Maximizing Nutrient Utilization of High-Energy Feeds in Striped Bass Aquaculture

We will conduct research on nutrition and food intake regulation mechanism in hybrid striped bass. We will determine: 1) how dietary energy density, satiated feeding, energy-to-protein ratios, fish size, and temperature affect food and energy consumption rates; 2) how "high-energy" diets can improve growth and feed conversion; and 3) how these diets affect fish health, effluent water quality, and shelf life of the final product. We also will establish an energy expenditure budget for hybrid striped bass to determine the required dietary energy necessary for growth, metabolism, and excretion. This integrated approach should lead to feed management strategies that result in significantly better and more cost-effective production strategies that can result from typical nutritional studies which emphasize growth rates alone. With a better understanding of these factors, we will be able to develop diets and feeding regimes which will increase production yield, improve water quality and decrease the cost of commercially-raised hybrid striped bass. It is possible that the least cost solution may prove to be one in which the maximum sustainable biogain, the net increase in fish biomass (in kg of fish per day), will not require the rapid fish growth rates sought by many researchers and producers.