Effects of Feeding Frequency on Growth Performance and Survival Rate of Angel Fish, Pterophyllum scalare (Perciformes: Cichlidae)

The freshwater angel fish (Pterophyllum scalare Schultze, 1823) is South American cichlid become very popular among aquarists. There is little information on their culture and aquarium husbandry. In this study growth performance and survival rate of angelfish subjected to different feeding frequencies were evaluated. Four groups of angel fish juveniles (0.87 ± 0.01 g; 3.98 ± 0.08 mm) were fed either four meals per day (F1), two meals per day (F2), one meal per day (F3) and every other day (F4) for 90 days. Final live weight and specific growth rate (SGR) values of group F1 and F2 were significantly higher than those of the other groups (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference (P > 0.05) in survival rate among the treatments. The best feed conversion ration (FCR) was obtained from four daily feeding (F1) (P < 0.05). Condition factor (CF) did not show a significant difference (P > 0.05) among experimental groups. In conclusion, the best results in growth performance were obtained by feeding four meals per day (F1) and two meals per day (F2), so they were recommended for angel fish feeding.