A. ZAIKOV, I. ILIEV and T. HUBENOVA
Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture, BG-4003 Plovdiv, Bulgaria
ZAIKOV, A., I. ILIEV and T. HUBENOVA, 2008. Investigation on growth rate and food conversion ratio of wels (Silurus glanis L.) in controlled conditions, Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 14: 171-175
The aim of this study was to establish the growth rate and food conversion ratio of wels (Silurus glanis) when fed with carp (Cyprinus carpio). The experiment was carried out under controlled laboratory conditions for a period of 30 days in two variants, by two replicas each, differing by the initial weight of the wels. For each variant 7 wels were used, at initial ratio between the biomass of the predator and the prey 1:3. The preys had an average body weight of 5-7 g. As a result of the experiment, the growth rate of S. glanis was established for the investigated period, which for the first variant is 25.43 g or 25.56%, and for the second - 9.56 g or 19.2%. (The linear growth rate for the first variant is 0.52 cm or 2.25% and for the second variant 0.46 cm or 2.45%). The food conversion ratio of wels when fed with carp was 4.3 for variant 1 and 4.7 for variant 2.