Muskie Production Using OtohimeFeed at East Fork State Fish Hatchery
James Skipper
The Indiana MUE Program
• Broodstock MUE taken from Webster Lake In Northern Indiana.
• Eggs and milt are stripped by the staff at Fawn River State Fish Hatchery.
• Fertilized eggs are transferred to East Fork State Fish Hatchery after approximately 10 days of incubation.
• Developed eggs are force hatched using heat stress. 55-65F
• 60-70% hatch rates from received eggs.
The Indiana MUE Program
• Roughly 375,000 Sac fry are incubated in heath trays until swim up development. Usually 12-13 Days.
• Approximately 80-90% survival from incubation trays.
• Around 300,000 swim up fry transferred to linear production tanks.
• Grow out tanks stocked at 40,000 to 60,000 MUE per tank
Rearing Tanks… Big Rearing Tanks
• 20 foot Linears
• 2 foot standpipes
• As much flow as the fish can take.
• Around 6 GPM
Feed Training MUE
• The Indiana MUE program does not utilize brine shrimp as a first feed.
• Historically feed training MUE directly onto commercial pellets proved effective.
• Survivals hovered around the 20-30% range
• Historically used BioVitaDiet.
• 2016 Was the first small trail using Otohime
“Feed Trial”
• Four Tanks considered for trial. Two for each Diet.
• Each Stocked with 40,000-50,000 Fry. Weighing 1000-1200Grams
• Varied rates stocked in order to keep hatch dates together.
• All other culture practices were kept as constant as possible.
• 50 Day time span (First Inventory)
• Feed rates started at around 50% bodyweight per day. 500 g per day per tank.
• Once feed trained, rations were tapered off to 5 % bodyweight per day. Roughly 1000g per day per tank
• Feed presented every 5 minutes for 24 hours with Louden Feeders
Feed Overview
• BioVita Starter
– #0 ; 0.3-0.6 mm
– #1 ; 0.4-1.0 mm
– #2 ; 0.8-1.4 mm
• 53% Protein
• 20% oil
• Fish Meal Based
• Brown in coloration
• 44 kg Bags
• Otohime
– B2 ; 0.36-0.65 mm
– C1 ; 0.58-0.84 mm
– C2 ; 0.84-1.41 mm
• 50% Protein
• 10% oil
• Krill Meal Based
• Orange in coloration
• 2 Kg Resealable Bags
Biovita Starter
Otohime Starter
Feed Handling Comparison
• BioO
– Tendency to float longer than desirable.
– More oil films
– Clumps form more readily
• Otohime
– Sunk much better while still allowing for plenty of “presentation time”
– Less oil films
– Dryer feed less likely to form clumps.
BioO Tank
Otohime Tank
BioO Feeder
Otohime Feeder
MUE Growth
• The MUE from all tanks were inventoried on 5/31/16.
• Roughly 50 Days in tanks.
• Otohime tanks averaged 2.27 and 2.38 inches
• BioO tanks averaged 1.88 and 1.83 inches
• The Otohime MUE were better in both coloration and condition.
Otohime MUE at 1st Inventory
BioVita MUE at 1st Inventory
MUE Survival
• BioVita diet typically produces 20-30% survivals in our system.
• Has been falling in recent years.
• Record lows for 2016
• Biovita tanks resulted in 20% and 6% survivals
• Otohime tanks produced record high survivals for the Indiana program. 78% and 57%
Otohime Tank
Biovita Tank
Transition back to Bio Oregon
• Both groups made the transition to the Bio Oregon grower feed well.
• Slight but insignificant difference in final size.
• More experience with this diet is needed to determine if it can result in bigger fish stocked.
Conclusion
• Encouraging results for both growth and survival of MUE
• If positive results continue it should stabilize production numbers allowing more cuts in both egg take and grow out labor.
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