EFFECTS OF INITIAL WEIGHT AND GENETIC STRAIN ON FEED TRAINING LARGEMOUTH BASS MICROPTERUS-SALMOIDES USING GROUND FISH FLESH AND FREEZE-DRIED KRILL AS STARTER DIETS

Experiment 1 compared the feed training success of two genetic strains of largemouth bass (LMB). ASF strain had 69% northern and 31% Florida LMB influence, while STATION strain had 35% northern and 65% Florida LMB influence. Both strains were fed ground fish flesh, freeze dried k rill (FDK), a commercial moist pellet (BIODIET(TM)) or a dry pellet wi th 70% krill meal (KM-70) as starter diets. In experiment 2, fish of 0 .6, 0.9 and 1.4 g or 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.9, and 1.4 g initial weight were feed trained using ground fish flesh or FDK, respectively. In both ex periments, fish were weaned from the starter diets to a 2 mm trout pel let using gradual feed ingredient transition (GFIT) with diets contain ing 80, 60, 40, 20, and 0% ground fish or 70, 50, 30, 10, and 0% krill meal. Percent fish feeding on trout pellets (feeders) among ASF bass was 32% and among STATION fish 34% (P > 0.10). Average percent feeders were 58% and 53% starting bass on FDK and ground fish, respectively, compared to only 14% feeders for bass started on KM-70 and 8% feeders among bass started on BIODIET(TM) (P < 0.01). In experiment 2, percent feeders increased from 7 to 52% (P < 0.01) as initial fish weight inc reased from 0.2 to 1.4 g for fish started on FDK. Percent feeders incr eased from 59 to 88% (P < 0.01) as initial fish weight increased from 0.9 to 1.4 g among fish started on ground fish. Average percent feeder s was 75% when ground fish was the starter diet compared to 41% for FD K with 0.9 to 1.4 g fish (P < 0.01).