Gw. Whitledge et al., TESTING BIOENERGETICS MODELS UNDER FEEDING REGIMES THAT ELICIT COMPENSATORY GROWTH, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, 127(5), 1998, pp. 740-746
We tested bioenergetics model predictions of fish growth and food cons
umption under feeding regimes that elicited compensatory growth (CG) r
esponses and for control fish fed ad libitum daily. Three treatment gr
oups of seven juvenile hybrid sunfish (F-1 hybrid of female green sunf
ish Lepomis cyanellus X male bluegill L. macrochirus) received repeati
ng cycles of no feeding and refeeding; fixed no-feed periods of either
2, 4, or 14 d distinguished the treatment groups. The no-feed periods
induced CG and were immediately followed by days of ad libitum refeed
ing. The refeeding periods for each treatment group were continued unt
il the group's mean daily consumption no longer exceeded that of the c
ontrols, after which another no-feed period began. Bioenergetics model
predictions of cumulative consumption and fish weight in 105-d experi
ments were not significantly different from observed values in the con
trol group (2-3% model error). However, the model underestimated cumul
ative consumption (18-25%) and overestimated fish weight (24-37%) in e
ach of the treatment groups. Compensatory growth has considerable pote
ntial in aquaculture, and our findings show that bioenergetics models
will require modification to account for the effect of feeding history
on fish growth and consumption before such models can be used to pred
ict CG responses in aquaculture. The extent to which CG occurs in nonc
aptive fishes is uncertain, although developing evidence suggests that
it may be common. The presence of CG in noncaptive fishes could resul
t in significant errors in model estimates of their food consumption a
nd growth.