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Open Access
Volume 6 • Issue 5 • 1000336
J Aquac Res Development
ISSN: 2155-9546 JARD, an open access journal
Research Article Open Access
Hafeez-ur-Rehman, et al., J Aquac Res Development 2015, 6:5
http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2155-9546.1000336
Research Article Open Access
Aquaculture
Research & Development
ISSN: 2155-9546
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Keywords: Feeding frequency; Growth performance; Body
measurements; Goldsh
Introduction
Ornamental sh culture is an important primary industry [1].
Ornamental shes are oen referred as alive jewels due to their beautiful
colors, their body shape and natural behavior. ey are very gentle,
generally tiny, charming colors and could be easily accommodated
in conned spaces. Modern ornamental sh culture and breeding
operations have been intensied both vertically and horizontally,
necessitating a continuous supply of nutritionally balanced, cost-
eective feed [2].
e goldsh (Carrassius auratus) belongs to the family Cyprinidae
and is the most popular variety of ornamental sh. It was one of the
earliest sh to be domesticated, and is one of the most commonly kept
aquarium sh [3,4]. Like other shes its growth and reproduction is
inuenced by numerous factors. Feed quality, quantity, composition
and ingredient size, and feeding frequency are among the most
important [5-7]. ough frequent feeding improves sh growth [8,9]
increasing feeding frequency beyond a particular level may lead to
feed wastage and increase production costs [10]. Identication of the
optimal feeding frequency helps to reduce feed wastage and maximize
growth and reproduction.
Many authors studied the eect of feeding frequency on feed
intake and growth in edible shes [10-13]. Wang et al. [14] found that
increased feeding frequency decreased inter-individual size variation
among treatments. However, Zhou et al. [15] did not observe any eect
of varying feeding frequency in juvenile gibel carp, Carrassius auratus
gibelio, did some work on the inuence of nutrition on growth and
reproduction of ornamental shes [16-18] but little attention has been
paid to the impact of feeding frequency on growth and reproductive
performance in ornamental shes. erefore, the present study was
conducted to determine the eect of varying feeding frequency on
growth and various body indices of goldsh, Carraius auratus.
Materials and Methods
e experiment was conducted at the Department of Fisheries
and Aquaculture, University of Veterinary and Animals Sciences, Ravi
Campus, Pattoki.
Management and feeding
A total of 40 Goldsh (Carassius auratus) was procured from
Poonch Market, Choburgi Lahore-Pakistan weighs on average 20 g
each. All the 40 individuals were divided equally into 20 tanks, with ve
replicates having 2 sh per replicate. Each tank has 10-L water holding
capacity. ere were 4 dietary groups, A, B, C and D. Group A served
as a control and was fed once a day. Group B, C and D were fed twice,
thrice and four times a day respectively. Time of feeding to dierent
groups is followed as; Group A was oered feed at 0800, Group B was
oered feed at 0800 and 1200, Group C was oered at 0800, 1200 and
1600, and Group D was oered feed at 0800, 1200, 1600 and 2000.
A standard commercially available Nova Aquarium Fish Food was
oered @ 2% bodyweight (g/g) split in equal parts as per requirement
of each replicate. e amount of feed oered to the sh was close to the
maximum daily ration consumed as per the local recommendations.
e feeding trial lasted for 8 weeks. Faecal matter and unconsumed
feed, if any, were siphoned before feeding. e unconsumed feed was
ltered over a screen soon aer the active feeding, dried and weighed to
*Corresponding author: Khalid Javed Iqbal, Department of Life Sciences,
The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan, Tel: 923326-022624; E-mail:
khalidjavediqbal@gmail.com
Received February 06, 2015; Accepted March 17, 2015; Published April 30, 2015
Citation: Hafeez-ur-Rehman M, Iqbal KJ, Abbas F, Mushtaq MMH, Rasool F,
et al. (2015) Inuence of Feeding Frequency on Growth performance and Body
Indices of Goldsh (Carrassius auratus). J Aquac Res Development 6: 336.
