Growth

Abstract

If its rate of food consumption is sufficiently high, a fish can, in addition to meeting the energy costs of maintenance, synthesize new tissue. This tissue may be either retained within the body as growth, including any storage products, or disseminated as gametes. Growth constructs the framework and metabolic machinery necessary to synthesize and to protect the gametes until their release. The process of natural selection will lead to the evolution of patterns of growth that tend to maximize the lifetime production of offspring. Growth and reproduction are complementary processes but both depend on the limited resources of energy and nutrients made available by the foraging behaviour of the fish. This chapter discusses the factors that affect the growth of fishes and explores the methods that are used to predict growth.