Grass carp - Growth

Under natural conditions grass carp can grow to 5kg in 3 years (Ni and Wang, 1999). In Lake Wales, Florida, a Hydrilla verticillata infested lake, average daily growth of grass carp was 10.3 g/day, reaching 962 mm TL and 15.0 kg after 48 months (Shireman et al., 1980).  The natural growth of grass carp fry in length and weight is best described by the exponential equations
L = 13.2296e010248D , n = 268 , r2 = 0.812 , P<0.00001
W= 0.0348e010769D , n = 268 , r2 = 0.811 , P< 0.00001
where L = body length (mm), W =  body weight (g) and D = days after hatching (Song and Cao, 2001).