The food of pikeperch (Sander lucioperca) fry in ponds with different kinds of management

The aim of this study was a comphensive assessment of the food of pikeperch fry in the monoculture rearing from the stage of summer fry to the stage of autumn fry in ponds with three different types of management and assessment of the influence of individual treatments for pikeperch production. The experiment was performed in small ponds in experimental facility of FFPW in Vodňany. The variants of pond treatment were: a) ponds with additional prey fish (fry of common carp (C. carpio) and grass carp (C. idella)), b) ponds with installed substrate from heather, c) control variant without any support of natural food of pikeperch. All treatments had four repetitions. Rearing of pikeperch fry lasted 97 days. In all treatments, the opportunistic food strategy of pikeperch fry was recorded during the whole period of rearing and the main recorded food was macrozoobenthos, especially insect larvae. Bigger species of zooplankton had also been often found in the stomachs of pikeperch. Considerable development of macrozoobenthos in all experimental ponds was probably caused by the presence of submerged macrophytes. Thus, this factor made harder to estimate influence of installed substrates from heather for production of pikeperch fry and composition of its food. In the treatment with prey fish, the total length (F (9. 450) = 91.1; p < 10-3) and weight (F (9. 450) = 61.9; p < 10-3) of pikeperch fry were for the whole period of rearing significantly higher in comparison to the other treatments. In addition, the survival of pikeperch in the treatment with prey fish reached to 56 - 92,4 % at the end of rearing. In the treatment with substrate from heather, the total length and weight of pikeperch was significantly higher in comparison to the control treatment only in the first term of sampling. In the rest of pikeperch fry rearing period were the values comparable or higher in control treatment. Thus, for the rearing of pikeperch from the stage of summer fry to the stage of autumn fry is appropriate to stock prey fish in ponds. In comparison to installation of artificial substrate, the diversity of water environment, which is subsequently able to provide sufficiently wide natural food for reared pikeperch, seems to be more decisive