Broodstock Managment and larval rearing - Essay Example

In this system, water exists through the centre of the tank by gravity and is then through bag filters of sizes 300 um for filtration before going through a sump that maintains the levels of water. After this, system water is then pressurized by 2-hp pump through a glass media filter that is capable of trapping and retaining particles of up to 5um, and then passed through a UV filter followed by a 8-hp heat pump temperature control before going back to the maturation tank (Benetti et al, 2010).

Approximately 25% of the pressurized, flowing water is passed through a side loop made up of a trickle biofilter and a foam fractionators before going back to the maturation tanks (Benetti et al, 2010). Biological control for ecto-parasites that may affect the broodstock during maturation in the maturation tanks is very important. Neon Gobies (Gobiosoma oceanops) is often stocked together with broodstock fish as a cleaner fish. Research has shown that Neon gobies has been successfully used to prevent ecto-parasites in maturation tanks with mutton snapper, and greater amberjack, thus its interaction with cobia adults may be helpful in maintaining broodstock cobia (Benetti et al, 2010).

Diet used for feeding broodstock is made up of artificial formulated feeds as well as squid, sardines and no lesser degree shrimp. This should consist of about 3-5% of biomass daily. Mineral and vitamin supplements are also given to the broodstock daily especially when frozen feed is used mainly to compliment any possible nutritional deficiency that may arise from frozen feed (Benetti et al, 2010). To obtain spawns, the environmental conditions upon which broodstock is kept is manipulated especially the water temperature.

As stated by Aquaculture Research (2008), all spawns occurred naturally at a temperature of 24-300C during the natural reproduction season extending from April to march yearly. Trials have indicated that females can