Feeding Tables and Charts

Feeding tables are standardized charts that prescribe daily feed ration as a percentage of fish biomass, indexed by body weight and water temperature, used to convert feed budget plans into daily dispenser settings. Typical tables show ration declining from 8-15% of body weight per day for fry to 0.8-1.5% for fish near harvest, with the temperature axis increasing intake up to the species optimum (around 24-28 C for seabream and tilapia, 14-18 C for salmon) then cutting it sharply as temperature stress sets in. Good tables incorporate an expected FCR so cumulative feed can be tracked against modeled growth, flagging deviation early. Their limits are equally important: tables assume average appetite, so real intake varies with oxygen, salinity stress, fish health, and recent handling. Best practice therefore treats the table as the baseline and adjusts daily by 10-20% using appetite indicators: surface activity, pellet disappearance time, and underwater camera inspection. Digital feeding systems go further, recalculating ration continuously from estimated biomass, temperature, and oxygen probes. Errors in table use, especially outdated biomass estimates, are one of the most common causes of systematic overfeeding and oxygen crashes; re-weighing the population every 4-6 weeks is the minimum discipline for keeping the chart honest.