Fish breeding programs (Hubbs)

  • Aquaculture can be very productive. If tanks are cleaned properly and brood stock is cycled properly, there should be little chance of disease outbreak or genetic defects.
    I like the idea of stocking wild fisheries with juveniles, but this is a means to an end, more like a kick-start to nature, rather than an ongoing program to replenish what is caught.


    Also I believe some species should be cultured and others not. In general i favor the culture of low trophic level fishes, shrimps, bivalves, etc... way more economical than culturing top predatory fishes whos feed consists of fish (usually wild caught). ( although here we have AJ culture that is rather productive due to soy based feed) but still...tilapia can eat algae that grows naturally in tanks.

  • Tough call. Releasing hatchery reared fish isn't likely to increase numbers in the wild. Numbers are down because if fishing pressure most likely. Or pressure on young fish by disproportionately high levels or predators.
    Tougher laws restricting takes will work. Look what it did for Goliath grouper in Florida.


    I'm all for aquaculture.....duuhhhh....haha. I've been doing it professionally for 39 years. It pisses me off when someone tries something new, like seabass culture and all it gets is negative feedback because ....it's new. Nothing works well at first. Technology needs time to develop. And it's ongoing.


    Patience.....

  • The Japanese supposedly farmed the first "sustainable" bluefin tuna just a few years ago on a small, experimental basis. Iirc it takes about 7 years for a bluefin to reach "slaughter size" but while they have farmed tunas for a while, this batch was a full cycle one - meaning it was from eggs hatched in farms. Dunno about what they feed them, but for a fish like this - perhaps it would make sense to farm it... Not sure on my own stance on the matter, just passing along info.

  • If tuna is like cobia. the food conversion ratio goes up a lot after about 2-3 kg in weight. It makes cobia too expensive to grow. At a body wt of 2 kg the FCR is about 1.5 to one. (1.5 kg of feed to 1 kg of fish) At 5 kg body weight, it goes up to about 4:1. And cobia sells for the same price as tilapia.
    Tuna may be ok because it does command a premium price.
    The key will be growing some cheap fish (tilapia) on algae, that's grown using the waste of the tuna. Chop them up and feed the tuna.
    Integrated, multi species marine farms....that's going to feed the world some day. :)
    But man, farmed cobia, to me anyway, tastes better than wild. It's so fatty...almost greasy.

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