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Time to adjust to a new feeding environment determines survival and growth of wild-caught white-spotted charr (Salvelinus leucomaenis pluvius)

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Abstract

Hatcheries and breeding programs use wild-caught fish reared on artificial diets. Understanding how fish adjust to a new feeding environment in this context might contribute to improving survival and growth outcomes under artificial conditions. In this study, we examined the growth and survival of wild white-spotted charr (Salvelinus leucomaenis pluvius) on a diet of commercial pellets in an artificial rearing environment. Our results revealed that pre-study fork length has a significant influence on pellet consumption, and thereby survival. The primary factor contributing to growth was the number of days until an initial increase in body weight. Post-mortem examination of deceased fish and their condition indicated that in all cases, the most likely cause of death was starvation. These results accordingly indicate that starvation tolerance and the ability to adjust to a new feeding environment are key factors in the survival of wild charr, whereas the time taken to acclimate is a key factor contributing to growth.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Code availability

The code is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Notes

  1. Yamamoto et al. (2004) did not use K for the white-spotted charr in their study. They used a similar formula, namely, (BW/TL3) * 103.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Kouji Mutou and Hidefumi Nakamura of the Fisheries Technology Institute (FTI) for their assistance with the maintenance of fish, and Tomoyuki Nakamura, Shoichiro Yamamoto, and Takashi Yada (FTI) who provided valuable advice. We are also grateful to Theodore E. Squires and Editage (www.editage.com) for English language editing and providing valuable comments. This work was supported in part by a grant-in-aid from the Fisheries Research and Education Agency and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI (Grant Number JP26292102).

Funding

This work was supported in part by a grant-in-aid from the Fisheries Research and Education Agency and JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Number JP26292102).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nikko Field Station, Fisheries Technology Institute, Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, Nikko, Tochigi, 321-1661, Japan

    Kouta Miyamoto

  2. Niš, Serbia

    Miloš Đorđević

  3. Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, 060-8589, Japan

    Hitoshi Araki

Authors
  1. Kouta Miyamoto
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  2. Miloš Đorđević
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  3. Hitoshi Araki
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All authors listed contributed substantially to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; provided approval regarding the version of the manuscript to be published; and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

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Correspondence to Kouta Miyamoto.

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Ethics approval

The Department of Agricultural Policy Planning of Tochigi Prefecture (DAPPTP), after careful consideration of our experimental design, provided a permit to catch and use fish from the Yanagisawa River for research purposes (permit ID: 23-special-catch-permit-from-the-DAPPTP no. 17). This study was conducted in accordance with the ARRIVE guidelines (Japan) and it complies with the International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS) guidelines for the treatment of animals in research.

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Miyamoto, K., Đorđević, M. & Araki, H. Time to adjust to a new feeding environment determines survival and growth of wild-caught white-spotted charr (Salvelinus leucomaenis pluvius). Environ Biol Fish 104, 959–966 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-021-01128-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-021-01128-1

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