To improve feedingmanagement and reduce feed cost
in semi-intensive grow-out culture of milk¢sh (Chanos
chanos, Forsskl1775) in brackish ponds, the relative
shares of natural food (NF) and supplemental
feed (SF) ingested by the ¢sh were microscopically
quanti¢ed from their completely dissected digestive
tracts sampled during 24-h cycles in wet (June^
September) and dry (December^April) seasons. Particles
from rice husk, indigestible tomilk¢sh, were used
as internalmarkers to quantify supplemental feed. Signi¢
cantly (Po0.05) more NF than SF (1.4 0.2 vs.
0.4 0.1g kg0.8) and SF than NF (1.4 0.8 vs.
0.6 0.3 g kg0.8) were found during the ¢rst month
of the wet and the ¢rst 3 months of the dry season respectively.
Diurnal feeding patterns on SFwere signi¢-
cantly higher at morning hours during the dry
compared with the wet season. The feeding pattern of
milk¢sh is likely to be a¡ected by the di¡erentweather
and pond conditions in both seasons. Developing a
season-speci¢c pond fertilization management to enhance
NF availability in semi-intensive milk¢sh culture
can help to improve the economical and
ecological performance of milk¢sh culture