (Vandeputte et al, 2014), and correspond to the average and optimal temperatures, respectively, that European sea bass undergoes when farmed in sea cages in the West Mediterranean (Person-Le Ruyet et al, 2004;Besson et al, 2016b).…”