Knowing the optimal feeding rate for a given species is important not only to promote higher growth and greater feeding efficiency, but also to prevent the deterioration of water quality resulting from excess food. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of the fat-snook Centropomus parallelus cultivated in net cages under the effect of different feeding rates (1, 1.5, 2 and 2.5% live biomass daily and control rate up to apparent satiation) in natural environment conditions. For 40 days, each treatment was evaluated in triplicate, in which the biological parameters (survival, specific growth rate, final average weight and length) and nutritional parameters (feed conversion ratio) were assessed. A polynomial regression analysis of specific growth rate suggests that in average temperatures of 25°C, the feeding rate which results in best growth for juvenile fat-snook is 1.7% of live biomass per day.
Centropomus parallelus; feeding; fish culture; growth; intensive rearing