February 15-18, 2009 Washington State Convention Center Seattle ...

EFFECTS OF STANDARD AND HIGH-FAT DIETS WITH OR WITHOUT A DAIRY/YEAST
PREBIOTIC ON PERFORMANCE OF GOLDFISH Carassius auratus IN OUTDOOR POOLS
Harold Phillips, Nick Kinsey and Rebecca Lochmann*
Aquaculture Research Center
University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
Pine Bluff, AR, 71601 USA
rlochmann@uaex.edu
Previous studies with high-fat diets or prebiotics have shown beneficial effects in baitfish. In this study, we determined the responses
of goldfish in outdoor pools fed diets with standard (4%) or high (10 %) amounts of added lipid either with or without
a dairy/yeast prebiotic. Four diets similar to a commercial diet (30% protein and 9.6 kg energy/gram of protein) were formulated.
Two diets contained the same protein components (primarily fish and poultry meals) and differed only in the amount of
added lipid (4 or 10% poultry fat). The diet with 4% fat was the control. Two other diets were similar to diets 1 & 2 except they
contained 2% prebiotic.
Four hundred (0.36 + 0.002g in individual mass) fish were randomly stocked into each of four plastic-lined 4.1-m 3 pools
containing reservoir water and maintained static during the study. Fish are being fed twice daily to apparent satiation and
group-weighed every 2 wks to track growth. Chlorophyll a and Secchi depth are being measured to assess natural foods. At
four weeks, there were no differences (P>0.05) in mean individual weight gain (0.66+0.03g) among treatments. The feeding
trial will be conducted a minimum of 8 weeks, then final production data will be taken and fish will be subjected to bacterial
challenge. Results of this data will be compared to those of a concurrent trial being conducted in indoor aquaria to determine
the efficacy of these diets in the presence and absence of natural foods.
1