Can Bia Models be Applied to Other Species?

Bioelectrical impedance analysis has the potential to provide a non-lethal means of assessing condition, body composition and health in fish.  However, to develop models requires sacrifice of fish to determine their body composition.  Thereafter, models can be applied to that species non-lethally.  The need to kill fish in model development limits application to rare species.  Here lab experiments were conducted with a novel fish species to evaluate the ability of a BIA model to predict composition of a closely-related species.  Possible benefits and pitfalls of species borrowing for BIA models is discussed.