Relationship between metabolic rate in vitro and body mass in a marine teleost, porgy Pagrus major

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Abstract
The rate of oxygen consumption of minced whole body was determined volumetrically, as an indication of metabolic rate in vitro (M in vitro ), at 20°C in porgy Pagrus major ranging from 0.0002 g (just after hatch) to 2.9 g (67 days old) in body mass. A triphasic relationship was found between M in vitro of individual fish (μl.min−1) and wet body mass W (g). During the prolarval stage accompanied with the transitional period to the postlarval stage (0.00020–0.00023 g, 0–6 days old), the mass-specific metabolic rate in vitro (M in vitro /W in μl.g−1.min−1) increased with age (D in days) as expressed by an equation M in vitro /W = 3.88 + 0.74/D. During the postlarval stage (0.00031–0.003 g, 8–22 days old), M in vitro /W remained almost constant, independent of body mass following an equation M in vitro /W = 5.24 W−0.085. During the juvenile and adolescent stages (0.0047–2.9 g, 30–67 days old), M in vitro /W decreased with increasing body mass following an equation M in vitro /W = 1.66 W−0.235. These results correspond with the triphasic relationship between metabolism in vivo and body mass observed in intact porgy of 0.0002–270 g (Oikawa et al. 1991). It is concluded, therefore, that the dependence of mass-specific metabolic rate on body size exists in vitro as well as in vivo, during the early stages in the porgy. Based on these results, factors controlling the metabolism-size relationship are discussed.