Freshwater Fish Culture

Target Audience:

Anyone interested in the culture of freshwater fishes.

Summary and Objectives:

This course is designed to familiarize participants with the basic principles, concepts, and methods for the production of non-salmonid, freshwater fishes. Course topics will include collecting brood stock, spawning, egg handling, larval development, fish health management, the basics of both intensive and extensive fish culture, pond fertilization and management, harvest procedures, marking and tagging, and transport and stocking. Hands-on laboratory exercises will include egg bisection to determine developmental stage, egg enumeration, calculating the larval development index, fry counts, zooplankton sampling and identification, gut content analysis, sampling counts, and water quality analysis.

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Enumerate green and eyed eggs.
• Discuss water chemistry analyses and corrective measures for optimum water quality.
• Determine the developmental stage of a green egg.
• Calculate concentrations for both eggs and fish treatments.
• Diagnose and correct problems in the pond culture environment.
• Control water quality, vegetation, and unwanted organisms in the pond culture environment.
• Recognize normal and abnormal fish behavior and the common signs of fish disease.
• Complete a gut content analysis to determine what fish are eating in the pond.
• Collect, identify, and enumerate various zooplankton.
• Describe intensive and extensive fish culture methods for various species.
• Harvest and transport fish to stocking sites in good condition.
• Maintain hatchery production records.

Competencies Addressed:

Fishery Biology - Basic, Animal Husbandry - Basic, Aquatic Ecology - Basic