Application of Compensatory Growth to Enhance Production in Channel Catfish <i>Ictalurus punctatus</i>

Abstract Four treatment groups that received repeating cycles of fixed feed deprivation for either 0, 1, 2, or 3 d (control, treatment 1, treatment 2, and treatment 3, respectively), followed by periods of refeeding with a 36% protein commercial catfish feed once daily as long as the active phase of compensatory growth (CG) persisted, were assessed in flow‐through aquaria. No‐feed periods elicited the CG state and were immediately followed by days of ad libatum refeeding. At the end of 10 wk, average growth rate (AGR) of fish was higher ( P &lt; 0.05) than the control by 40%, 180%, and 191% for treatment 1, treatment 2, and treatment 3, respectively. The average weight of fish in treatment 3 was heavier ( P &lt; 0.05) than the average control group at the end of the study period. Mean daily feed consumption was 3.91%, 5.03%, 5.36%, and 5.98% for control, treatment 1, treatment 2, and treatment 3, respectively. Mean feed consumption per fish per day was 24%, 71.3%, and 70.7% higher than the control in treatment 1, treatment 2, and treatment 3, respectively. Restricted feeding is one of the effective methods to contain ESC‐related losses in commercial channel catfish fingerling operations. The mean cumulative survival of treatment groups registered higher ( P &lt; 0.05) survival to Edwardsiella ictaluri infection compared to the daily fed control fish. Results from this study show that compensatory growth response triggered by periodic non‐feeding days can improve growth rate, feed consumption, and improved survival to ESC infections in channel catfish fingerlings.