Effect of Feed Cycling on Specific Growth Rate, Condition Factor, Body Composition an‎d Rna/Dna Ratio Of Cirrhinus mrigala

A randomly selected 60 samples of Cirrhinus mrigala, fingerling sized, were collected from Qadria fish hatchery and farm, Matital road, Multan. Fish were divided into three groups namely, control, 5 and 10 days cyclic feeding group. Specific growth rate (% g day^-1), condition factor (K), body composition and RNA/DNA ratio of individual specimen and of each group were calculated. It was found that there was highly significant effect of feed cycling on specific growth rate (P 0.001) and significant effect (0.01) on condition factor of Cirrhinus mrigala. There was a sharp decline in specific growth rate with increase in length of starvation but carp was able to maintain its body constituents i.e., % water, % dry body mass, % ash, % fat, % protein and % organic contents (P 0.05) suggesting a compensatory growth which was independent of length of starvation. Feed cycling had marked effect (P 0.05) on RNA/DNA ratio of this carp and a gradual decrease in RNA/DNA ratio was observed with increase in length of starvation.