Food conversion rates of Caiman latirostris reared at two different temperatures

PARACHÚ MARCO M.V.; PIÑA, C.I.; LARRIERA, A.

Darwin

Congreso; 17th Working Meeting of the Crocodile Specialist Group of the Species Survival Commission of IUCN; 2004

Grupo de Especialistas en Cocodrilos (CSG).

We investigated the effects of temperature on the growth of Caiman latirostris to help evaluate an economical method to grow captive animals to marketable size. Temperature and diet have been shown to influence caiman and crocodilian growth. Animals maintained at higher temperatures increased food consumption and growth. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of food conversion of C. latirostris at water temperature of 29°C and 33°C. Sixty-eight farm incubated and captive raised animals, two months old, hatched from eggs taken from four wild nests were used for this study. All study groups were maintained in similar environmental treatments except for temperature. After two month of raising, hatchlings at 33°C had body mass and total length greater than those at 29°C. The food conversion rate at 33°C was twice that at 29°C.