Feeding Habits and Digestive Physiology of Aquaculture Fishes

Dear Colleagues,

Fishes, like other organisms, require an energy source to fuel their body systems and processes, including growth, metabolism, and reproduction. Different fish species have evolved feeding structures and digestive mechanisms that allow them to exploit a vast array of vegetal and animal food sources; consequently, their digestive tracts have incorporated numerous adaptations for the efficient breakdown and absorption of essential nutrients, including appropriate digestive enzymes and absorptive surface areas. Thus, obtaining a proper understanding of fish digestive mechanisms and adaptations, as well as the hormonal regulation of digestion, is a key element for adapting feeding and nutritional strategies of farmed species to their requirements. This is of special relevance considering that feeding costs in aquaculture systems may be as high as 60% of the total production costs; thus, improving feed digestibility by means of tailoring diets to the species’ digestive capacities may be of interest. In addition, assessing the functionality of the digestive system according to ontogeny is a valuable tool for inferring the digestion capacity of fish at early life stages, and thereby designing adequate feeding protocols to meet larval nutritional requirements and promote growth, survival and quality.

This Special Issue aims to compile a series of eclectic and original manuscripts on the digestive physiology of gastric and agastric fish species over the course of their lifetime, from the developing larvae to the on-growing and adult stages. Studies may be focused on the impact of dietary interventions on the activity of digestive enzymes, mechanisms regulating food digestion, descriptions of the digestive capacities of fish based on their trophic guild and the application of these findings, as well as studies on fish larvae. Reviews on actual procedures for the characterization of fish digestive activities are also welcome.

Dr. Enric Gisbert
Dr. Mikhail Solovyev
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Aquaculture Journal is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• digestive enzymes
• digestive system
• digestion
• regulation
• proteases
• carbodhydrases
• lipases
• fish