Growing a profitable, innovative, collaborative Australian yellowtail kingfish aquaculture industry: bringing ‘white’ fish to the market WA Component

Publication Date

4-2017

Series Number

FRDC Project No 2016-200.40

Publisher

Fisheries Research and Development Corporation

City

Canberra

ISBN

978-0-9871696-3-1

Abstract

This set of experiments compared the growth performance, survival and health of yellowtail kingfish (YTK) sourced from two different hatcheries (Strain 1 and Strain 2) fed on various diets over a commercially relevant time period of 56 weeks (ca. 13 months). Fish health was assessed routinely throughout the trial using histology, haematology, blood biochemistry and by measuring various immune parameters via both flow cytometry and more classical techniques.

The 56 week trial was split into four blocks investigating different dietary treatments in each block. One diet (Diet B) was fed throughout all four blocks and during an interim period between Block 2 and 3.

Block 1 was conducted over a three month period and compared three commercially available diets from an average starting fish weight of 67 grams. Diets A & B are diets formulated specifically for marine fish, whilst Diet C is a barramundi diet. Block 2 followed immediately after Block 1 with an average fish starting weight of 938 g. This trial ran for four months and compared the performance and health status of fish fed Diet B with and without the addition of two commercially available immunostimulants. A fourth treatment was included in this block in which those fish fed Diet C in Block 1 were switched to Diet B in order to gauge their recovery from this diet. Block 3 compared the growth performance of fish fed 9 mm pellets of the aforementioned Diets A and Diet B as well as a 9 mm diet of another commercially available diet, Diet D. This trial commenced with an average fish weight of 2.6 kg and was conducted over a three month period. Block 4 was a four week continuation of Block 3 comparing Diet B and Diet D, with a fish starting weight of 3.5 kg.

This project demonstrated significant differences in the performance of YTK fed different diets across a commercially relevant time frame. It has generated growth and FCR data that are superior to those reported previously and that will be used to generate more industry-relevant growth models for optimising feeding and food conversion ratios in warm-water environments. The project has been highly successfully in generating large volumes of baseline data on health and has generated new techniques and skill sets within Western Australia that will be of key importance to the developing YTK industry in this state. The project has identified several areas for future work that have potential in improving YTK health and subsequently the profitability and sustainability of the industry.

Number of Pages

187

Keywords

Yellowtail kingfish, Seriola lalandi, Aquaculture, Commercial diets, Nutrition, Bacterial disease, Photobacterium, Vibrio, Immunostimulant, Histology, Immunology, Haematology

Disciplines

Aquaculture and Fisheries | Behavior and Ethology | Biochemistry | Comparative Nutrition | Digestive System | Environmental Monitoring | Marine Biology | Molecular Biology | Natural Resources Management and Policy | Population Biology

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