Enhanced biodiversity of gut flora and feed efficiency in pond cultured tilapia under reduced frequency feeding strategies.

Feed constitutes 50-70% of total production costs of tilapia, one of the most widely cultured finfishes in the world. We evaluated reduced-feeding strategies for improving production efficiency of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). In a 12-week pond trial, fish were fed daily, every other day, every third day, or not at all.