PREHATCH AND POSTHATCH strongGROWTHstrong OF FISHES#173; A GENERAL MODEL.pdfVIP

PREHATCH AND POSTHATCH GROWTH OF FISHES- A GENERAL MODEL JAMES R. ZWEIFEL AND REUBEN LASKER 1 ABSTRACT The developmental stages of fish eggs and the growth of larval fishes of several species can be represented by a Gompertz-type curve based on the observation that in widely different living systems, exponential growth tends to undergo exponential decay with time. Further, experimental studies and field observations have shown that the effect of temperature on the growth process follows the same pattern, i.e., the rate of growth declines exponentially with increasing temperature. Evidence suggests that prehatch growth rates determine ideal or optimum trajectories which are maintained after hatch in the middle temperature range but not at either extreme. Also, posthatch growth exhibits a temperature optimum which is not apparent in the incubation period. These studies have also shown that for the same spawn both the prehatch and yolk-sac growth curves reach asymptotic limits independent of temperature. Other biological events (e.g., jaw development) occur at the same size for all temperatures. The growth of post-yolk-sac larvae follows a curve of the same type and hence the posthatch growth trajectory may be represented by a two-stage curve. For starving larvae, the second stage shows a decline in size but maintains the same form, i.e., the rate of exponential decline decreases exponentially with time. Recent success in spawning and rearing marine