Gastric evacuation in European seabass Dicentrarchus labrax (Linnaeus, 1758), forced-fed on commercial pellets

Abstract

The effects of meal size and body size on gastric evacuation rates were parameterised for European seabass Dicentrarchus labrax (Linnaeus, 1758). A total of three gastric evacuation experiments were performed on small (15.7±0.8 cm) and large (21.5±0.4) size fish forced-fed with meals of 0.5 and 1.5 g composed of commercial pellets. The stomach contents were then recovered by serial slaughtering the fish at predetermined post-prandial times. The surface-area dependent function adequately describes the gastric evacuation in European seabass independently of meal size. A power function of fish length L was then employed to evaluate the impact of body size, revealing its notable effect on gastric evacuation rates of European seabass. Keywords: Aquaculture, Feeding regimes, General power function, Surface-area dependent