need info. on fish waste production

[nimrodfiftyfour]

I need to find some info., preferably a formula if possible, on the exponential growth in fish waste production as a fish grows larger. Preferably I really need a source because I am doing this as a research project. Any help is much appreciated, been searching for 3 hours and haven't found a thing so far. Thanks.

[oama]

Boy did you pick a pickle for a research topic!

Are you concerned with excerted ammonia through the gills? Or urinary track? or are you talking fecal matter??
Saltwater or fresh? Temperate or tropical?
You may have to research them all.

No formula comes to mind off hand. "Modeling" has always been a contested area of science. There are may different views as to what parameters should be used.
You may have to work backwards to find an equation as most research is concerned with food consumption.
One of the bacic formulas that I readily found was:
Balanced Energy Equation (Wooten, 1990 from Winberg, 1956).
C = P + R + F + U
C=food consumption
P=growth and reproduction (Production)
R=meteabolism
F=fecal waste
U=excretory waste

I doubt you will find much on the net to help (but I could be wrong!). You may want to start searching for ammonia production/toxicity (much reasearch done on this) and see if what you need is there.
A good library would help. Start of with these books:
"Chemistry of Natural Waters" by Boyd (I think) (It's still in a box somewhere in my garage)
"Feeding Ecology of Fish" by Shelby Gerking, 1994.
"Marine Fish Culture" by John Tucker, 1998.
"Seawater Aquariums: The Captive Environment" by S. Spotte, 1979.
"Fishes: An Introduction to Ichthyology" by Moyle & Cech, jr., 1982.
Or any other good hatchery managment book. Most of the research has been on salmonids or goldfish.

Best of Luck!

[nimrodfiftyfour]

Sorry for not being more specific. I'm looking for rough estimation on overall ammonia prod. in warm water marine fish. I'm actually writing about my own little soapbox of why nurse sharks should not be kept captive and would like to have some numbers or something like being able to say that a 50 shark will prod. approx. X amount more than 100 half pound say damsels or something along those lines, or some way to relate that information. Thanks for your help. I'll see if I can hunt those books down, although with our sh*ty library sys. here I doubt it.

[EdKruzel]

With Wooten's theory on the balance of energy I don't think you're going to find the information that you seek.

Granted the shark's diet is of heavier/meaty foods than your example of damsels, however the size ratio in conjunction with metabolism I believe would far outweigh the shark’s excretion.

How do you plan on conducting this experiment? The only way I can see to monitor this outside of a lab will place each animal in jeopardy.


Keep us informed,
Ed