Use of Tilapia as Supplemental Forage for Channel Catfish Broodstock

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of supplemental feeding with forage fish on the spawning success and egg quality of channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus. Channel catfish broodstock were maintained for 2 years on a diet of either commercial catfish feed with 32% protein or commercial catfish feed and live blue tilapia. Fish fed forage fish had significantly larger eggs and a higher gonadosomatic index prior to the second spawning season. They also spawned larger eggs, had a higher hatch rate, and produced more and larger fry than fish fed only commercial feed. During the second year of the study, growth rates and food conversion ratios were better over the winter months for channel catfish fed supplemental forage but worse over the summer months compared with fish fed only commercial feed. Over the two spawning seasons, broodstock fed forage fish produced an average of 9,221 sac fry/kg of females stocked in the spawning ponds. The addition of 10-15 kg/ha of blue tilapia to channel catfish broodstock ponds in the summer appears to be a practical method of increasing spawning success and fry production.

Influence of forage fish and dietary lipid supplements on egg quality and fry production in channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) × blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) hybridization

“…1997; Oster 2002; USDA 2006). While this type of lipid supplementation has previously shown a marked improvement in egg and brooder quality (Torrans & Lowell 2001), the affects of forage fish in this study were overshadowed by the diet with a direct supplementation of menhaden fish oil, ARA and DHA.…”

Relationship of Gonadal Development to Body Size and Plasma Sex Hormone Concentrations in Female Channel Catfish

“…A spawning rate of over 50% for 2-year-old channel catfish was achieved by light stocking densities and intense feeding supplemented with tilapia Tilapia spp. as live forage (Torrans and Lowell 2001). In the present study with channel catfish, plasma estrogen concentration appeared to be a more accurate indicator of gonadal maturation than body weight in selecting female channel catfish with advanced gonadal development.…”

Effect of diet (fatty acid and protein) content during spawning season on fertility, eggs and larvae quality of common porgy (Pagrus pagrus, Linnaeus 1758)

“…In some fish species, LC-PUFA (Long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids) in broodstock nutrition increase fertility, fertilization and egg quality. This has been described in species such as sea bream, Sparus aurata (Mourente and Odriozola, 1990, Fernandez-Palacios et al, 1995, halibut, Hippoglossus hipoglossus (Bruce et al, 1993;Mazorra et al, 2003), sea bass, Dicentrarchus labrax (Cerdá et al, 1994b;Carrillo et al, 1995;Navas et al, 1997), Japanese sea bream, Pagrus major (Watanabe et al, 1984a,b,c,d;1985 a,b;1991), trout rainbow, Oncorhynchus mykis (Washburn et al, 1990;Choubert and White, 1993;Choubert et al, 1998) Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar (Eskelinen, 1989;Christiansen and Torrissen, 1997), coho salmon, Oncorhynchus kisutch (Hardy et al, 1984;, tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus (Cumaratunga and Mallika, 1991;Gunasekera et al, 1995Gunasekera et al, , 1996aGunasekera et al, , b, 1997Siddiqui et al, 1998), common carp Cyprinus carpio (Manissery et al, 2001)Japanese flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus (Furuita et al, 2003, ) yellowtail Seriola quinqueradiata (Agius et al, 2001), Senegal sole, Solea senegalensis (Dinis et al, 1999), milkfish, Chanos chanos (Emata et al, 2000), turbot, Scophthalmus maximus (Lavens et al, 1999), and the catfish, Ictalurus punctatus (Torrans and Lowell, 2001). The aim of this study is to determine how food quality of broodstock could affect fertility and egg quality.…”