Authors tested a commercial probiotic designed to lower stress prior to and during fish transport. Treatment at 10 ppm produced highest survival and growth.
Collaborative research in Florida is developing technologies for rearing marine fish in low-cost, low-salinity recirculating systems. Spawning and larval production studies have led to the mass production of juveniles.
Researchers at the Gondol Research Institute for Mariculture in Indonesia have studied the artificial propagation of groupers since 1995. In 2001, GRIM began successfully producing grouper seedstock at commercial-scale levels.
Sea bream fry are produced using the greenwater technique in which microalgae are added to larval-rearing tanks during the first 20 to 30 days after hatching.
In studies, sodium carbonate peroxyhydrate proved an effective alternative to formalin and hydrogen peroxide as a treatment for controlling fungal infections of catfish eggs and improving hatch rates.
The continued application of genome research to aquaculture will provide unprecedented accuracy for genetic selection of performance and production traits.
Although researchers have studied the roles of lipid-soluble vitamins in larger fish, limited information exists on the functions and dietary requirements of these nutrients in marine fish larvae.
The Ecofish project is developing the commercial rearing of Ballan wrasse and methods for use of the fish to control sea lice in cod and salmon cages.
Research has shown that an extended photoperiod for Atlantic cod females leads to reduced gonadal growth, faster body growth and shorter grow-out production periods.
The chemical communicators pheromones can be used to induce increased feeding activity in a range of farmed species. Preliminary commercial testing with pheromone feeding stimulants sprayed onto the surface of water prior to feeding found better feed utilization in fish and better water quality. Pheromone applications also produced shrimp that were 30 percent larger than the control shrimp and had a significantly faster rate of growth.
By combining husbandry practices aimed at stress reduction with better disease management higher barramundi survival rates will be the likely result.
Vaccination combined with good disease management can improve fish survival, improve feed conversion, reduce costs and secure predictable production.
In a study in Indonesia, increases in efficiency in power use resulted from the combined application of biofloc technology and partial harvest.
Cost-effective seedstock supply is needed for commercial production of sea urchins. Metamorphosis from free-swimming planktonic larvae to benthic grazers has presented a significant challenge.
Some transgenic fish – lines of “high-growth” tilapia, salmon and carp – are nearing the stage at which they could be considered for commercial production.
Modular production of channel catfish offers better inventory control, takes advantage of early-age growth rates and reduces harvest-size variation.