Model and software development for predicting fish growth in trout raceways

A software program was built using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) in MicrosoftRTM Excel. The purpose of the software is to allow users to manage their raceways more efficiently by providing a tool to simulate the performance of an existing raceway or to predict the behavior of a raceway under a wide variety of operating scenarios. The program considers the behavior of a system of multiple raceways arranged both in series and parallel configurations, and allows for the addition, removal and combination of different cohorts at different times in different raceways. Input data required include properties of the incoming water such as temperature, flowrate, oxygen and nitrogen content, and salinity. Fish growth is predicted using these input data along with food composition and feeding rates. Oxygen and nitrogen levels in the raceways are predicted using input data and stocking information that is provided by the user and fish mortality and density are also computed. In addition, the costs of food and purchases of fish, and the revenue from the sale of fish are also tracked.;A comprehensive user manual for the software is included that provides information on: the basic operation of the program and all the programming features; troubleshooting and error messages; and, a worked example showing many of the features of the program.