Effect of delayed feeding on foraging, survival and growth of ovate pompano (Trachinotus ovatus) larvae during early development stage

Effects of delayed initial feeding on the foraging, growth and survival of artificial bred larvae of ovate pompano (Trachinotus ovatus) were studied under the water temperature of (26.81.4) ℃ and salinity of 28.20.8. The results showed that the larval mouth opened 3 days after hatching, and with the delayed initial feeding of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 days, the feeding rate was 15%, 30%, 50% , 25%, 15% and 5%, respectively; the average consumption per larva within two hours was 0.4, 0.6, 1.3, 0.6, 0.3 and 0.1 prey, respectively. At day 6 of the delayed initial feeding, the feeding rate of all larvae was 0; there was no significant difference in the survival rate at the delayed initial feeding of day 0, day 1 and day 2 but the survivorship decreased abruptly while the delayed feeding lasted more than 3 days. The point of no return (PNR) occurred at 4 days after the larval mouth opened, which indicated that the optimum initial feeding time for the larvae was within 3 days after their mouths opened.