The goals of lamprey research at the Abernathy Fish Technology Center are to develop rearing protocols for fish held in captivity, for research and for captive rearing. Conservation aquaculture is a potential technique to help restore Pacific lamprey populations. Lamprey are new to culture and have a unique life history. Research has been done to increase our understanding of lamprey biology which will improve our ability to raise lamprey through their larval stage. Recent work at Abernathy has indicated the importance of water source/temperature, clean sand as well as larval density in raising these fish.
By providing thermal cues in the heated well water treatment (14.7/15.1 oC), we were able to increase the number of juvenile lamprey produced (30%) compared to Well Water (12%) at 12.2/13.1 oC. The percentage of juveniles in the Creek Water treatment (27%) at 12.0/13.1oC was comparable to the Heated Well Water treatment (BY15 fish).
The objective of using aged sand versus unused or new sand in a larval lamprey growth trial was to get at the cause for the lamprey growth plateauing in culture. Results indicate clean sand is a better culture medium for lamprey than aged sand. Average weight gain of the fish in the clean sand treatments was significantly higher than the fish in the aged sand treatment (BY18 fish).
For the density study the fish at 34 fish/2m performed significantly better (P<0.05) than the fish at the higher density, 76 fish/m2 in final average weight, final average length average weight gain and condition factor. Well water was used in this trial and may have been a factor in the number of transformers produced (BY16 fish).