June/July 2006

Volume 20 No. 3 – June/July 2006

IT skills help tune silver perch farm Building yabby viability by canny setup Victorian eels producers band together Refocus on growout for trout fishout farm Cichlid breeding hobby goes commercial Prawn seedstock Quality Assurance Breeding success for Macquarie perch Fish culture systems for large dams

June/July 2006

www.AustasiaAquaculture.com.au

Editor-in-chief Dr Tim Walker Regular contributors David O'Sullivan John Mosig Dave Field Subscription/editorial Austasia Aquaculture PO Box 658, Rosny, Tas. 7018 Ph: 03 6245 0064 Fax: 03 6245 0068 Email: AustasiaAquaculture@ netspace.net.au Advertising Megan Farrer Graphic design Beverly Waldie Printing The Franklin Press 91 Albert Road, Moonah, Tas. 7009 Copyright Š by Austasia Aquaculture.

Contents cannot be reproduced without permission. Statements made or opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Turtle Press Pty Ltd (ABN 98 506 165 857).

Austasia Aquaculture magazine (ISSN: 0818 552) is published by Turtle Press Pty Ltd (ABN 98 506 165 857) for the promotion of aquaculture in the Australasian and Asian regions – inclusive of farming in marine, freshwater, brackish and hypersaline waters. Reader's contributions are encouraged on the clear understanding they will be subject to editorial control and, if accepted, will appear in both printed and online versions.

Cover photo: A montage of photos taken from stories contained in this issue.

Captions and photo credits as per the details inside.

FA R M P R O F I L E S IT skills help to fine-tune silver perch farm

3

Building yabby farm viability through canny setup phase

7

Eel producers band together for best shot at the future

12

Short production period for Gold Medal winning Pambula Lake oyster farmer

17

Mountain Fresh returns to trout and salmon growout

22

Turning a fish hobby into a business

25

F E AT U R E Prawn seedstock Quality Assurance has relevance for all of aquaculture

37

RESEARCH Breeding success for Macquarie perch leads to culture stalemate

50

Fish culture systems for large irrigation dams

54

TECHNOLOGY Australian innovator taking RAS global

60

Software sale to US

63

June/July 2006

www.AustasiaAquaculture.com.au

Skretting 2006 Australasian Aquaculture Conference AAQ Conference & Trade Show AGK Technology Ajay & Duraplas Tanks Alltanks Australia Aqua Assist AquaFauna Biomarine Aquahort AQUASONIC Aquaspex Aquatic Diagnostic Services International AQUI-S Austasia Aquaculture - subscription page Baume Partners BST Oysters Cell Aquaculture Cumminscorp Davey Pumps Dept Economic Development – Tasmania Donaghy Sarlon Elgas Halo (Skretting) Hurlcon Imbros JEYCO Mooring & Rigging John Dusting Technologies MOS Plastics Murray Darling Fisheries Oblomov Trading Onesteel Marine Mesh Orion Solar Solutions Dept State Development - Queensland Quinntech P/L SED - Shellfish Equipment Skretting Australia Smo-king Ovens Spectrum (Skretting) Superior Fibreglass Tapex Technolab Marketing The Market Place – classified ads Tooltech Trade Show Previews Uarah Fish Hatchery UTAS – School of Aquaculture WA Cromarty Waterco Wedeco Inserts: DAFF / Ridley Aquafeeds / Jeyco & partners

(Inside back Cover) 24 16 36 26 11 4 36 (Inside Front Cover) 58 12 53 59 23,62 41 45 29 35 30-31 28 51 32-33 21 13 29 9 28 23 56 34 53 43 34 36 46-47 5 Outside Back Cover 4 34,35 6 63,64 48 42,44,49 27 8 23,48 10 45

FARM PROFILE

IT skills help to fine-tune silver perch farm A

wish to slow down the pace of a hectic city life led Ian and Karen Brunton to the NSW mid-north coast where their dream property nestles amongst the undulating hills of Gum Scrub. Always a keen recreational angler, Ian purchased the established 90ha silver perch farm consisting of 22 ponds ranging from 0.01ha to 0.7ha and covering 5ha. He plans to expand the farm into a standalone commercial enterprise by using the IT skills he brought with him after 25 years in the communications sector.

