Body weight and growth rate in laboratory lines ofPoecilia reticulata reared on two different diets.

Body weight and growth rate of fish from three laboratory lines fed with two different diets have been analyzed. The differences in response to the diets seem to be related to the different degree of genetic homogeneity of the lines considered. The most homogeneous line shows the greatest variation under the two diets for average body weight at 30 and 70 days as well as for growth rate. An effect of the parents' diet on their offspring was also observed. The increase in growth rate observed when fish are fed with the live food diet is amplified when the progenies derive from parents fed with the dry food diet. Moreover, an effect due to the mother's size is also evident on the mean values of body weight at 30 days. The persistence of this maternal effect on the offspring phenotype during post-embryonic development seems to depend on the degree of genetic homogeneity of the line considered-being the greatest in the most homogeneous line.