The Effects Of Feeding Regime On Standardmetabolic Rate,Personality And Growth Performance In Pale Chub

Fish exhibit profoundly variation in physiological and behavioral phenotype under different food availability.Exploring the relationship between those variables of fish under different food abundance conditions is very important for people to understand the response pattern of fish to the environment change.In this study,female pale chub(Zacco platypus,n=40)were used as experimental model to explore the effects of feeding regimes on the standard metabolic rate(SMR),personality behaviors(boldness,exploration,and activity)and growth performance(feeding rate,specific growth rate and feed efficiency).The main results of present study as follows:(1)SMR showed repeatability in once feeding group but not in twice feeding groups.The SMR of the twice feeding group was significantly higher than that of the once feeding group at the end of the experiment.(2)No significant correlation was found among activity,boldness and exploration at either the beginning or the end of the experiment.(3)Both feed efficiency and specific growth rate of the twice feeding groups were significantly higher than those of the once feeding group.There were significant correlation between any of the two growth performance variables in both feeding regime groups.(4)Activity and exploration showed significant correlation with growth performance parameters in the once feeding group,whereas only exploration showed significant correlation with feed efficiency in the twice feeding groups.The main conclusion as follows:(1)The feed efficiency hence growth rate of pale chub improve with the increased food availability,which inevitably result in increased maintenance energy expenditure.(2)The feeding regime showed no significant effect on average values of any personality traits,however,it profound altered the relationship between personality and growth performance.These findings might have important ecological relevancefor the survival of pale chub in habitats with food resource fluctuations.