The investigation of the effects of different feeding strategies on the growth of dolphin cichlid (Cyrtocara moori Boulenger, 1902) fish

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the effects of restrictive and cyclical feeding on the growth parameters of dolphin cichlid (Cyrtocara moorii Boulenger, 1902). In the study, 300 dolphin cichlid with an initial average weight of 1.12 +/- 0.23g were placed in 15 aquariums (each of them were 60L). The five experimental groups, were designed as; the control group (A), feeding until satiation twice a day for 90days, starvation for 1week (B), starvation for 2weeks (C), starvation for 1day/satiation for 3days (D), starvation for 1day/satiation for 1day (E); and the study was carried out in three repetitions. At the end of the study, groups B, C and D showed partial compensatory growth. The highest weight gains and specific growth rates were observed in control group (A), followed by groups B, C and D (p>0.05). The lowest weight gain was observed in group E (p<0.05). The feed conversion ratio did not show any significant difference between the groups (p>0.05). In terms of feed consumption ratio, Control, C and D groups consumed similar amounts of feed (p>0.05), while B and E groups consumed less feed (p<0.05) than the other groups.