A new feeding strategy for trout fry trialled on a Peruvian farm is showing significant gains in survival rates and average weights.
After hatching and in the first feeding, larger farmed trout typically crowd out the smaller ones. To address this challenge and ensure all fish can access feed, researchers suggest that first feeding strategies consider the fry’s behaviour. A recent article from Troutlodge outlines a success story from a farm in Peru that is making improvements in its feed management protocols.
The Truchas Arapa company in the region of Puno, Peru, decided to run a trial in feeding management – keeping the territorial behaviour of larger trout in mind. Usually in the re-incubation and fry room, the first feeding begins when 80 percent of the fry have reabsorbed their yolk sacs. However, the downside of this strategy is that when the stronger trout wait longer for feed, their genetic potential is negatively impacted and they may struggle to reach optimum growth over their life span. For better results, they decided to trial a new approach where the fry are moved to another production unit as soon as they reabsorb the yolk sac to start the first feeding. With this change, the fry have the opportunity to feed as soon as needed without waiting for the others to reabsorb the sac…