The effect of meal size on the rate of gastric evacuation of burbot, Lota lota (L.)

The effect of meal size on the gastric evacuation rate of burbot Lota lota (L.), was determined at a constant temperature of 1.5°C. Burbot were fed vendace Coregonus albula (L.), in varying amounts from 1.0% to 12.6% of burbot weight. Although gastric evacuation rate decreased exponentially with increasing meal size, the absolute amount of food evacuated per day (g. day−1 increased when meal size increased. The estimated maximum daily gastric evacuation rates were 0.8, 1.3 and 1.6 g/day with meal sizes 1%, 5% and 10% of burbot weight (200 g). No difference in gastric evacuation rate was observed between meals of the same size (8 g) but which consisted of either one or three vendace.