ECOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF EXPERIMENTAL GROWING OF YOUNG MUKSUN IN THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

The feeding characteristics of juvenile muksun Coregonus muksun (Pallas, 1814) when reared in cages installed on the Lower Ob channel are considered. It has been established that, along with artificial food, juveniles feed on zoobenthos and zooplankton organisms that enter the cages during drift. Their consumption was noted from the first to the last days of growing. The bulk of the mass of the food bolus was artificial food – 88.3–94.3%; aquatic invertebrates accounted for 1.3–5.7% of the mass of the food bolus. Chironomid larvae dominated. There were no statistically significant differences in the consumption of invertebrate animals by muksun juveniles before and after feeding (p = 0.442) with average values of 0.005 and 0.006 g, respectively. The ability of juveniles to transition from artificial to natural food supply at all stages of development was noted, which is an indicator of successful adaptation to environmental conditions during cage rearing in the channels of the river Obi.