Liz Margaret D. Dunlao, Raffy C. Hormaza, Emily Rose C. Lope (March 2007)
Philippine Science High School Western Visayas Campus – Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PSHS WVC), Brgy. Bito-on, Jaro, Iloilo City 5000, Philippines
ABSTRACT
Tilapia culture is a major component of global food fish production. Establishing the gastric evacuation relationships of the fish with commercial feeds will provide knowledge of its food consumption that will help in improving the productivity of the fish.
This study aimed to determine if a significant difference exists in the gastric evacuation rate of Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fed with two brands of commercial feeds.
There were three replicates for each brand of commercial feeds. For each replicate, nine tilapias were stocked in one tank, and were acclimated for one week. They were fed with corresponding commercial feeds for one week. The fish were then starved for 24 hours. After which, they were sampled for dissection using serial slaughter method at 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, and 24 hours after starvation.
No gastric evacuation model was constructed for each brand of feeds because no data was gathered to represent the weight of the stomach content of the fish for each time interval. Due to erroneous procedures, the weights that were gathered were those of the interstitial fluids. As a result, the gastric evacuation rate of the fish fed with the different brands of commercial feeds were not determined and compared.