In microbiology, knowing the biomass (Xt) that we want to achieve in culture at time (t) and the specific growth rate (μ) of the studied specie, it is possible to estimate the initial biomass (Xt0) with which one must start its culture at time (t0), using the law of microbial growth which is written :
Xt = xt0 *exp (μ * t).
Does anyone know the law of growth in fish, which would allow me to determine the initial biomass (Xo) of fish with which I have to start my breeding to achieve a final biomass (X20) after 20 months? My final biomass is imposed to me by the amount of food I can produce for my fish breeding.
Hello Mouhamadou,
Basically, fish growth also follows more or less this law. However, the specific growth rate depends on many parameters: the species, the food quality, water temperature, photoperiod, water quality and other environmental conditions (stress). The SGR may also vary between weight classes.
Hope this helps.
Certainly depends on the species and the conditions. My recommendation would be to look to the literature on your species. I'm sure this information is out there for common lab species such as zebrafish or guppies. And it will be out there for common hatchery-reared fish such as rainbow trout.
Also fishbase may have some useful information (http://www.fishbase.org/search.php). The life history tool provides the intrinsic growth rate (μ), life span, generation time, age-at-maturation, etc.
Good luck!
I second Neil's answer, fish growth will be determined by many factors, from my experience in Cyprinid aquaculture, growth rates vary wildly in a same age batch of eggs. Within aquaculture there are feeding guidelines that can be followed in order to achieve varying results. These guidelines are related to water temperature and overall biomass of fish in a tank. Issues in determining estimated growth come largely from the fact that not all of the fish in a tank will eat the same amount of food, there will always be "shooters" these fish will out compete others and grow much more quickly. This obviously, is unpredictable, therefore a target biomass will have many fish of differing sizes. It may be possible to estimate growth using "feed conversion ratio's" (FCR) although it would mean working backwards from a predicted result as the FCR is worked out as follows Total amount of feed fed, divided by total weight gain of the fish.
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