The effect of stocking density on growth, survival and agonistic behaviour of African catfish

✍ Scribed by H. Kaiser; O. Weyl; T. Hecht

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 631 KB
• Volume: 3
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0967-6120
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00118103

✦ Synopsis

A high rate of sibling cannibalism is one of the principal obstacles in the rearing of larvae and juveniles of the African catfish Cfarias gariepinus. This paper examines the underlying behavioural components of agonistic behaviour under culture conditions. Ten day old catfish larvae were stocked at 30 larvae 1-l in three tank designs with different surface areas and equal volumes. Stocking densities were 1.2, 0.6 and 0.3 fish cmm2 bottom surface. Growth did not differ between treatments. The highest mortality over 30 days was recorded at the medium density (0.6 larvae 1-l). Fish stocked at this density showed the highest rate of aggression, while there was no difference in aggression between the highest and the lowest stocking densities. The results indicate that stocking density should be at least as high as 1.2 larvae cm-' bottom surface area to obtain high production at best survival rates.