The Golden Trevally Gnathanodon speciosus is a popular sport, food, and ornamental fish native to the tropical Indo‐Pacific region, yet there is little information regarding aquaculture technologies. A group of Golden Trevally broodfish was acquired from a local public aquarium in an effort to attempt captive spawning and larval culture. Broodfish were held in 4,500‐L recirculating aquaculture systems and conditioned on a mixed diet of squid, capelin, and krill. Once water temperatures were averaging 26°C, Ovaplant was administered to mature broodfish (six males, two females) in one of the systems. Broodfish spawned on three separate occasions after this hormone administration, releasing probably 35,000 eggs/female during each spawn. Fertile eggs from two of these spawns were used for larval culture attempts. Larvae were stocked into five 104‐L tanks at densities up to 173 larvae/L. Throughout larval culture trials, larvae were fed a combination of copepod nauplii, enriched rotifers, Artemia nauplii, and a dry diet, and the tank water was inoculated with live Tahitian strain Isochrysis galbana up to 26 d posthatch (dph). Larvae achieved complete metamorphosis around 30 dph. By 45 dph, nearly 4.3% of the larvae initially stocked survived and reached about 3.7 cm in length. These successful spawning induction and larval culture trials are promising for future development of a commercial‐level production industry for Golden Trevally.
Larval Gulf Killifish Fundulus grandis hatching from air‐incubated eggs are precocial, with well‐developed mouths and eyes providing an immediate capacity for exogenous feeding. Live feeds are almost universally used in finfish and crustacean hatcheries, with newly hatched brine shrimp Artemia spp. nauplii being a standard. Across two experiments from hatch in Gulf Killifish, we evaluated the ability to replace Artemia nauplii with prepared diets. Experiment 1 measured growth and survival from hatch through 8 weeks in larval Gulf Killifish fed either Artemia nauplii or one of five commercially available diets. Experiment 2 measured survival and SL of Gulf Killifish larvae at 5, 10, and 15 d posthatch among treatments consisting of animals fed Artemia nauplii, the best‐performing commercial diet from experiment 1, or an experimental microbound diet or “co‐fed” the microbound diet and Artemia. In experiment 1, Gulf Killifish larvae fed live Artemia nauplii exhibited growth that significantly outperformed commercially available formulated diets. Mean ± SE (SEM) survival (%) among treatments ranged from 51.1 ± 7.4 to 86.2 ± 2.1. Larvae fed one commercially prepared diet outperformed larvae fed the other four commercial diets in terms of growth. In experiment 2, mean SL was significantly different among treatments by 15 d posthatch. Mean ± SEM survival (%) across all treatments in experiment 2 ranged from 87.7 ± 0.8 to 99.2 ± 0.4. Results of these experiments are some of the first to document acceptable growth and survival of finfish larvae when Artemia nauplii are completely replaced with formulated diets from hatch. The distinctive larval biology of the study species in concert with the ability to air‐incubate the embryos were presumably important factors in the ability to completely replace Artemia nauplii from hatch.
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