Triploids are sterile and therefore cannot reproduce if they escape from farms. While this has obvious management benefits, triploids are not used in aquaculture to any extent because they have reduced high-temperature and hypoxia tolerance. This presentation summarizes some of our on-going research on developing practical husbandry approaches to improve the hypoxia tolerance of triploid salmonids. These experiments use an acute hypoxia challenge with loss of equilibrium as the endpoint, and with brook charr (Salvelinus fontinalis) as a model salmonid species. Triploids (3n) are always compared to sibling diploids (2n) within an experiment.
We are also investigating whether high-temperature and hypoxia tolerance of triploids can be improved through selection within family-based breeding programs that include sibling diploids and triploids within each family.