Freqüência alimentar e desempenho de juvenis do beijupirá, Rachycentron canadum( Linnaeus, 1766)

Abstract

Cobia (Rachycentron canadum) is a fast growing and high value species that recently has drawn attention in the world, especially in Asia. In Brazil, there are reports that marine finfish culture started in Pernambuco, northeastern Brazil, in the 17th century, when several species were reared in estuarine ponds in the cities of Recife and Olinda. Currently, there is no official data on the production of marine finfish culture in Brazil. Although this activity is not a reality compared to other countries, it has good conditions for development in Brazil. A few initiatives of cobia culture have been undertaken both in offshore commercial operations as well as experimentally in universities. However, priority questions should be investigated as initial steps to begin this new industry in Brazil. Feeding is the major operational cost in commercial finfish culture operations and hence it is important to maximize performance as well as decrease feeding costs mainly to carnivorous fish such as cobia (Rachycentron canadum). This study assessed the growth performance under different feeding frequencies (1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 daily meals) under laboratory conditions for 60 days. Juveniles with mean initial weight of 110 g were hand-fed to apparent satiation the same daily amount. At the end of the trial, fish were counted, measured, and survival, final weight, weight gain, specific growth rate, feed intake, condition factor and coefficient of variation were estimated. The present results indicate that the number of daily feeding sessions had no significant effect on the growth performance of cobia juveniles reared under laboratory conditions weighting between 100 and 300 g. However, as under commercial rearing operations, when a larger number of animals are maintained, the aggressive behavior of cobia during feeding may lead to body injuries. Therefore, further investigations on the effects of feeding frequency are warranted, especially under field conditions