Food insecurity is a major problem for many local communities in the Twin Cities metro area and beyond. Increased local food production via aquaculture is one way to reduce food insecurity, increase availability of healthy and high nutrient foods, and provide employment opportunities. The highly desirable and native food fish Yellow Perch (Perca flavescens) has historically supported a large commercial and recreational fishery within the Midwest United States. Over the last 30-40 years, low recruitment and over harvest of Yellow Perch have reduced abundance and made aquaculture an alternative approach to fill the demand for fresh, locally produced fish. However, limited access to biosecure feed trained fingerlings currently hinders the ability of small to medium scale aquaculture producers to reliably grow, harvest, and distribute locally grown fish.
Previous research has explored embryo incubation, hatching, and larval rearing of Yellow Perch, but no clear standardized protocol exists, and most farmers report low larval survival and unreliable growout to harvest. In the wild, recently hatched Yellow Perch larvae feed on zooplankton from relatively small taxa such as rotifers and copepods (size = 80-235µm) due to the small gape size of their mouth. However, most producers rely on much larger (size = 300µm) Brine Shrimp as the only live, early-stage larval feed, which may partially reduce larval survival. We have now successfully incubated, hatched, and feed trained three separate batches and two distinct geographical strains (i.e., Green Bay, WI & Northeast River, DE) of Yellow Perch from embryos to fingerling stage. We have also developed a protocol using several live feeds (i.e., S & L strain rotifers and Brine Shrimp) to rear larvae to fingerling size for stocking and growout in RAS.
Herein, we will discuss the many challenges associated with incubation, hatching, and feed training Yellow Perch fingerlings, and outline our current procedures for successful live feed culture, first feeding, and transfer from live feeds to formulated diets.