Aquaculture of Sea Breams and Porgies

Liu Xinfu
Research Professor
Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, CAFS
Tel：13969695682
E-mail: liuxf@ysfri.ac.cn
 Outline
1. Taxonomy and Biology
2. Status of aquaculture and capture
3. Reproduction and broodstock
4. Juvenile Production
5. Quality of juvenile
6. Pre-ongrowing
7. Growout
8. Discoloration problems
1.1 Taxonomy
– Family :Sparidae，Order: Perciformes
– Including 35 genera and 118 species
– One of the most important farmed family of fishes

Japanese sea bream (Pagrus major) The gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata)

Common pandora (Pagellus erythrinus) A salema (Sarpa a salema)

1.2 Biology

– Temperate and tropical waters

– Coastal and demersal dwelling, northern hemisphere
– Some use estuaries as nurseries
– Carnivores, living in group,
– Middle size, hard, beautiful colour, tasty
– Easiness for live harvest and domestication
– One of the earliest fish to close the life cycle
– Have a long history of Aquaculture (1958)
– Aquaculture production 400 thousands tons in 2018
– Main culture regions: Asian and Mediterranean
– Diversified species is beneficial for breeding
 Outline
1. Taxonomy and Biology
2. Status of aquaculture and capture
3. Reproduction and broodstock
4. Juvenile Production
5. Quality of juvenile
6. Pre-ongrowing
7. Growout
8. Discoloration problems
2.1 Closed life cycle in culture systems: Gilthead seabream
2.2 Capture and Aquaculture production

FAO, FishStatPlus2020
2.3 Aquaculture production of main species

FAO, FishStatPlus2020
2.4 Aquaculture production and price

FAO, FishStatPlus2020
 Outline
1. Taxonomy and Biology
2. Status of aquaculture and capture
3. Reproduction and broodstock
4. Juvenile Production
5. Quality of juvenile
6. Pre-ongrowing
7. Growout
8. Discoloration problems
 3 Reproduction
• Sequential hermaphrodites—protogynous (red porgy)/
prtoandrous (gilthead sea bream)/
gonochoristic(Japanese sea bream)
• Maturation males 2-3 years and female 4-6years
• Easiness for the maturation and spawning in captivity
• No need for hormonal treatment
• Spawn daily or in a highly cyclical fashion
• Long spawning season (60-160 days)
• High Fecundity (0.4 -3.2 million 6 eggs/kg BW)
• Pelagic eggs (800-1000 μm)
3.1 Sexual reversal

Schematic representation of the gonadal histology of gilthead sea bream during the
second reproductive season (23–24 months old).
 3.2 Broodstock Management

• Spawning tank volume tank volume 5-100 m³ (20-40m³ )

• Tank depth 1.5-2m
• Culture density 1-15 kg/m³ (<3kg/m³ ）
• Water exchange rates: 2-4 changes/day
• Disease control：bathing before and after spawning
• Sex rates around 1:1
• Feed: fish, shrimp, cuttlefish, worms, sausage, dry pellet
• Feeding daily, Feeding rate 1-1.5% bodyweight
• Water temperature (11-26 ℃) and light (300-500lux)
• Genetic and breeding: Super sea bream in Japan
3.2.1 Broodstock pond and tank

Above left: Backup broodstock pond

Above right: Small broodstock tank in
Europe
Below: Large broodstock tank in
Japan
3.2.2 Broodstock spawning

Daily egg production and fertilization success of a white sea bream (Diplodus
sargus) broodstock at the Hellenic Center for Marine Research, Crete, Greece
 Outline
1. Taxonomy and Biology
2. Status of aquaculture and capture
3. Reproduction and broodstock
4. Juvenile Production
5. Quality of juvenile
6. Pre-ongrowing
7. Growout
8. Discoloration problems
4 Juvenile Production
• One of the earlies group of marine fishes to have their life cycle closed
• Rearing method: clear, green, pseudo-green
• Rearing tank volume tank volume 1-100 m³
• Tank depth 1.5-2m
• Rearing density: 10-100 larvae/L
• Final density:<12 juveniles/L (20-30mm)
• Water temperature: 18-20 ℃
• Water exchange rates: 10-600%/day
• Light:300-400 lux
• Aeration: 20-50ml/min before the inflation of swim bladder
• Microalgae: 3-30 DAH, TL 3.5-11.5mm, 50-200 cell/ml
• Rotifer: 3-30 DAH, 5-20 ind./ml
• Artemia: 18-40 DAH, 6.0-15.0mm, 0.5-2 ind./ml
• Pellet/ fish meat: >9.0mm
• Survival rate: 0-50 DAH, 30mm, 60-70%
• Cannibalism control: light and Artemia feeding
• Disease control：disinfection, get rid of black and weak juveniles, cleaning
4.1 General hatchery layout: Europe
 4.2 General hatchery layout: Japan