Water is supplied by three bores with a flow sufficient to expand the farm to 7.5ha. But more than that, Karen is a keen horticulturalist and the water will be used twice as she develops a nursery using the nutrient rich water from the fish ponds. The ponds drain to the two settlement ponds totalling 5ML. From there, the water can be either re-used in the ponds or go to the plant nursery.

The water comes out of the bores at a pH of 6.9, a carbonate hardness of 246mg/L and a very handy temperature for warmwater species of 23°C. After passing through a sand filter and across three 40w UV tubes, the same water is used (after being aerated) in the purging, quarantine and over-wintering systems.

The farm generates its own 3 phase electricity from three diesel powered generators, as does the neighbouring timber mill. The largest, 75Kva, is supported by two smaller units of 50Kva and 35Kva. Ian would prefer to be connected to the 3 phase grid which is 6km away. “It’s quieter and cleaner,” he says. “It’s my number one issue at the moment. There’s a way of generating 3 phase out of single phase. I’m looking into that. My options are to stick with what we’ve got or I can change the farm over to single phase, including replacing all the aerators. Right now I’d need 150 amps. When I expand it would go up to 350 amps.

From top: Ian with one of the 3Amp paddlewheel aerators A fresh delivery of Select Nutrition. Note the vermin proof feed holding container in the background.

“Solar is something I’m seriously looking at. I have a friend in a caravan park down on the coast and he has found it to be very economical once the initial capital has been outlaid. And there are generous subsidies available.”

He will be configuring the generators so they can be run in conjunction with the combination of solar and mains power to give him independence from a main grid power failure. Surplus power would be fed back into the grid.

Water temperatures get down to 15°C in July and warm up in late September. By late October the ponds are 24°C and the fish are ravenous. Ian is stocking in September and March so has stock available all year round. He reckons on a 14 – 16 month growing cycle feeding at 2% of body weight when temperatures and DO levels allow. The eventual production

target is a tonne a week with sufficient water available to accommodate the expansion program.

Taking over an established farm has presented its problems. Ian is busy establishing the size of the fish in each pond and estimating the biomass. Once known, he will be able to put the data through his management program and start planning the forward production from the farm. Initially, the target market will be live so the fish will be coming out of the ponds when they reach 800g. As June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 3

FARM PROFILE

an indication of how suitable the region is for silver perch production some of the fish he is sampling are nearly 2kg. He expects this from a farm that has lacked management during the change over period but is pleased with what this tells him about the production potential of the region.

Production cycle There will be two production cycles. The first, based on a spring stocking (late September to early October) will stock 1g fry at 50,000/ha to 70,000/ha in the 0.1ha nursery ponds with a grading before summer gets underway in earnest and another before the onset of the cooler months. These fish are expected to be ready by the following Christmas.

Some purging fish at Southern Cross Native Fish

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The second production cycle involves over-wintering 1g fry in the revamped re-circulation system for stocking in growout ponds during spring. They would be ready for marketing at the end of summer. Ian feels this will allow him to supply a consistent flow of quality fish to the market.

In fact Ian’s first year will be spent converting the farm infrastructure to accommodate these management plans. A shipping container, in which to store food away from the local rodent population, has already been installed. Mindful of the high summer temperatures in the region it will be cooled by wind driven ventilators.

The purging system has been completely overhauled. Situated in a 20m x 12m insulated shed, it is now two discrete systems – one of 12,000L and the other of 20,000L – that can run in conjunction or independently. This will allow the facility to be used for purging, quarantine or a nursery for young stock before they go out into the growout ponds.

There are 12 circular tanks range from 4,000L to 8,000L. The size of the existing bio-filtration system will have to be boosted from the present 2,000L trickle tower to handle the over wintering nursery system. A protein skimmer will be employed and Ian favours UV over ozone as a water purifying agent.

FARM PROFILE

Alternate crops Golden perch are on the list of species he’d like to try. Yabbies are also pencilled in as a polyculture crop once the farm is running smoothly. “If you can maximize the use of your water, why not go down that path?” he says.

The district has been a ‘yabby growing’ region and market research carried out locally has shown that there is a strong market for yabbies. Although there is still a vigorous local industry, supplies have diminished with the recent closure of several operations Marketing Currently, live fish averaging 880g are being sold to a buyer who comes up from Western Sydney. Ian reckons the price to be OK for the time being but underwriting Ian’s business plan is the marketing strategy. “Marketing is all about creating a demand for your product. To me, the key to marketing is not about selling whole fish. It’s about processing. You don’t go down to the supermarket and buy a whole chicken.

