Article N ° 500 Contribution C.D.B. W 639 DAILY FOOD INTAKE OF REARED LARVAE OF THE EUROPEAN SEABASS (D/CENTRARCHUS LAQRAX L.) STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MODELLING'

The daily quantity of prey ingested by larvae of sea bass (Dicentrarchw labrax L.) aged from 10 to 7Sdays, and maintained at 1'1 ' C in 60 and 1sa liter tanles varies significantly with the tanle volume, the excess of prey fumished, and the larval stages (before and after metamorphosis). The differences are, however, small in number and can be overlooleed at first glance. The relationship between wet weight (W.) in mg of prey ingested by Iarvae and by day and the age (t) in days is W. = 0.4682 exp (0.0948t). The relationship between Wr and wet weight (W,) oflarvae fixed in formalin, are from W. = 0.9444 W, ".." " and W. = 1.7369 W, 'o.... " before and after metamorphosis.- Modelling the relationship between daily food intake of larval fishes and age is useful for estimating the amount of prey required daily in an aquaculture project and for studying changes in the metabolism of larvae throughout their growth. The information given on daily food intake oflarval marine fishes such as Sparus aurata (Alessio, 1975)