Because of the high variation of fo

Because of the high variation of food availability in natural aquatic systems, fish may
experience different degrees of starvation during their ontogeny, leading to variation in
growth rate (Chappaz et al., 1996; Cavalli et al., 1997). Compensatory growth, a phase
of rapid growth following food restriction, has been found in several cold and warm
water fish species (Russell and Wootton, 1992; Jobling et al., 1994; Hayward et al.,
1997; Zhu et al., 2001), but the study of compensatory growth in tropical fish is rare
except for one report on tilapia (Wang et al., 2000). The response of fish growth to food
limitation differs among fish species. Depending on the degree of recovery, compensatory
growth can be classified into three types: over-compensation, in which several
cycles of deprivation and re-feeding result in a weight gain that exceeds that of fish fed
continuously (Hayward et al., 1997); complete compensation, in which fish previously
subjected to food restriction achieve the same body mass as fish continuously fed
(Jobing et al., 1999; Kim and Lovell, 1995; Nicieza and Metcalfe, 1997); partial
compensation, in which food-restricted fish exhibit accelerated growth after resumption
of normal feeding, but do not achieve the same body mass as fish continuously fed
(Weatherley and Gill, 1987; Paul et al., 1995).
Barramundi Lates calcarifer (Bloch) range through the northern Indian and tropical
western Pacific Oceans from Iran to the northern part of Australia with optimal
temperature from 28 to 30 jC (Greenwood, 1976). Barramundi are farmed commercially
in ponds, cages and recirculating tanks in Southeast Asia and Australia. In 1999, world
production of barramundi was close to 20,000 tons with a total value of >65 million
dollars (Tucker et al., 2002). This fish is carnivorous and is fed on trash fish in Asia and
pellets in Australia. Current research on barramundi nutrition has focussed on feed
formulations to improve food conversion ratio, but little attention has been paid to
feeding frequencies. Until now, no information