The effect of meal size on the rate of gastric evacuation of burbot, Lota lota (L.)

1999

– The effect of meal size on the gastric evacuation rate of burbot Lota lota (L.), was determined at a constant temperature of 1.5°C. Burbot were fed vendace Coregonus albula (L.), in varying amounts from 1.0% to 12.6% of burbot weight. Although gastric evacuation rate decreased exponentially with increasing meal size, the absolute amount of food evacuated per day (g. day−1 increased when meal size increased. The estimated maximum daily gastric evacuation rates were 0.8, 1.3 and 1.6 g/day with meal sizes 1%, 5% and 10% of burbot weight (200 g). No difference in gastric evacuation rate was observed between meals of the same size (8 g) but which consisted of either one or three vendace.