February 15-18, 2009 Washington State Convention Center Seattle ...

SUCCESSFUL CULTURE OF PINFISH Lagodon rhomboides AND PIGFISH Orthopristis
chrysoptera IN RECIRCULATING AQUACULTURE SYSTEMS AT VARIOUS STOCKING
DENSITIES
Cortney L. Ohs*, Scott W. Grabe, Shawn M. DeSantis, Andrew L. Rhyne and Matthew A. DiMaggio
University of Florida
School of Forest Resources and Conservation
Program in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
Indian River Research and Education Center
2199 S. Rock Road
Fort Pierce, FL 34945 USA
cohs@ufl.edu
The culture of marine baitfish has great potential in coastal states. Almost all marine baitfish used by anglers are collected
from the wild and are subject to seasonal availability of species and demanded sizes of fish. Little research has been conducted
on the culture of pinfish and pigfish even though they are popular bait species in the Gulf and southern Atlantic coastal states.
Therefore, experiments were conducted to determine the effects of various stocking densities on growth and survival of pinfish
and pigfish in recirculating aquaculture systems.
Pinfish obtained from the wild were stocked at four densities (0.5, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6/L) at an initial mean weight of 5.36 g and mean
length of 8.9 cm into three separate recirculating aquaculture systems. Each system had four tanks containing 800 L of natural
seawater and one replicate of each treatment was randomly assigned to each system. Each system consisted of a bead filter,
foam fractionator, and a UV sterilizer. Throughout the experiment salinity was maintained at 28±2 g/L. Pinfish were fed a
commercially available diet for 82 days. At the conclusion of the experiments survival, growth, and FCR was determined.
Treatment survival means ranged from 94.3 to 99.2% with no significant differences between treatments.
Pigfish obtained from the wild were stocked at three densities (0.1, 0.3, 0.5/L). Mean weight of fish in each tank ranged from
8.6 to 11.6 g and mean length ranged from 8.4 to 9.6 cm. The system consisted of twelve 85 L aquaria equipped with a biofilter,
foam fractionator, and UV sterilizer. Each treatment density was replicated four times. Salinity throughout the experiment was
28±2 g/L. Pinfish were fed a commercially available diet for 65 days. At the conclusion of the experiments survival, growth,
and FCR was determined. Treatment survival means were 22% for 0.1/L, 38.3% for 0.3/L, and 57.8% for 0.5/L. This lower
than desired survival may have been due to the smaller size of tanks used or the aggressive nature of pigfish.
Both pinfish and pigfish show great promise as new aquaculture species and they have well established markets with high
demand and seasonal availability.
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