doi:10.4172/2155-9546.1000336
Copyright: © 2015 Hafeez-ur-Rehman M, et al. This is an open-access article
distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided
the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
A total of forty goldsh (Carrassius auratus) with an average weight of 20 g per sh were stocked in individual
glass aquaria having 50-L water holding capacity. There were 4 experimental feeding regimens A, B, C, and D
having once twice, thrice and four times per day, respectively. All the groups received Nova Aquarium Fish Food
@ 2% bodyweight which was equally spaced in treatment groups. The body weight, body and caudal lengths, and
girth were recorded at the start of the experiment. The trial continued for 8 weeks. Group B yielded the maximum
weight gain whereas group D yielded lowest weight (P<0.05). Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) was better in Feed
A and depreciated with increasing frequency (P<0.05). Caudal n showed signicant correlation with weight (+
0.548; P<0.001) and length (- 0.792; P<0.0001). A positive correlation of dissolved oxygen (DO; P<0.001) and
salinity (P<0.0001) showed with temperature. Salinity showed positive signicant correlation with temperature
(P<0.05). Consequently, feeding frequency twice per day is better for maximum body weight gain however better
feed efciency can be obtained at feed frequency once per day. However goldsh require genetic improvement for
its rearing at commercial scale.
Influence of Feeding Frequency on Growth performance and Body Indices
of Goldfish
(Carrassius auratus)
Muhammad Hafeez-ur-Rehman1, Khalid Javed Iqbal2*, Farzana Abbas1, Mirza Muhammad Haroon Mushtaq3, Fayyaz Rasool1 and Shakeela
Parveen1
1Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, University of Veterinary and Animals Sciences, Lahore-Pakistan
2Department of Life Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan
3AgroVisions, Faisalabad, 38800, Pakistan
Citation: Hafeez-ur-Rehman M, Iqbal KJ, Abbas F, Mushtaq MMH, Rasool F, et al. (2015) Inuence of Feeding Frequency on Growth performance
and Body Indices of Goldsh (Carrassius auratus). J Aquac Res Development 6: 336. doi:10.4172/2155-9546.1000336
Page 2 of 4
Volume 6 • Issue 5 • 1000336
J Aquac Res Development
ISSN: 2155-9546 JARD, an open access journal
measure the amount of feed consumed. Proximate composition of this
feed has been given in Tabl e 1.
Water analyses
Water parameters were closely monitored and were kept within
safe limits by regular ow management. e water parameters were
evaluated in terms of pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO) and
salinity. Water was analyzed for its pH by pH metre (LT-Lutron pH-207
Taiwan), dissolved oxygen (DO) by DO metre (YSI 55 Incorporated,
Yellow Springs, Ohio, 4387, USA). Moreover, temperature was
recorded by the Combo meter (H M Digital, Inc. CA 90230). ese
observations were recorded twice (morning and noon) daily from
dierent replicates.
Growth and body indices
Growth and morphometric parameters were carefully examined to
predict daily feed ration. Each sh was individually weighed and all the
other morphometric parameters were measured before the start of the
trial and then in the lapse of every 2 weeks. e sh was removed from
the tank individually and placed on laminated graph paper. Length
from the mouth to the caudal peduncle and depth from the deepest
point of the body to the base of the dorsal n was measured (mm).
Fish were then placed in a tarred beaker of tank water on an analytical
balance for body weight measurements and then returned to their
respective holding tank. e duration of study was 8 weeks.
Statistical Analysis
Data was subjected to One-way ANOVA Technique under
completely randomized design. To determine signicant dierences
(P<0.05) among the treatments means, Duncan’s multiple range
test was employed. Pearson correlation was applied to nd out the
correlation between the studied parameters. e level of signicance
was <0.05 or otherwise stated.
Results
Body weight and body indices of all the groups are shown in Table
2. Signicantly higher initial body weight was observed in sh allocated
to feed B followed by feed A, C and D, respectively (P<0.05). All the sh
allocated were of equal length, means horizontal growth was not unlike
among the various treatments (P>0.05). Caudal length was found to be
signicantly higher in group C, followed by B, D, and A (P<0.05). More
than 10% increase in caudal length has been observed in sh allocated
to feed C as compared to feed A. e girth of sh allocated to group A
and B was highest while the lowest response was observed in feed C
and D (P<0.05).
e observations of weight gain and feed conversion ratio (FCR)
are shown in Table 3. e weight gain was improved in group B (68.5
g) while the better FCR was noticed in group A (1.28). Feed B showed
2.5 times improvement in weight gain as compared to feed D (68.5 vs.
