Sudekum et a\ :. Life history and ecology of Caranx ignobilis and Caranx melampygus 



503 



161-day experiment, grew to a mean weight of 302. 5g. 

 AH fish survived and appeared healthy throughout the 

 course of the feeding experiment. Four intensive 

 feeding periods of 6, 6, 4, and 5 days duration resulted 

 in an average daily food consumption rate of 0.084 g 

 food per gram of fish. Three C. ignobilis specimens of 

 about 500 g each were used in a similar experiment. 

 Three intensive feeding periods with these fish resulted 

 in an average daily food consumption rate of about 

 0.05 g food per gram of fish. However, this estimate 

 is probably low because these experimental fish seemed 

 to be in poor health during confinement. 



Energy budget and 

 population consumption 



Based on the captive feeding experiments with C. 

 melampygus, an estimate of a = 0.19g° 2 /day (at about 

 24 °C) was derived and used for all energy budget 

 calculations for both species. Estimates of all major 

 components of the energy budget were calculated for 

 the 38 weight-classes of C. melampygus (ranging from 

 200 to 10,000g) and the 71 weight-classes of C. igno- 

 bilis (ranging from 500 to 41,000g) represented in the 

 size-frequency database. Table 5 contains selected 



