Meeting Abstract
Stocked fish species are typically raised in high density, homogeneous environments with little to no cover or habitat variation. The effects of these conditions on the growth and morphology of these organisms are not often examined or compared to the effects of more naturalized conditions. I reared individually tagged young-of-the-year brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) (n=143) in 1135L round tanks or in an artificial stream for 90 days on a diet of 1.5g of 1mm trout pellets per day. Preliminary results indicate that the mean total length (overall x=87.3mm), standard length (overall x=78.4mm), and mean weight (overall x=6.106g) did not differ between the two habitats. Daily weight-based growth (overall x=0.0604 g/day) did not differ between the two habitats. In the next stage of this project, we will evaluate morphological differences based on thin plate spline morphometric analysis of standardized landmarks on tagged individuals to evaluate changes in shape related to rearing habitat.
