Growth of Hatchery-Reared Lake Trout Fed by Demand Feeders
- 1 January 1994
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in The Progressive Fish-Culturist
- Vol. 56 (1) , 40-43
- https://doi.org/10.1577/1548-8640(1994)056<0040:gohrlt>2.3.co;2
Abstract
Demand feeders have been used successfully by several species of salmonids, but similar success had not been demonstrated with lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush). The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of demand feeding and traditional hand feeding on lake trout growth and on fish condition at the time of stocking. Lake trout fingerlings were allowed to reach a size of 75 fish/Ib (3.7 in) before demand feeding was begun. Three raceways were set up with two demand feeders per raceway; fish in three other raceways were hand fed. At the time of stocking, 8 months after the study began, there was no significant difference in length, weight, or condition factor between feeding groups (P > 0.05). Feed conversion (feed weight fed/fish weight gained) averaged 1.22 for the demand-fed fish and 1.25 for hand-fed fish. Because the demand-fed lake trout reached program goals for both fish size and quality, demand feeding can be recommended as an alternative to hand feeding for this species.This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: