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ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to determine if concentrated algal paste could effectively replace live algae during the greenwater stage of cobia fingerling production without negative impact upon larval growth or survival. Mean cobia survival per tank from 2 dph through post weaning at 28 dph for the live algae treatment was 24.44 ± 2.43% (mean ± SD) as compared to 24.47 ± 2.48% for the algal paste treatment. Furthermore, the number of fish produced per liter for the live algae treatment was 2.44 ± 0.24 fish/L compared to 2.47 ± 0.25 fish /L recorded from the algal paste treatment. Mean fish weight for cobia weanlings from the live algae treatment was 0.417 ± 0.059 g compared to 0.411 ± 0.026 g for the algal paste treatment. These observations demonstrate that during the greenwater stage of cobia larviculture, live algae can be completely replaced with commercially available, concentrated algal paste without negative impact upon cobia growth, survival, or resultant weanling production per unit volume.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors wish to thank the following individuals for their diligent assistance during this tedious and time-consuming study: Marie-Claude Babet, Marcell Carvalho, Nick King, Angela Lunger, and Jacqueline Zimmerman. This project was funded by a grant to the authors from the Commercial Fish and Shellfish Technologies (CFAST) group in the Commonwealth of Virginia, Program Development funds from Virginia Sea Grant, and a direct contribution from Blue Ridge Aquaculture, Martinsville, VA.