stocking density effects on fish | review

Introduction

• growth and performance of some salmonids ^{[1] [2][3]}
• decreased food consumption^[4]
• social interaction^[5][4:1]
• altered water quality^[6][7]
• growth-regulating role of hormones in fish held at high stocking density ^[8][2:1]
• chronic stress; water quality, adverse social interactions or over-crowding, negative physiological and biochemical changes ^[3:1][9]
• Reducing Lysozyme^[10][11]

Salvelinus fontinalis^[12]

© Wikimedia

Brook charr

Fish	Date	Effects	Paper
Salvelinus fontinalis	1990	energy metabolism of brook charr	M.M.Vijayan[12:1]

Brook charr:

• reared for 30 days

Lower	Higher	No effect
- final body weight - reduced food consumption - plasma T4 concentration was lowered - Lower Plasma glucose levels - Lower liver glycogen content - Lower hepatosomatic index - Hepatic hexokinase - glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activities	- fructose biphosphatase - 3-hydroxyacyl CoA dehydrogenase - glycerol kinase - glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase	- T3 concentrations - plasma protein - free fatty acid (FFA) levels - pyruvate kinase - glucose-6-phosphatase - phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase - glutamate dehydrogenase - glutamate pyruvate transaminase - glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase - plasma cortisol

These results suggest that high stocking density has the effect of mobilizing triglyceride sources, promoting gluconeogenesis from glycerol, but has little effect on protein metabolism.

V_E^[13]

• 18 weeks

• diets supplemented with 450 mg of vitamin E showed an increase (P!0.05) in the accumulation of macrophages foreign body giant cells and Langhans type cells.

• not show a similar difference in plasma cortisol concentrations related to stocking density

Silver perch^[14]

© goodfish.org

• Densities of 12, 25, 50, 100 or 200 fish/m³ in cages (1 m3) in an aerated

• Cultured for 210 days

• There was aggression between fish in cages stocked at 25 or 50 fish/m³

• survival (50% and 64.5%, respectively) was significantly lower (P < 0.01) than at the other densities (87.5%, 98.5% and 97.4%).

• Stocking density did not affect final weight (454.6–471.1 g), specific growth rate (0.65–0.70%/day) or absolute growth rate (1.6–1.7 g/fish/day)

• feed conversion ratios (FCR) of fish stocked at 25 or 50 fish/m³ (4.4 and 3.7) were significantly higher (P < 0.01) than FCRs (range, 2.3–2.5) at other densities.

• Coefficients of variation in weight (CV) at 25 or 50 fish/m³ (24.4% and 28.3%) were significantly higher (P < 0.01) than at other densities and the lowest CV of 16.1% was at 200 fish/m³.

• Production was significantly affected (P < 0.01) by stocking density, with the highest mean rate of 88.5 kg/m³ in cages stocked with 200 fish/m³.

• One infestation of the ectoparasitic ciliate, Chilodonella hexasticha, and two infestations of the monogenean gill fluke, Lepidotrema bidyana, were each treated successfully with an application of 30 mg/l formalin. The high survival, relatively fast growth, low variation in weight and high production rates of silver perch stocked at 100 or 200 fish/m³ demonstrate that cages are a viable alternative to ponds for the commercial production of silver perch.

	12	25	50	100	200
Survival(%)	87.5(7.2)a	50.0(6.4)b	64.5(7.6)b	98.5(1.5)c	97.4(1.4)c
Weight(g)	455.1(20.5)	454.6(32.4)	469.7(12.4)	471.1(15.7)	460.2(16.1)
CV(%)	20.1(2.5)a	24.4(2.8)b	28.3(3.2)b	18.9(2.1)a,c	16.1(0.9)c
SGR(%/day)	0.68(0.02)	0.65(0.03)	0.69(0.02)	0.70(0.03)	0.68(0.03)
AGR(g/day)	1.6(0.1)	1.6(0.1)	1.7(0.1)	1.7(0.1)	1.7(0.1)
Production(kg/m3)	4.8(0.4)a	5.8(1.8)a	11.9(5.3)b	46.4(1.8)c	88.5(2.0)d
FCR	2.5(0.3)a	4.4(0.3)b	3.7(0.4)b	2.3(0.2)a	2.4(0.2)a

Survival, final weight, coefficient of variation of weight (CV), specific growth rate (SGR), absolute growth rate (AGR), production and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of silver perch (initial mean weights, 109.3-115.4g) cultured for 210 days at five stocking densities in cages

