Carbon budgets for a phytoplanktivorous fish fed three different unialgal populations

Summary The filter feeding blue tilapia, Tilapia aurea, was fed three different algae. Blue tilapia ingestion of two green algae, Chlamydomonas sp. and Ankistrodesmus falcatus and the filamentous blue-green alga, Anabaena flos-aquae, ranged from 21%–89% of the available cells. There were significant differences in the assimilation of algal carbon by the fish depending on the alga fed; A. flos-aquae was the easiest to assimilate (83%). The fish respired significantly less of the Chlamydomonas sp. ingested carbon (15%). The gross growth efficiency of fishes fed either green alga was not significantly different (22%–24%), but these efficiencies were significantly less than the gross growth efficiency of fish fed A. flos-aquae (46%). The carbon budgets for fish feeding on the green algae were similar to that constructed from the literature for a congener fed a mixed algae diet. However, the assimilation component of the budget for blue tilapia fed A. flos-aquae was 2 times greater than that of the literature budget.