The wreckfish, Polyprion americanus, is a large, demersal tele-ost
fish. It inhabits an area that spans from the littoral region to
a depth of 1,000 m, mainly over rocky blocks at depths from 100
to 200 m. Young individuals are distributed on the surface,
schooling below floating objects, while adult individuals swim
alone in deeper waters.
This species broad geographic distribution covers the Mediterranean
Sea, the Indian Ocean, the southwest and southeast South
Pacific, and the east and west coasts of the Atlantic Ocean.
Although there is a vast amount of information available on wreckfish
fisheries, little has been published on the culture of this species.
Its culture is one of the most interesting options among the
new species considered for commercial aquaculture due to its fast
growth and attractive market prices. With a shortage of wild
individuals, wreckfish feature gene homogeneity of existing
stocks, are easily manipulated, have a long juvenile growth phase
and exhibit a high growth index during the pelagic life phase.
Culture Attempts
The first successful experiments on wreckfish reproduction
carried out in Europe took place at the Institute of Aquaculture
Hellenic Centre for Marine Research in Crete, Greece. Breeding
stock caught in the natural environment were kept at a temperature
of 15 C under dim light on a natural photoperiod.
After eight years of conditioning in captivity, spawning was
induced using gonadotropin-releasing hormone analog implants.
Maturing and spawning were successful, but no viable eggs were
obtained. Nevertheless, natural reproduction and spontaneous
spawning by the individuals from the GnRHa-induced stock
took place in the subsequent year.
Since 2009, the Spanish institutions Instituto Espaol de
Oceanografa (IEO) of Vigo, Spain, and the Instituto Galego de
Formacin en Acuicultura (IGaFA) in Illa de Arousa, Spain,
have cooperated on the development of the culture of this species.
Studies carried out so far were focused on the reproductive
characteristics and growout of wreckfish.
Reproduction
The institutes have an ongoing partnership with Aquarium
Finisterrae of A Corua, Spain, where a stock of 24 wreckfish is
kept together with other species in a 4,000-m3 display tank with
room-temperature water between 10 and 21 C under a controlled
photoperiod of 12 hours of light. Wreckfish are individually
tagged with microchips. Only 16 individuals have been sexually
differentiated: 10 females and 6 males.
In May 2011, some females showed abdominal dilation associated
with advanced maturity. Two individuals with weights of
25.75 and 25.80 kg and lengths of 92 and 94 cm, respectively,
were selected, as well as two males (17.75 and 24.60 kg, and 88 and 97 cm, respectively). To avoid stress during fish manipulation,
they were anesthetized.
Oocytes and sperm were obtained by abdominal pressure and
kept separately until the artificial fertilization was carried out.
Once the oocytes and sperm were combined, seawater was
added, and two hours later, fertilization success was verified.
Approximately 14,000 fertilized eggs were obtained.
The perfectly spherical eggs showed a slightly striated yolk,
which may have indicated low oocyte quality. The fertilization
rate for this spawn was 84.0%, and the hatching rate was 5.8%.
This low hatching rate confirmed the poor quality of the eggs.
The eggs were moved to 120-L incubators with recirculating
water at a temperature of 16 C. To identify the different stages
of embryonic development, monitoring was carried out every six
hours during the first 24 hours, and every 12 hours during the
following days.
Eggs hatched seven days later, with larvae 3.8 0.3 mm long
at birth. The larvae were kept in the incubator until the yolk sacs
were consumed six days later, when they started to die. These
results were similar to those obtained at the Institute of Aquaculture
Hellenic Center for Marine Research with spawning
obtained through hormonal induction.
Growout
Growout experiments were conducted at IGaFA and IEO.
Twelve individuals with an initial average weight of 1.21 0.16 kg
and 10 individuals with an initial average weight of 7.05 1.22 kg
were kept in tanks in each of the centers. Wild wreckfish were
captured on the Galician coasts and kept during the quarantine
and adaptation phases in the O Grove Aquarium facilities.
At IGaFA, individuals of lot 1 were kept in a 40-m3 rectangular
tank throughout the experiment, and the IEO fish (lot 2)
were held in a 120-m3 tank. Lot 1 was initially fed semi-moist
feed, followed a few days later by dry, 22-mm extruded turbot
feed. The wreckfish were fed five days a week until sated. Lot 2
was fed throughout the experiment with semi-moist feed made
of fish, mussels, squid flour and oil. These fish were fed three
days a week until sated.
Lot 1 individuals were sampled monthly for size and weight.
Lot 2 fish were first sampled five months after they were placed
in the tank. In this first sampling, individuals were tagged with
microchips to allow their identification. After that, sampling was
carried out every two months.
At the end of the 753-day experiment, lot 1 fish reached a
weight of 7.12 0.77 kg (Figure 1). These results were slightly
better than those obtained in 2004 at the Institute of Aquaculture
Hellenic Center for Marine Research. After 465 days,
the average weight for the fish in lot 2 was 10.75 1.95 kg
(Figure 2).
It is important to highlight the growth slowdown possibly due to reproduction-related processes that took place from
December to February in both groups. A growth slowdown was
also observed in lot 1 during the months in which the temperature
was above 15 C. No mortalities or pathological problems were
detected in either of the experiments.
Perspectives
Growth and adaptation results for wreckfish in captivity are
very encouraging in terms of culturing viability. Nevertheless, in
order to develop the culture of this species on an industrial scale,
it is essential to deploy further research related to reproduction,
larval culture and nutrition.
The clear interest in wreckfish culture expressed by the private
sector in several countries makes it important for the different
research centers currently working on wreckfish to join their
efforts. Exchanging information on the results obtained so far, as
well as the difficulties encountered, can contribute to faster progress
on different aspects of this species culture.
July 2012