29.0 g) while feed A responded almost 5 times better than feed D (1.28
vs. 9.66).
e correlation between weight, length, caudal n, girth, pH,
temperature, DO and salinity is shown in Table 4. e caudal n of sh
showed a highly positive correlation (+ 0.548) with weight (P<0.01) and
a negative correlation (-0.792) with length (P<0.001) whereas the water
DO showed a positive correlation (+ 0.538) with water temperature
(P<0.001). e salinity of water is positively correlated (+ 0.729) with
temperature (P<0.05).
Discussion
e positive correlation of the caudal n with weight and length
leads to the fact that the measurement of caudal n could be a good
criteria to estimate the weight of the sh. Increase in water temperature
reduced the water DO and salinity so it also needed to maintain
an optimum temperature for better dissolved oxygen and salinity
level. ere are some physicochemical viz. Temperature, Salinity,
Conductivity, Dissolved Oxygen (DO), and pH which are considered
to be important and critical water quality parameters in aquaculture
[19,20]. Each water quality factor interacts with and inuences other
parameters, sometimes in complex ways [21]. Brian [22] and Ita et al.
[23] noted that increased DO level is needed to support an increase
in metabolic rates and reproduction. McElwee [24] described that
temperature has an inuence on salinity tolerance since they uctuate
together in nature and these uctuations may positively or negatively
inuence growth and reproductive performance of cichlids. Watanabe
et al. [25] observed that growth and survival in sh are not aected at
dierent salinity levels when temperature exceeds 27°C but salinity has
pronounced eect at temperatures below 25°C.
e initial observations in the present study did not aect further
growth responses (on percent basis). In the present study the higher
body weight was observed in sh fed to a frequency of two times per
day. Similar results were observed by James and Sampath [26] in Red
Swordtail (Xiphophorus helleri) which indicated that feeding twice a day
resulted in the highest growth and reproductive success of this specie in
a cultured system, when compared with 4 alternative feeding regimens
Nutritional compositional (g/kg)
Crude Protein 170.0
Crude Fiber 45.0
Crude Fat 30.0
Moisture 100.0
Table 1: Proximate Composition of Nova Aquarium Fish Food.
Parameters Feed-A1Feed-B2Feed-C3Feed-D4
Body weight (g) 12.26 ± 0.40ab 12.45 ± 0.36a11.01 ± 0.54bc 10.29 ± 0.49c
Body Length (cm) 7.45 ± 0.09a7.57 ± 0.09a7.37 ± 0.16a7.27 ± 0.10a
Caudal length (cm) 2.71 ± 0.07b2.88 ± 0.06ba 3.10 ± 0.11a2.86 ± 0.06b
Girth (cm) 7.82 ± 0.13a7.65 ± 0.11a7.17 ± 0.18b6.95 ± 0.13b
a,b,cData gures with different superscript letters across the rows are signicantly
different from each other at P<0.05
1Feeding frequency is once per day
2Feeding frequency is twice per day
3Feeding frequency is thrice per day
4Feeding frequency is four times per day
Table 2:Growth and length of goldsh at the start of feeding trial.
