PRINCIPLES OF

AQUACULTURE
(AKU3201)
LeSSon 7

LARVAL REARING
Larviculture

All handlings from broodstock till the

production of fry ready for stocking in
grow-out facilities

• 70s- Use of wild fry

• Domestication: closing the cycle
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 Main handicaps of larviculture
• Fragile & small

• Various developmental stages

• Size : mouth opening

• Primitive
- Digestive system
- Locomotion
- Perceptibility of food
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 Things to consider
• Uniform and healthy larval population
- gentle aeration
- avoid mechanical & physical stress
- Water quality & temperature
- Live feed
- Examine larvae everyday
- Record everything
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 Larvae development

Growth
• Barbodes gonionotus larvae will be weighed weekly with 10 larvae from each replicate in
each treatment to get the average weight of the larvae.

• Obtained data will be calculated by using following formulas:

a) Weight gain (g) = mean final fish weight (g) – mean initial fish weight (g)

b) Percentage weight gain (%) =

c) Specific growth rate (SGR % per day) =

Where,
W1 = Initial live body weight (g) at time T1 (day).
W2 = Final live body weight (g) at time T2 (day).
• Hatchery

- Controlled condition

- Specific culture techniques

- Broodstock =>Eggs=> Larvae => Fry

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 Broodstock
• Normal body shape & colour
• Absence of skeletal deformities
• Healthy
• Normal behavior
• Largest size within its age group (>4kg and >3
years)
• The best growth & FCR
• Ready to reproduce
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• Select & quarantine
• Quarantine facilities – isolated from other
facilities
• Anaesthetised –MS222 (20-50 ppm)
• Induced breading

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 PLACEMENT
• WHERE DO WE PLACE AFTER HATCHING?

• Egg types ?

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Zug Jar- Egg incubation

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Macdonald jar

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 TIME REQUIRED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF EGGS
OF DIFFERENT SPECIES
OPTIMAL
NUMBER OF DAYS OR
TEMPERATURE OF
NAME OF FISH HOURS
INCUBATION, °C
Common carp (Cyprinus
20–22 3.5–4 days
carpio)
Silver carp
(Hypophthalmichthys 22–25 1–1.5 days
molitrix)
Bighead carp
23–26 1–1.5 days
(Aristichthys nobilis)
Rohu (Labeo rohita) 24–30 14–20 hours

Catla (Catla catla) 24–30 14–20 hours

Asian catfish
28–29 23–25 hours
(Pangasius sutchi)
Clarias macrocephalus 26–30 18–20 hours
Giant gourami
28 44–48 hours
(Osphronemus goramy)
Channel catfish
24–30 14–20 hours
(Ictalurus punctatus)
Grey mullet
20–22 50–60 hours
(Mugil cephalus) 24
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 SIZE OF EGGS AND LARVAL LENGTH AT HATCHING IN DIFFERENT SPECIES OF FISH
(MODIFIED FROM JONES AND HOUDE, 1981).

Species Egg diameter (mm) Length of larvae (mm)

Salmon (Salmo salar) 5.0 - .0 15.0 - 25.0

Trout (Salmo gairdneri) 4.0 12.0 - 20.0

Carp (Cyprinus carpio) 0.9 - 1.6 4.8 - 6.2

Bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) 1.2 - 1.4 7.0 - 8.0

Bream (Sparus aurata) 0.9 - 1.1 3.5 - 4.0

Turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) 0.9 - 1.2 2.7 - 3.0

Sole (Solea solea) 1.0 - 1.4 3.2 - 3.7

Milkfish (Chanos chanos) 1.1 - 1.25 3.2 - 3.4

Grey mullet (Mugil cephalus) 0.9 - 1.0 1.4 - 2.4

Grouper (Epinephelus tauvina) 0.77 - 0.90 1.4 - 2.4

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Bream (Acanthopagrus cuvieri) 0.78 - 0.84 1.8 - 2.0
Incubation tank

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• Newly hatched larvae attach themselves vertically
along the wall surface

