A COMPARISON OF ARTIFICIAL AND NATURAL FOODS AND THEIR COMBINATIONS IN THE REARING OF GOLDFISH, CARASSIUS AURATUS (L.)

Aurelia Nica, I. Vasilean, Adina Popescu, Daniela Cristina Ibanescu

Abstract
    Goldfish (Carassius auratus) are one of the most valuable fishes in the world. This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacity of natural food and commercial diets and their combinations in rearing of golfish juveniles. The experiment took place betweend March 27 and May 8, 2017 and it began when fish had six weeks and an average weight of 88 mg. Three variants have been experimented: in the first variant, fish were fed exclusively with artificial dry diets, in the second variant, the fish were fed with artificial dry diets and natural food and in the third variant, the fish were fed only with natural food. In V₁ variant, was used Nutra 4 pellets with 62% crude proteine; in V₂ variant was used Nutra 4 pellets and frozen cyclops, while in V₃ variant was used only frozen cyclops. After 48 days, the best results regarding the growth perfomance were recorded in V1 variant.
    It was concluded that goldfish can be reared during the start feeding phase on artificial as well as natural diets, and the artificial dry diets can be used exclusively from six weeks age.

Key words: goldfish, natural food, pellets, growth, aquarium