Nor do you go to the butcher and buying a whole cow. And generally speaking you

Ian looking into one of the tanks in the fish handling room.

Note the trickle filter and foam fractionator in the background.

don’t go to the fishmonger and buy a whole fish. We live in a day and age when the up-market consumer wants food “just in time” and they want ready to cook and serve portions. To my mind, the fish farmer has to target that space (in the market place),” he says. “If the

industry is going to extend itself beyond the live fish and Asian market, it will have to be prepared to take the next step.”

Management Coming from the IT industry, Ian has designed a spreadsheet tool to allow him

June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 5

FARM PROFILE

Part of the generator shed.

The unit shown here is the 75Kva diesel powered generator.

to keep tabs on what is happening in the ponds in a physical and economic sense on a day-by-day basis. Once he has started a new production cycle he will be able to calculate from the biomass, the FCR and the amount of food fed out what his growth rates are and when the fish will be ready for market. This will

6 Austasia Aquaculture | June/July 2006

A 0.1ha nursery pond

give him traceability, essential in this day of food safety, and predictability, equally essential in this day of ‘just in time’ market requirement.

closer to fulfilling their dream of combining a rural lifestyle with a vibrant new business.

With a background in the IT industry and his knowledge of marketing, Ian and Karen’s combined fish farm and nursery at Southern Cross Native Fish is moving

by John Mosig Ian & Karen Brunton can be contacted by phone on (02) 6585 8068, or by email on ianbrunton@optusnet.com.au

FARM PROFILE

Building yabby farm viability through canny setup phase A

n interest in sailing led Mike and Sue Perry to the shores of the Waranga Basin, part of Victoria’s vast Goulburn Murray irrigation scheme. The lake holds 411,000 megalitres and has a shoreline of over 150 km. When they bought it in 1994, the place was a dust bowl, having been grazed to within an inch of its life by sheep – Sue says their parents burst into tears when they saw it. The pair didn’t give up their day jobs in Melbourne; nearly every weekend was spent on the 8ha property instead. By 1996, with the help of a grey Fergie and a few implements the ground had been restored and a house built.

Then came the decision on what to do with it. After attending a yabby farming seminar in Gippsland, they saw it as a way of generating enough income from a small block to enable them – along with being semi self-sufficient by growing their own food – to live comfortably.

There followed the Introductory Course on Warmwater Aquaculture at Northern Melbourne TAFE and addition of the Australian Yabby Farmer and the Australian Fish Farmer to their library.

The purging room at Frog Hollow. Water percolates down through the trays keeping the yabbies’ gills wet. Zeolite in the bottom tray removes harmful ammonia and locks it up as ammonium.

Mike is in no doubt the course and the books were invaluable. “It was all common sense. There’s too much mystery built up around yabby farming. It’s not all that difficult as long as you don’t get bogged down with the bureaucracy that surrounds the industry.”

The bureaucracy No surprise then that they took a pragmatic view in the case of PrimeSafe.

Coming from a background of quality assurance (QA), Mike could see the benefits to the industry of food safety. So Frog Hollow Produce was registered with PrimeSafe at the cost of $200 annually. Since then they’ve been informed that the first audit will be free and they’ll only be inspected if the farm is sells direct to the public. “You can make it as hard or as easy as you like,” Mike continues. “PrimeSafe audit the grower’s procedure, procedures that the grower himself has written, including the remedy to any situation that could arise from the procedures. It’s really all a matter of understanding the process. I know all farms are An anti pollution pump and a 0.5hp electric motor provides enough aeration for four 0.1ha ponds.

run differently but a standardized set of procedures shouldn’t be too difficult to establish throughout the industry when it comes to PrimeSafe requirements.”

In fact, the Perrys have adapted the Seafood Industry Victoria (SIV) food safety plan to fit the operations found on a yabby farm giving themselves some room to move by using words such as ‘a minimum of’, ‘in such a way as’ and ‘between’.

For example: yabbies will be purged for between three and seven days in an air conditioned cool room in such a way as to ensure their well being. Sue points out this focuses on the condition of the yabbies, not a prescribed set of rules.

