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