Paperno et al.: Daily growth increments in otoliths of juvenile Cynoscion regalis 
525 
least one week is required before IW responses to 
feeding and growth are statistically detectable al- 
though the physiological processes that result in IW 
differences begin acting sooner (Molony and Choat, 
1990). Therefore, mean IW taken over several con- 
secutive days would be most useful for making in- 
ferences regarding recent feeding and growth his- 
tory for small sample sizes. 
The magnitude of variability in IW observed in this 
study, particularly for the higher rations, has been 
documented for other species (Volk et al., 1984; 
Neilson and Geen, 1985; Maillet and Checkley, 1991). 
The reduced variability under the stress of lower 
ration may be related to reduced growth and utiliza- 
tion of food and stored reserves for maintenance 
(Molony and Choat, 1990). Continuation of otolith 
increment formation during periods of negative fish 
growth suggests that otolith growth is conservative 
and otolith resorption is not likely (Campana and 
Neilson, 1985; Secor et al., 1989). 
Table 3 
Results of Pearson product-moment correlation analysis 
(r) between daily increment width, daily feeding rate, and 
specific growth rate. 
Increment width 
r n P< 0.05 
Daily feeding rate 
Week 1 
0.5100 
168 
0.000 
Week 2 
0.6552 
168 
0.000 
Specific growth rate 
Week 1 
0.3961 
168 
0.000 
Week 2 
0.6232 
168 
0.000 
Condition factor 
0.3576 
336 
0.000 
Otolith increments of spot, like those of weakfish, 
were found to have an immediate response to changes 
in ration (Govoni et al., 1985), although deposition 
