Effect of Dietary Lipid Level and Feeding Frequency on the Growth, Feed Utilization, and Body Composition of Juvenile Spotted Seabass, Lateolabrax maculatus

A 6-wk feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of different dietary lipid levels and feeding frequencies on the growth performance, feed utilization, and body composition of juvenile spotted seabass, Lateolabrax maculatus. Two experimental diets were prepared with two different dietary lipid contents, low lipid (7%; LL) and high lipid (14%; HL). Each diet was fed to triplicate groups of fish (5.5 +/- 0.01 g) to apparent satiation at three meals per day, two meals per day, one meal per day, and one meal every 2d, respectively, for 6wk. Fish growth performance in terms of weight gain (WG) and specific growth rate (SGR) was significantly affected by frequency of feeding, with increasing values as feeding frequency increased up to twice daily, regardless of dietary lipid content. In addition, fish fed the diet with the HL level (14%) showed significantly higher WG and SGR than those fed the LL diet (7%) at all the feeding frequencies tested. Feed efficiency (FE) and protein efficiency ratio (PER) were affected by both dietary lipid level and feeding frequency. FE and PER values were significantly higher in fish fed the HL diet and/or when fish were fed twice or thrice a day. However, daily feed intake and daily energy intake were significantly affected only by feeding frequency and were significantly reduced when the fish were fed only once every 2d compared with those fed more frequently. Whole-body moisture content of fish tended to decrease with increasing dietary lipid level and frequency of feeding. In contrast, whole-body lipid content increased in fish as dietary lipid level and feeding frequency increased. Consequently, we can conclude that feeding spotted seabass twice daily to apparent satiation is acceptable and sufficient to achieve good growth and FE, as fish performance was not significantly enhanced when feeding was increased from two to three times daily.