Circadian Timing of Meal Feeding and Growth in Fishes

Major portions of this paper were presented at the IV Symposium on Aquatic Nutrition, translated into Spanish, and published in the proceedings of that meeting: Avances en Nutrición Acuícola IV. 2000. Civera-Cerecedo, R., Pérez-Estrada, C.J., Ricque Marie, D y Cruz Suárez, L.E. (Eds.) Memorias del IV Simposium Internacional de Nutrición Acuícola. La Paz, México, 15—18 Noviembre de 1998. It is published here with permission of the editors. Since 1977 there have been at least 25 reported studies on 14 species that have examined the effects of circadian meal feeding (meal feeding at different times of day relative to the photoperiod) on the growth in fish. In most cases the fish grew differently depending on the circadian time of feeding. This review briefly examines some of the postulated physiological mechanisms responsible for these results and also discusses the potential benefits and problems of circadian meal feeding for aquaculture. A concluding section offers recommendations for future research.