Feeding Behavior

• Fish in cages stocked at 100 or 200 fish/m³ always fed strongly at and near the surface,
• Feeding behavior in cages stocked at 25 or 50 fish/m³ was intermediate, with fish mostly feeding mid-water, but at times feeding strongly near the surface.
• fish stocked at 12 fish/m³ usually fed mid-water and were rarely seen feeding near the surface throughout the experiment

Aggression Behavior

• observed daily in at 25 or 50 fish/m³,
• eroded fins
• no obvious signs of aggression in cages stocked at 12, 100 or 200 fish/m³

Which interested me

Variation in weight

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More related to Stocking density

• Intestinal Microbiota (Pig)^[15]
• Intestinal Microbiota (Duck)^[16]
• Deposition and transport of trace mineral elements (Pig)^[17]

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1. Schreck, C.B., Patino, R., Pring, C.K., Winton, J.R. and Holway, J.E., 1985. Effects of rearing density on indices of smoltification and performance of coho salmon, Oncorhynchus kisutch. Aquaculture, 45: 345-358. ↩︎

2. Vijayan, M.M. and Leatherland, J.F., 1988. Effect of stocking density on the growth and stressresponse in brook chat-r, Salvelinus fontinalis. Aquaculture, 75: 159-l 70. ↩︎ ↩︎

3. Bolasina, S., Tagawa, M., Yamashita, Y., Tanaka, M., 2006. Effect of stocking density on growth, digestive enzyme activity and cortisol level in larvae and juveniles of Japanese flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus. Aquaculture 259, 432–443. ↩︎ ↩︎

4. Refstie, T. and Kittelsen, A., 1976. Effect of density on growth and survival of artificially reared Atlantic salmon. Aquaculture, 8: 3 19-326. ↩︎ ↩︎

5. Fenderson, O.C. and Carpenter, M.R., 197 1. Effects of crowding on the behaviour of juvenile
   hatchery and wild landlocked Atlantic salmon (Satmo saiur L. ). Anim. Behav., 19: 439-447. ↩︎

6. Pickering, A.D. and Stewart, A., 1984. Acclimation of the interrenal tissue of the brown trout, Salmo trutta L., to chronic crowding stress. J. Fish Biol., 24: 131-740. ↩︎

7. Pickering, A.D. and Pottinger, T.G., 1987a. Poor water quality suppresses the cortisol response of salmonid fish to handling and confinement. J. Fish. Biol., 30: 363-374. ↩︎

8. Leatherland, J.F. and Cho, C.Y., 1985. Effect of rearing density on thyroid and interrenal gland. activity and plasma and hepatic metabolite levels in rainbow trout, Salmo gairdneri Richardson. J. Fish Biol., 27: 583-592 ↩︎

9. Montero, D., Izquierdo, M., Tort, L., Robaina, L., Vergara, J., 1999. High stocking density produces crowding stress altering some physiological and biochemical parameters in gilthead seabream, Sparus aurata, juveniles. Fish Physiol. Biochem. 20, 53–60. ↩︎

10. Costas, B., Aragão, C., Dias, J., Afonso, A., Conceição, L.E., 2013. Interactive effects of a highquality protein diet and high stocking density on the stress response and some innate immune parameters of Senegalese sole Solea senegalensis. Fish Physiol. Biochem. 39, 1141–1151. ↩︎

11. Liu, Baoliang, et al. “Effects of stocking density on antioxidant status, metabolism and immune response in juvenile turbot (Scophthalmus maximus).” Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology C-toxicology & Pharmacology (2016): 1-8. ↩︎

12. Vijayan, M. M., J. S. Ballantyne, and J. F. Leatherland. “High stocking density alters the energy metabolism of brook charr, Salvelinus fontinalis.” Aquaculture 88.3-4 (1990): 371-381. ↩︎ ↩︎

13. Belo, Marco Antonio de Andrade, et al. “Effect of dietary supplementation with vitamin E and stocking density on macrophage recruitment and giant cell formation in the teleost fish, Piaractus mesopotamicus.” Journal of Comparative Pathology 133.2-3 (2005): 146-154. ↩︎

14. Rowland, Stuart J., et al. “Effects of stocking density on the performance of the Australian freshwater silver perch (Bidyanus bidyanus) in cages.” Aquaculture 253.1-4 (2006): 301-308. ↩︎

15. Li, Lan, et al. “Intestinal microbiota in growing pigs: effects of stocking density.” Food and Agricultural Immunology 29.1 (2018): 524-535. ↩︎

16. Wu, Yuqin, et al. “Proteome and microbiota analysis reveals alterations of liver-gut axis under different stocking density of Peking ducks.” PLOS ONE 13.10 (2018). ↩︎

17. Wu, Xin, et al. “Deposition and transport of trace mineral elements were affected by stocking density in fattening pigs.” Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology (2018): 566-571. ↩︎