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Effects of tank colour on growth and survival of taimen Hucho taimen (Pallas, 1773) larvae

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Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of tank colour on growth and survival of taimen Hucho taimen larvae. Larvae (initial weight 0.11 ± 0.01 g, 21 days after hatching) were cultured in the water flow-through system. Fifteen aquaria (200 L per aquarium) were randomly allocated into triplicate groups of 500 larvae. The outsides of the tanks were covered in red, blue, yellow, white, or black sheeting. Larvae were fed eight times a day by hand to apparent satiation. The experiment was conducted for 56 days. The results showed that the specific growth rate was significantly affected by tank colour, which was higher in the yellow tank than that of the tank (black or red) (P < 0.05). The tank colour did not significantly affect survival, condition factor, and feed conversion ratio among all the treatments (P > 0.05). The highest feed intake was observed in fish reared in the yellow tank, followed by that of the white, blue, or black tank, and the lowest was in fish in the red tank. In conclusion, the light-coloured tank (yellow or white) was optimum for rearing taimen larvae based on the growth performance.

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Abbreviations

IBW:

Initial body weight

FBW:

Final body weigh

WG:

Weight gain

SGR:

Specific growth rate

FCR:

Feed conversion ratio

CF:

Condition factor

FL:

Fork length

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Key Technology Research and Development Program in the 12th Five year Plan of China (2012BAD25B10), the Natural Science Funds of Heilongjiang (QC2015041), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Institutes of HRFRI (HSY201512).

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Correspondence to Qiyou Xu.

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Wang, C., Xu, Q., Li, J. et al. Effects of tank colour on growth and survival of taimen Hucho taimen (Pallas, 1773) larvae. Aquacult Int 25, 437–446 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10499-016-0041-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10499-016-0041-x

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