• Swimming larvae move up & down and to the water

surface to fill their air bladder

• Once it is filled & functional, the larvae swim

horizontally

• Developed digestive tract & eat exogenous food =

early fry
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 Vigorous vertical swimming

(A) Slow vertical swimming

(B) Clinging to objects without moving

(C) Clinging to objects, moving tail continuously

(D) Lying on the bottom

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Yolk sac for 3 weeks

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Yolk sac for 3 days

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100% should have prey in digestive tract

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 Perceptibility of food

• Good contrast in water

• Triggering movement/ attractants

• Distribution/ encounter

• Buoyancy – remain floating

• Water movement

• Prey catching

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 Fry (Feeding commences)
• Fry may still have some yolk at this stage but they are ready to prey on
small organisms (zooplankton).

• Best food organisms for fry are the big size protozoans and rotifers. It is
highly recommended that these fry be stock in well fertilized ponds.
But when such case is not possible fry can be fed with yolk of hard-boiled
chicken egg in hatcheries, this kind feeding should not be more than 1–2
days.

• Avoid overfeeding- growth of bacteria will be accelerated in poor water

quality. Fry kept in hatchery for long time will become weak, easily get
infected with parasites (mainly protozoa)
 Transition live feed to artificial feed
Weaning

- To stimulate fish to accept artificial diet

- Live feed + artificial diet

- Slight increase aeration

- Increase of water renewal & cleaning

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 Rearing of larvae to fry/fingerling stage:

• Two diff. techniques

1) Rearing in earthern ponds at the fish farm

2) Two phased seed rearing
- Phase 1- inside the hatchery building
- Phase 2- rearing in earthern pond
* stocked with about 3-4 days old larvae usually in
the morning hours.

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• Hatchery => Nursery => Grow-out

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 Nursery
• Culture fry from hatchery to juvenile size
e.g., seabass (fry 1-2.5 cm)to (juvenile 8-10 cm)

• In tank, space competition & accumulation of

excess feed in bottom

• Juvenile reared in nurseries are better than

those stocked directly to the grow-out ponds

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 Grading before stocking to grow-out

• Juveniles graded into diff. size groups & stocked

in separate grow-out ponds
• Small => medium => large

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 Importance of fish grading

• Good growth
• Reduce cannibalism
• Prevent competition between big & small fish
• Correct size for better management
• Correct amount of food for feed

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 Other things to consider

• Feeding strategies
• Microbial control
• Improved techniques different from
conventional nursery & grow-out
procedures

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SHRIMP

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 SHRIMP

Breeding

Open thelycum Close thelycum

 SHRIMP

Breeding
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• Different larval changes
• Changing from herbivorous filter
feeding to carnivorous hunting
behaviour
• Phytoplankton = Protozoea 1,2
and 3

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 Biosecurity and Health Management

Preventing introduction, establishment and spread of biological

organisms or agents. Biosecurity program can be applied at several
levels, including pond, farm, locality up to national levels.
It involves sets of procedure to eliminate or reduce the risk of a
particular pathogen
a) Entering the farm
b) spreading within a pond, between ponds, to other farms or to the
wider environment.
 An effective biosecurity strategy

1. Stock only postlarvae that have acceptable test

results in terms of pathogen prevalence and load
2. Do nit exceed optimal stocking densities
3. Eliminate or reduce risk from potential vectors on the
farm
4. Use water management practices that prevent or
reduce contamination by the pathogen
5. Reduce the risk of spreading infection between ponds
by restricting movements of people, equipment and
other possible agents
6. Implement a health management program that aims
to minimize stress to culture organism by the pond
environment
 Disease Prevention
1. Water quality
2. Feed quality
3. Quarantine (any new fish brought onto the farm should be
quarantined for a minimum of two weeks to identify any diseases,
pathogens or parasites they may be carrying)
4. Non-infectious diseases
5. Cannibalism
6. Viral and bacterial infections
7. Parasitic diseases