Effects of No Feeding, Maintenance Feeding, and Refeeding on Production and Processing Characteristics of Market-Size Hybrid Catfish

A pond study was initiated to evaluate effects of no feeding, maintenance feeding, and refeeding on production and processing characteristics of market-size hybrid catfish (female Channel Catfish Ictalurus punctatus × male Blue Catfish I. furcatus). Fish with an average weight of 644 g were stocked into 20 earthen ponds (0.04 ha) at 14,826 fish/ha at the end of May. They were either not fed (N ₂), fed once weekly (W ₂) to satiation for 2 months to simulate a long-term harvest delay, or fed daily (D ₂) to satiation. After 2 months fish in half the ponds in each of the two feed-restricted treatments were harvested, and all fish in the remaining ponds were fed daily for an additional month. After 2 months N ₂ fish experienced a 14.3% weight loss compared with a weight gain of 6.7% for FW ₂ fish. After 2 months both N ₂ and W ₂ fish had reduced visceral fat and fillet yield compared with fish fed daily, but there were no significant differences in visceral fat percentage and fillet yield between N ₂ and W ₂ fish. At the end of 3 months, there were no significant differences in weight gain, net yield, fillet yield, or visceral fat whether fish were previously not fed or fed once weekly for the first 2 months, but fish fed daily throughout had significantly higher visceral fat and marginally higher fillet yield. Feeding once weekly for 2 months followed by 1-month full feeding resulted in significantly higher feed conversion ratio than fish fed daily for 3 months. Results demonstrate feeding once weekly can generally maintain body weight of hybrid catfish. No feeding or feeding once weekly for 2 months does not affect survival but significantly reduces fillet yield. One month of full feeding following no feeding or maintenance feeding improves fillet yield relative to values before refeeding. Received July 16, 2015; accepted January 21, 2016 Published online June 15, 2016