V. Krasteva*, M. Yankova

Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture, 4003 Plovdiv, Bulgaria

(Manuscript received 14 October 2020; accepted for publication 18 January 2021)

Abstract. The present paper investigates the body length and weight, and the size-weight variations of one-month-old European catfish reared at 4 variants of stocking density: Variant 1 – 5 spec/l; Variant 2 – 10 spec/l; Variant 3 – 15 spec/l and Variant 4 – 28 spec/l. The experiment is carried out at the Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Plovdiv for a period of 16 days, using a production system consisting of tubs with continuous water flow (0.7 l/min). At the end of the experiment, the fish from each variant are sorted in three size-weight groups: A – large, B – medium and C – small. The number of fish in each group is established. From the group of the medium- and small-sized fish, 150 speciments are measured, while from the group of the large specimens, which are the smallest in number, all specimens are measured for the biometric parameters body weight (BW, g) and total body length (TL, cm). The results from the study show small variations in the length and weight of the fish reared at the lowest stocking density (Variant 1). As the density increase, the size-weight differences between the specimens from Group A also increased, while of those from Group B they decrease. The number of the medium-sized fish decrease (p≤0.001) while the number of large specimens (p≤0.01) and small fish increase (p≤0.001).