Monitoring the feeding activity of individual fish with a demand feeding system

Feeding activity of individual Arctic charr ( Salvelinus alpinus ) was recorded automatically for 29 days using a demand feeding system. Each of three groups of 15 fish was kept in 1 m³ tanks, containing brackish water at 10° C. Individual biting activity was continuously monitored using a PIT-tag (Passive Integrated Transponders) system with unique individual codes. The accuracies of the bite detection system were 91, 93.1 and 99.5% respectively, in the three tanks. In all tanks, most of the individuals (12–14) bit on the releasing trigger a few times during the first 3 days. Thereafter, one or two individuals per tank accounted for almost all of the biting activity. This pronounced shift in bite-number distribution among individuals was probably due to the development of a dominance hierarchy, in which the dominant individuals monopolized the trigger. Growth rates appeared to be highest among high ranking fish. The implications of using demand feeding and PIT-tag devices in feeding studies are discussed.