I have observed significant difference (1.5 fold difference in magnitude) in relative gut length between wild and cultured climbing perch populations. I was wondering if fish could evolve very fast (fewer than 10 generations) to adapt to aquaculture conditions where fish are fed a large amount of commercial feed. Do you know any evidence in other species?
Some fish (silver carp is a published example) can increase their gut length in a week or two, by up to 50%, and then shrink it again rapidly when conditions change. It is really remarkable, this ability. Silver carp guts increase in length when feeding on phytoplankton, and shrink when feeding on zooplankton or other high quality foods.
Incredible! Did you mention the paper by Ke et al., 2008? Thank you so much.
That's the one, I believe. We've observed it too, in bighead and silver carp, especially when fed artificial foods. It poses an interesting question for the interpretation of bioenergetic studies based on those diets.
Dear Yen Thuy Duong,
Maybe this publication will be useful to you: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314224545_Domestication_drive_the_changes_of_immune_and_digestive_system_of_Eurasian_perch_Perca_fluviatilis
Kind regards.
Article Domestication drive the changes of immune and digestive syst...
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Immunology