But the pair did find getting a permit from their local shire council confusing.

Enquiring at the shire office they were sent a copy of the Planning Guidelines for Land Based Aquaculture. After perusing the 50 pages and deciding they were fully compliant, the Shire Planning Officer advised that the old planning procedures were still in place (this shire was yet to take up the Guidelines!). Sue says The simple but effective hatchery at Frog Hollow. The side of the drip room can be seen on the LHS of the photo.

June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 7

FARM PROFILE

aerated every night and sometimes during the day. Thus the temperature that builds up during the sunny days of autumn is mixed throughout the water column, fueling the pond’s heat bank.

When underwater Cumbungi rhizomes and root systems are cut with a scythe, the above water plant material is cut off from its source of nourishment and oxygen and promptly drowns.

they were very nice about it, especially when she explained that they were relatively new at farming and needed help, but it still cost valuable time and effort.

Farm set-up The pond size chosen was 0.1 (15m x 60m) with the bottom sloping from a depth of 1m to 1.5m. Two ponds are already in production with two more going in this year. Given the expense of buying in juveniles, a hatchery has been developed, allowing independence as far as stocking times are concerned.

The Perrys are licensed to harvest and hold 4ML of run-off water and draw another 7ML from the Basin. Water is taken via a 50mm pipeline using a 6.5hp pump that delivers 12KL an hour.

Evaporation rates for the district are a metre a year but that’s highly variable through the seasons. Mike says a bad r fo e ow tak n n l ro r i En yea d mi

north wind drops the ponds 100mm in a week. When the very hot weather is driving the ponds a fair amount of water exchange is needed to maintain water levels. A hundred millimetres equates to a 10% exchange at the shallow end.

Temperatures are tempered by the vast amount of water held in the basin. Sue, who still works in Melbourne on a consultancy basis, says when she drives down to the city she can see the frost line as she drives away from the Basin. During the summer heat waves, when the air temperature can hover around 40°C for days at a time, the ponds will sit on an extremely productive 27°C. As the days shorten, the pond temperatures will hold at 20°C till as late as mid June in some years. In a good season they will be back to that mark by late August.

Part of the reason for the beneficial temperature regime is that the ponds are

Like most old goldmining regions, the soil, and consequently the water, is slightly acidic. Background pH is 6.8. It is not a problem, and is kept that way by adding 100kg of lime each time a pond is drained and dried. This also keeps up the carbonate hardness.

Cumbungi can be a problem in the district and the Goulburn Murray Water people have identified a novel way of dealing with it. “It involves getting wet,” says Mike. “As cumbungi grows from rhizomes, you just cut through the connecting rhizome and the plants’ roots and the above water stalk actually drowns.”

Water from the storage reservoir carries colloidal clay and water from it is run into the ponds at least once a week regardless of the season. This keeps the pond water discoloured and provides camouflage for the yabbies. There’s also dog that can’t stand to see a bird sitting on ‘his’ ponds.

CULTU

UA

AQ

Aeration is simple. An anti-pollution pump from a 626 Mazda driven by a 0.5hp electric motor moves compressed air to the ponds along a 50mm polypipe line. The whole system cost $100. The delivery line floats along the axis of the pond. Three manifolds branch off the main line at 15m intervals. Three hundred millimetres below the surface they are connected to a 400mm diameter circle of perforated 50mm polypipe at right angles to the delivery line. A brick is used to anchor the whole arrangement to the pond bottom. Simple but effective: the ponds hold 7.4mg/L of dissolved oxygen at temperatures of 24°C.

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8 Austasia Aquaculture | June/July 2006

FARM PROFILE

Harvesting occurs around the calendar.

Working on natural attrition rate of 50%, and allowing for natural recruitment, harvested yabbies are replaced with twice as many juvenile hatchlings.

Hatchery Plastic 600mm x 400mm trays that are 100mm deep make excellent farrowing boxes. Twenty females are placed in a 22 gallon drum (a 44g drum cut in half) and water temperature lowered to 15°C. Over a week that’s raised to 25°C. Once the temperature has risen by 2-3°C, ten males are introduced. Within three days 30% to 40% of the females are berried and over the next ten days the spawning rate goes up to 80%.

The Perrys feel the last 20% are not worth bothering with and are either returned to the ponds or sold.

