Underfeeding and overfeeding fish in aquaculture are issues facing production managers, especially those growing Largemouth Bass. As a guide, it is useful to have a tool to estimate the daily ration associated with growth potential across both fish size and water temperature to capture growth opportunities through the temperate growing season. Unfortunately, fish growth is not linear, and condition factor may change with fish size. This presentation will describe development of a tool to estimate daily ration associated with potential growth using RTGI for largemouth bass. The method is based on weight rather than length.
Both daily ration and potential growth may be expressed as % Body Weight/day. Potential growth equals the product of daily ration and feed efficiency. Based on this relationship an estimate of potential growth, and an estimate of feed efficiency can be used to generate a value for daily ration.
An estimate of potential growth across fish size and water temperature can be generated with two functions. The first is RTGI and the second is based on growth at a constant temperature. Both relationships are illustrated in the accompanying figures.
These relationships may be used to create a worksheet tool to construct a production plan estimating daily growth for a population of LMB. Fish number, total weight, water temperature, and target feed efficiency are necessary inputs. This tool may be applied during feed training, production of stockers, and grow out.