FEEDING FREQUENCY-EFFECTS ON WATER-QUALITY AND GROWTH OF WALLEYE FINGERLINGS IN INTENSIVE CULTURE

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effects of feeding fre quency on water quality and the growth of fingerling walleyes Stizoste dion vitreum raised in intensive culture. Walleyes were fed 9 or 90 fe edings/d for 63 d in experiment 1 (E1) and 3 or 30 feedings/d for 56 d in experiment 2 (E2). In both experiments, the means of daily measure ments of dissolved oxygen were significantly higher and means of total ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) were significantly lower in the treatment re ceiving the greater; number of feedings per day. Final means of fish l ength and weight, coefficients of variability of length and weight, gr owth rates, and food conversions (feed fed/weight gained) did not diff er significantly between feeding frequency treatments in either E1 or E2. The length-frequency distributions in both feeding trials were nor mal, and there were no significant differences in normality, kurtosis, or skewness between feeding frequencies. The results demonstrate that multiple feedings per day can be used to improve water quality in int ensive culture without compromising growth rates.