Time of a single daily meal influences growth performance in rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum)

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The effect of the time of delivery of a single daily meal was studied in immature rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum). In a first experiment, fish were fed 1.5 % of their body weight once a day at dawn. 1200 h, dusk or 2400 h and no attempt was made to monitor uneaten food. The best growth performance was observed for fish fed at dawn, while lowest performance was achieved by fish fed at 2400 h. During a second experiment, fish were fed at dawn or 2400 h at 0.9%, 1.2 % or 1.5% of their body weight, and the proportion of uneaten pellets was measured. Fish fed at 2400h showed lower growth performance, and feed intake was 10% lower than that of fish fed at dawn. Protein, lipid and energy retention (nutrient gain/ nutrient intake) was also the lowest in fish fed at 2400 h. These results lead to the conclusion that, in rainbow trout, feeding time has an effect on both feed intake and feed utilization.