Toilet Pump
Room

Hall

Door Tank Room Water disinfection

Room
Walkway

Laboratory Power
Tank Room Boiler
Room Tank Room
Room

Equipment Room

Artemia
Room

Hatchery Room
 4.3 Egg management
• Egg collection, transport, disinfection, weighting and incubation
• Egg quality: fertilization and hatching rates, volumes, sizes,
spawning time
• Thermal and salinity:
15-18 ℃，31-37ppt
• Hatching hours: 60-72
• Hathing tanks: 500-
1000L
• Density: 200-1000
eggs/L
• Water Exchange: 2-24
exchanges/day
4.3.1 Egg and larva development of Japanese red porgy
4.4.1 Larvae rearing tanks

Above left: Small concrete tank in

China
Above right: Small FRP tank in
Europe
Below: Large conrete tank in Japan
4.4.2 Surface film cleaning and bottom cleaning

Above left: Surface film cleaning in

big tank
Above right: Surface film cleaning in
small tank
Below: Bottom cleaning robot in large
tank
4.4.3 Juvenile harvesting

Above left and blow: Harvesting

juveniles from small tank
Above right: Harvesting juveniles
from large tank
4.4.4 Counting

standard sample

Above left: Weighting with scale

Above right: Visual estimation with a
standard sample
Below: Auto-counting equipment
4.4.5 Juvenile transportation

Above left and right: Plastic bags

sealed with pure oxygen
Below: Open tanks with aeration and
supplement of pure oxygen
 Outline
1. Taxonomy and Biology
2. Status of aquaculture and capture
3. Reproduction and broodstock
4. Juvenile Production
5. Quality of juvenile
6. Pre-ongrowing
7. Growout
8. Discoloration problems
 5.1 Quality of juvenile

Main factors influencing gilthead seabream and seabass fry rearing performances in
Greece
5.2 Abnormal of bones
5.3 Normal and reduced operculum

Gilthead sea bream at 72 days posthatching

(DPH) showing a normal (above left) and
reduced (above right) operculum, and more
advanced reduction of operculum with
consequent exposure of the branchial arches
(below).
 Outline
1. Taxonomy and Biology
2. Status of aquaculture and capture
3. Reproduction and broodstock
4. Juvenile Production
5. Quality of juvenile
6. Pre-ongrowing
7. Growout
8. Discoloration problems
 6 Pre-ongrowing

• Nursery in the hatchery until 2-5g or 10-30g (for open sea condition)
• Grading
• Remove of malformed fish (skeletal deformities in snout, opercula, and
backbone and the absence of swim-bladder)
• Typical divergence in size should be not more than 20% of the average
weight of the batch
• Vaccination is performed against some common bacteria (Listonella
anguillarum and Photobacterium damsel subsp. piscicida)
• Density: <10kg/m³
• Water exchange rate：600-1000%/day
• RAS becomes popular in Europe
• Parasite control
6.1 Pre-ongrowing cages and tanks

Above left: Nearshore small cage

Above right: Raceway tanks in
Europe
Below: Indoor large tank in Asia
 Outline
1. Taxonomy and Biology
2. Status of aquaculture and capture
3. Reproduction and broodstock
4. Juvenile Production
5. Quality of juvenile
6. Pre-ongrowing
7. Growout
8. Discoloration problems
7. Growout

Above left: Nearshore small cage

Above right: Offshore large cage tanks Europe
Below: Pond in Southern Europe
Culture density: Pond 0.1-0.5 kg/m³ ,
Cage <30 kg/m³ , RAS 50-100 kg/m³ , Flow-
through <25 kg/m³
7.1 Characteristics of different land based systems
7.2 Water quality parameters for grow-out of sparids (red sea
bream and gilthead sea bream)
7.3 Production of gilthead sea bream by size in the main
producing countries
 Outline
1. Taxonomy and Biology
2. Status of aquaculture and capture
3. Reproduction and broodstock
4. Juvenile Production
5. Quality of juvenile
6. Pre-ongrowing
7. Growout
8. Discoloration problems
 8 Discoloration problems

• Skin pigmentation in fish is of great physiological, behavioral, and

ecological importance.
• Provide protection from predators and contribute to inter- and
intraspecific territoriality, crypsis and survival.
• Prime factor of fish welfare and quality of product
• Decisive role for acceptance of the product by the consumer and for
market price.
• Red sparids exhibit significant dispigmentation problems, considerably
reducing their market appeal.
• Skin color regulated by factors of neuroendocrine, environmental, and
husbandry
8.1 Pigmentation patterns of some commercially
important Sparidae species

(a) Gilthead sea bream;

(b) pink dentex; (c)
Blue-spotted sea
bream; (d) Morocco
dentex; (e) red porgy
or common sea bream;
(f) Red or Japanese sea
bream;(g) Crimson sea
bream; (h) Yellowfin
sea bream: (i) Picknic
sea bream
8.2 Suntanned Japanese porgy

Suntanned red sea bream, Pagrus major, in a net cage. (a) Wild; (b) Suntanned;
(c) Shaded red sea bream bred in net cages with black curtains. Scale bars, 200
μm. (d) Sampling position for melanin quantification.
 8.3 Regulation of skin color

• Neuro-endocrine control of skin color

• Environmental control and husbandry practices
affecting skin color
• Diet
• Light
• Stress
• Nutrition
Thanks for listening!