After another three days the eggs have hardened enough for the berried femailes to be moved to individual farrowing boxes (plastic trays 600mm x 400mm x 100mm deep) with water exchange connected to a simple 40L bio-filtration system. This simple technique was refined in a wading pool set up on their dining room floor in Melbourne!

The eggs are given another ten days in the farrowing boxes to make sure the females are going to hold them before they are liberated into the ponds. The hatchlings will replace stock at an estimated ratio of 100kg harvested stock to four berried females allowing for 250 hatchlings per 40g female. Natural recruitment makes up the balance.

Like everything at Frog Hollow Produce, the bio-filtration system is efficient and inexpensive. “If you understand the sci-

Above: The farrowing boxes are fitted with chimney pipe water level regulators. By removing the water from the bottom of the box, the chimney pipe system keeps the water in good condition.

Plastic wall plugs from the building industry provide a cheap and effective bio-filter medium.

June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 9

FARM PROFILE

The green grass clippings from the monthly mowing around the ponds add to the supply of detritus available to the yabbies and the daphnia they feed on.

ence behind all the processes in yabby farming you can usually work out a way to achieve the outcome you want without spending a lot of money. We had the benefit of some excellent training and used some commonsense reference material. It all works and it’s saved us a lot of money,” says Mike. “For instance, we came across some plastic wall plugs that were going to be thrown out so the medium in our bio-filtration system cost us nothing. The aeration system is another example. We got that out of the Australian Yabby Farmer. People tend to get technically minded rather than concentrating on the methodology.”

Harvesting Harvesting is done on a regular basis. All stock above 50g are removed. The usual size is between 50g and 60g. Ponds aren’t allowed to go above 750g/m2. This gives a harvest biomass of 750kg annually per pond and keeps their ponds in a good healthy balance.

Nutrition Soaked wheat is the basis of the feeding program with an estimated harvest of 1kg of yabbies for every kilo of grain put into the ponds. Feeding occurs twice a week whenever water temperature exceeds 20°C. Hay, distributed in small amounts, boosts the detritus and plankton bloom.

Grass around the ponds is mown monthly with the clippings going into the ponds as detritus for the yabbies to feed on.

Mike and Sue strongly believe in the dictum that a little often keeps the ponds balanced.

Coprice yabby pellets – purchased from their yabby wholesaler John Brian – are fed in the hatchery at the rate of one pellet per yabby every two days.

The ponds, driven by the regular supply of detrital matter, are rich in Daphnia which can be found for ten months of the year.

Purging The purging room is another example of cost effectiveness. Made of 75mm insulation panelling, the 1.5m x 2.4m x 2.1m wet room has a concrete floor and four racks each holding eight Nally plastic

10 Austasia Aquaculture | June/July 2006

FARM PROFILE

prawn trays. A tray holds 3kg of yabbies.

Each week the operations turns over two of the stacks.

The bottom tray of each stack is filled with zeolite to remove ammonia from the water. Once a week the zeolite is rinsed in saline water to release the ammonia stored as ammonium.

Water temperature in the wet room is controlled by a 1hp Centrex air conditioner picked it up at the end of last summer for $100 when the retailer felt it would be better to get it off the floor prior to winter.

Marketing Whilst the Perrys have sold yabbies locally, keeping food service customers happy proved to be too costly and time demanding. Likewise bait yabbies. “Being on the lake anglers would drive to the Basin after work and want to stock up either bait at all hours so they could hit the water before first light,” says Sue. “This is not the lifestyle we had in mind when we moved up from Melbourne.”

Instead the harvest is sold to John Brian at Moama and they’ve been impressed not only with his prices but the way he goes about his business. “The yabbies are weighed when we get there and we come home with a cheque. You can’t do better than that,” says Mike. No curious little dockages when the cheque arrives by mail a few weeks after they’ve been delivered because some of them have died in the meantime. He will also take, yabbies with one claw, as long as numbers aren’t excessive.

Yabbies are sent to the Melbourne Wholesale Fish Market over winter when John Brian closes his door (because he can’t get enough yabbies around to make it viable). The Perrys do receive a premium for out-of-season yabbies but the 11% handling costs does claw some of that back..

