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Abstract
Golden Shiners Notemigonus crysoleucas are one of the most popular baitfishes in the United States. Many states have seasonal shortages of Golden Shiners due to fish importation laws, short growing seasons, disputes over wetland usage, and harvesting laws regarding waters containing nonnative invasive species. Limited supply, favorable wholesale price, and certain biological characteristics of Golden Shiners make this species a potentially economically viable candidate for growing commercially in a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS). If effective procedures can be developed, Golden Shiners could be produced in-state without risking the threat of bringing in nonnative invasive species or potentially hazardous infectious diseases, while supplying fishermen with sought-after bait 12 months of the year. Golden Shiner eggs were placed into four separate tanks in a RAS and fed nonhatching decapsulated brine shrimp cysts. The number of newly hatched fry were counted daily, starting on day 6 postfertilization; this provided a base for survival rates calculated at the end of the study. Survival rates after the 32-d experiment for the four tanks were 100%, 89%, 96%, and 70%. These results suggest that similar survival rates can be achieved in a large-scale production system, and thus provide pond culturists with fry earlier in the growing season or support grow-out operations for Golden Shiner production.
Received December 4, 2011; accepted July 10, 2012