Feed Weight Gain (g)1FCR (g:g)
A 64.95 ± 0.06a1.28 ± 0.04a
B 68.47 ± 0.04b2.63 ± 0.02b
C 58.47 ± 0.09c3.94 ± 0.06c
D 29.02 ± 1.00d9.66 ± 0.03d
a,b,c,dData gures with different superscript letters across the rows are signicantly
different from each other at P<0.05
1Weight gain was calculated by dividing average weight of 10 sh minus the initial
weight
1Feed A means feeding frequency is once per day
2Feed B means the feeding frequency is twice per day
3Feed C means the feeding frequency is thrice per day
4Feed D means the feeding frequency is four times per day
Table 3: Weight gain and FCR of goldsh reared under various feeding frequency
regimes
Citation: Hafeez-ur-Rehman M, Iqbal KJ, Abbas F, Mushtaq MMH, Rasool F, et al. (2015) Inuence of Feeding Frequency on Growth performance
and Body Indices of Goldsh (Carrassius auratus). J Aquac Res Development 6: 336. doi:10.4172/2155-9546.1000336
Page 3 of 4
Volume 6 • Issue 5 • 1000336
J Aquac Res Development
ISSN: 2155-9546 JARD, an open access journal
(once, thrice, once and twice a day). James and Sampath [26] had
similar ndings in Siamese ghting sh (Bettas plendens. Regan) who
showed that sh fed twice a day to satiation elicited maximum growth
and reproductive output when compared with its counterparts (1 meal
in 3 d, 1 meal in 2 d, 1 meal/d, and 3 meals/d). Contrary to our results
commercially cultured sh species such as Black Rocksh (Sebastes
schlegeli) suggested that feeding to satiation once a day resulted in
optimum growth [27]. Gibel Carp (Carrassius auratus gibelio), showed
a signicant surge in growth rate and feed eciency when feeding
frequency increased from 2 to 3, 4, 12, and 24 feedings per day, with
the recommendation of 24 feeding times per day for this species [15].
e dierence in results might be due to the fact that goldsh is not
usually reared for commercial purpose. Moreover, this fact also leads to
the fact that there is a need to improve the genetic potential of goldsh
if we want to rear it for commercial reasons. In the present study, the
maximum weight gain was observed in the feed (B) and the same result
was observed in Siamese ghting sh (Betta splendens. Regan) which
showed that 2 meals per day fed to satiation are sucient to support
the maximum growth. Further it has been reported that ornamental
Red Swordtail (Xiphophorus helleri) fed 2 meals per day resulted in the
greatest growth [28]. But contrary to present study the juvenile Atlantic
Halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus) displayed improved growth rates
when fed on satiation 5 times per day, compared with one time per day
[29], and African Catsh (Clarias gariepinus) exhibited greater growth
rates when fed to satiation twice compared with 3 times per day [30]. In
the present study the better feed conversion ratio (FCR) was observed
in Feed (A) but contrary to present study best FCR were observed
for the Goldsh fed 4 times per day, indicating that this frequency of
feeding was optimal, suggesting that both growth and feed utilization
are more ecient at this feeding frequency [31].
Conclusion
It is inferred that frequency feeding has profound eects on growth
of goldsh. However two times per day feeding frequency is better
choice for maximum body weight gain but the eciency of feed could
be improved if feed frequency remained once per day. Moreover, for
rearing goldsh at commercial level it is recommended to geneticist
and breeders to improve its genetic potential.
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Correlation Weight Length Caudal Fin Girth pH Temp. DO Salinity
Weight NS NS NS NS NS NS NS NS
Length NS NS NS NS NS NS NS NS
Caudal Fin 0.548** -0.792*** NS NS NS NS NS NS
Girth NS NS NS NS NS NS NS NS
pH NS NS NS NS NS NS NS NS
Temp NS NS NS NS NS 0.729*** NS NS
Do NS NS NS NS NS 0.538* NS NS
Salinity NS NS NS NS NS NS NS NS
NS- Non-signicant; * P<0.05; ** P<0.010; *** P<0.001
Table 4: Pearson Correlation between weight, length, caudal n, girth, pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and salinity
Citation: Hafeez-ur-Rehman M, Iqbal KJ, Abbas F, Mushtaq MMH, Rasool F, et al. (2015) Inuence of Feeding Frequency on Growth performance
and Body Indices of Goldsh (Carrassius auratus). J Aquac Res Development 6: 336. doi:10.4172/2155-9546.1000336
Page 4 of 4
Volume 6 • Issue 5 • 1000336
J Aquac Res Development
ISSN: 2155-9546 JARD, an open access journal
24. McElwee K, Lewis K, Nidiffer M, Buitrago P (2002) Nineteenth Ann. Tech. Rep.
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Citation: Hafeez-ur-Rehman M, Iqbal KJ, Abbas F, Mushtaq MMH, Rasool F,
et al. (2015) Inuence of Feeding Frequency on Growth performance and Body
Indices of Goldsh (Carrassius auratus). J Aquac Res Development 6: 336.
doi:10.4172/2155-9546.1000336