Effect of restricted access to demand-feeders on diurnal pattern of liver composition, plasma metabolites and hormone levels in Oncorhynchus mykiss.

In order to study the relative importance of the feeding time and the light/dark alternation, as synchronizers of metabolic and endocrine parameters, the hepatosomatic index, liver glycogen contents, plasma glucose, nonesterified fatty acids, cortisol, growth hormone and thyroid hormone concentrations between dawn -2h and dawn + 12h are described in immature rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Trout were held in groups of 30 individuals and given access to a demand-feeder for only 3h per day, between dawn and dawn + 3h for 6 aquaria, and between dawn + 4h and dawn + 7h for another series of 6 aquaria. There was a clear effect of the time of food access on most of the studied parameters, with a decreased amplitude of variation, or a decreased mean level, in the fish eating in the middle of the photophase, compared with the fish eating at dawn. Superimposed on this apparent depressive effect of phase shifting of food access, some parameters also show direct responses to the shift of eating time, with a post-prandial increase or decrease.