Ecolog Community, Can someone help me with a couple of bioenergetics questions. I am trying to calculate the predicted growth of a fish under a diel thermal cycle using the Wisconsin model (Hanson et al 1997) and compare that to what I observed in a laboratory setting.
Is there a correction that I should make for an artificial pellet diet? It seems that consumption parameters for the fish species are based upon a natural diet, but my fish were fed pellets ad libidum which have a caloric density of about 20 kJ/g versus 3-5 kJ/g for bugs or fish. Because of the high energy content in the diet the predicted growth is astronomical (e.g., 0.3 g/g/day, depending upon the species). Are you aware of any bioenergetics modeling that include daily thermal cycles? I've be using the exponential versions of the temperature dependence equations and integrating over one complete 24-hour cycle. Is there another / better way to do this? Thanks for your help, Willy Hanson, P. C., T. B. Johnson, D. E. Schindler, and J. F. Kitchell. 1997. Fish Bioenergetics 3.0 software for Windows®. University of Wisconsin, Sea Grant Institute, Madison, WI. -- William Eldridge, PhD Assistant Research Scientist PI: Fish Molecular Ecology Group Stroud Water Research Center 970 Spencer Rd. Avondale, PA 19311 610-268-2153x272 [email protected] Visit us facebook.com/WaterResearch
