Interrelationships Between Prey Body Size and Growth of Age-0 Yellow Perch

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Abstract
We conducted laboratory experiments in the summers of 1986 and 1987 to examine the effects of Daphnia pulex body size and ration level on growth of age-0 yellow perch Perca flavescens. Daphnia pulex rations were set at 25 and 40% of yellow perch dry weight. Specific growth rate tended to be higher for smaller fish and decreased with fish size at both ration levels. For the 25% ration, the highest growth rates, 0.023 to 0.024 g/d, were observed when yellow perch were fed meals of D. pulex between 1.4 and 1.8 mm long; growth declined for prey sizes outside this size range. For the 40% ration, no relationship was found between body length of D. pulex and specific growth rate; the mean specific growth rate for the 40% ration was the same as the peak rate for the 25% ration. Multiple-regression analysis was used to examine the dependence of specific growth rate of yellow perch on initial fish length, prey size, and temperature. For the 25% ration, prey size and the square of prey size were the only va...