Who can live for 3 months without food?

Hi Mohd Khalid Khalil,

You need at least 3 months, usually, to be able to observe if the fingerlings have grown well on the experimental feed.

As you measure growth by biomass produced (wet weight), the longer the experimental time, more obvious the results will be.

If you test the feed for only a month (hypothetical situation), the biometry from the fingerlings won’t give you enough precision. Remember that fingerlings weight are minimal (less than 1 gram), so any bias when weighting them wet may incur in lack of precision. As they grow and become heavier the error when weighting won't be so significant.

So, lets say that 3 months give you a good cost/benefit ratio.

Best regards.

Fabio

Hi Menakhem Ben-Yami, polar bear can survive several months without food right? 

Hi Fabio Roselet, thanks for the opinion. Can I feed the fingerlings more than 3 months?

Regards,

Khalid

Thanks, Khalil. I bow and apologize for my ignorance. I learned a lesson and will never joke again before checking with Wikipedia..

I assume it also depends on the fish species and growth. A doubling or tripling of the biomass could also be a good parameter. As for catfish a 3 months period is very long and biomass will go x 10 or more, getting interfering parameters as canibalism, density but also other feed needs and composition.

Regards,

Caroline

Feeding fingerlings or any other stage of fish for a minimum of 6 weeks to several weeks depends on what  you are trying to accomplish ?   For example, if you would like to measure growth, 6- 8 weeks is fine for a decently growing fish, however if you have a fish that grows slow or at higher densities (whatever your experimental conditions are), then you may have to feed for 3 or more months, where  you should be able to decipher the effect. 

You're welcome Ben-Yami.

Thanks Caroline. Now I realized about the interfering parameters like what you said. Thanks again.

Thanks Chatakondi. I want to test the experimental feed on the fingerlings. So, basically 3 months time is enough right?

I support Fabio 100%. Feeding period may be determined by the aim of the experiment, 2-3 months may be appropriate for growth parameters assessment. Also types of species may play a role. Other parameters such as immunological or biochemical parameters may be checked in a period shorter than that; however checking them at the same time you are taking your growth parameters is also not a problem. Emphasis is: it depends on the parameters of study interest.

Another issue lies on growth curve itself and in its points. Considering statistical aspects, a "good" growth curve should possess an end point 3x the initial one ( weight, for exemple) to ensure an adequate fit for evaluation.

From biological aspects such as species, age and growth rate can affect the period of time needed to reach this end point.

Beyond that, a huge amount of people just copy and paste some methods,like feeding period, from similar articles and use them. And then 3 months became very usual.

At the end 3 months could fit or not for your goal.

During your reference search, observes the growth rate of your species at size/age that you will use and how much did them grew during a 3 months period. It could give you a good idea for the feeding period.

Sucesso!

Yes it depends on the type of species, being experimented. If the fish is slow growing minimum 3 months are required to conclude anything. Even for faster growing species, 2-3 months are necessary to record growth parameters statistically.

Essentially the growth curve of fish which takes 3 phases as lag, log and exponential need to be considered. At the beginning of the feeding trial fish grows slower which is followed by a more rapid growth rate, for this to happen it takes a minimum of 8 weeks to record meaningful results . Taking into account that the weighing will be done bi-weekly. Thus, irrespective of the species of fish 8 weeks is sufficient to determine the effect of any diet on the growth of fish. In addition, some researchers carry out weighing on a weekly basis this might not give a visible and appreciative accrument in weight gain as will be revealed by the specific growth rate when evaluated.