Kyphosis vaigiensis is a warmwater marine finfish, found throughout the central and western Pacific. K. vaigiensis and its congeners are a cosmopolitan group of reef associated herbivores known as chubs, drummers, or nenue (US Atlantic, Australia, and Hawai’i respectively). In Hawaii, nenue are highly favored, and often used in poke (traditional raw fish salad). Their herbivorous nature makes them an appealing candidate for aquaculture, because fishmeal and fish oil do not need to be a large percentage of their diet. Further, they can tolerate a wide variety of agricultural grains, making their feed less expensive, the price less volatile, more scalable globally, and less impactful (being closer to the base of the food chain). Because of these characteristics Ocean Era began a concerted effort to investigate K vaigiensis’ potential for commercial culture in 2015.
Since 2015, Ocean Era (and predecessor Kampachi Farms) has performed almost a dozen feed trials with nenue. We have completed five hatchery production runs, and we have shared fish with other producers and research institutions around Hawaii. The chubs have been raised in a variety of systems including tanks, fishponds, and net-pens. Recently local chefs have been working with the fish, and initial seafood market acceptance has been very positive.
This presentation will describe our results, methods, and observations for all stages of production and marketing. Additionally, behaviors of note, and experiences with parasites and pathogens will be discussed. We will make the case that - after almost 10 years of research - this robust, herbivorous marine fish could be the “tilapia of the seas”.