Economics In setting up the farm, Mike says they looked at what was required, not what looks good. “We had a good understanding of what we were in for due to solid groundwork. You don’t have to be a Rhodes scholar but you have to do a

thorough business plan. You can’t budget piecemeal as you go along. Our stock handling area, including stainless steel sinks and benches, was fitted out for $160 thanks to a scrap dealer’s pickings from a hotel that was being re-modelled.

The whole purging and handling area cost $2,000 and meets PrimeSafe requirements. It’s set in a shed that only cost $1,500 to erect.

Sue chimes in: “Our first ponds cost $500 each. Now with the cost of fuel and other inflationary items the cost has doubled. But when we add it all up we’ve established a business infrastructure on our land that has the potential to give us a pre-tax income of around $10,000.”

The only concession to cost has been the power. It is 3 phase underground. Sue was not prepared to compromise the view with unsightly powerlines.

The future The Perrys are confident about the future of the industry – with some qualification.

“Yabbies are a very saleable product but the industry, if it continues the way it is, will remain stagnant. It needs centralized packing and marketing depots under-

writing the supply of yabbies in the regions to provide a continuity of supply and quality.

These regional heads should come together on a regular basis to discuss the industry problems and take the outcomes back to the suppliers – the growers.

“And the industry needs a dialogue of constructive criticism and shared knowledge. No one’s talking to each other. We used to get together in the past. The industry will benefit if we can do it again.”

The Frog Hollow Produce story, a work in progress, shows what can be achieved by a combination of a appropriate knowledge, a thorough business and marketing plan and some canny purchasing.

Mike and Sue have escaped the bustle of the city and navigated the stress of combining their old lives (running a business and holding down their two jobs) with their new (doing up a house and building another business). Having “enjoyed the journey” that labour is bearing fruit.

by John Mosig Mike and Sue Perry can be contacted by phone on (03) 5856 2051, or by email on susan.perry.fhp@bigpond.com.

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June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 11

FARM PROFILE

Ken Osborne with a sample of Tasmanian pigmented elvers.

Purging tanks where eels are rested and held before processing or live sale.

Eel producers band together for best shot at the future T

he Victorian eel industry is informally divided into two regions: one east of Port Phillip Bay and one west.

The western region is based on two sectors, the wild catch from gazetted public waters and an extensive culture sector based on stock enhancement of allocated crown leases and the wild catch sector.

The western industry reached a peak of 400 tonnes in the 1980s but increasingly drier seasons over the last two decades has seen the harvest fall dramatically to a low of 18 tonnes at the peak of the drought in 2004.

The fall in crop saw closure of the Skipton collection depot and processing works of Eels Australis threatening the livelihood of the region’s 10 active license holders. A group of growers, operating 12 Austasia Aquaculture | June/July 2006

under the banner of Victorian Eel Growers Group (VEGG) bought the Skipton works in an act of faith in the future of the short fin eel fishery of Western Victoria.

Bill Allen, one of the initiators of the joint venture, says: “The drought has forced the eel industry, both the extensive aquaculture and the wild catch sectors to look closely at the way they do business. We’ve had to maximize the opportunities that are available and try to keep the enterprises buoyant.

“That hasn’t always succeeded. The largest eel company in the state unfortunately went into liquidation and we had to look at ways to rationalize the fishery and identify economies of scale. Ben and Ken Osborne of Oss Eels at Skipton, Graham Quarrell of Merri Eels near War-

rnambool and 88 Golden Eels (Bill Allen and Graeme Milner of Colac) operated under an informal business arrangement. We’d been allocating suitable product to suitable markets by pooling our catch, rationalizing what waters were being fished and the equipment used.

“We decided that the purchase of the Eels Australis facility at Skipton and the extensive aquaculture licenses that go with it was logically the next step, so we made the commitment to each other and raised the money to acquire it.

“We’ve been here for a month and are busy refurbishing the things that need doing. A lot of the equipment was well used. Some of it was very tired. We’re systematically working through it. We’re using the Oss Eel smokehouse at the

FARM PROFILE

moment but we’ll ultimately consolidate all the processing under the one roof.”

The directors are conscious of the fact that they may not see an eel fishery of the magnitude Victoria has had in the past and are looking at using the available processing capacity to maximize the value of the reduced crop.

Bill continues: “We’ll have a range of value added eel products aimed at the overseas and domestic market and are also looking at other seafood product, mainly molluscs. We would like to reduce our dependence on eels and broaden the range with other seafood products.

“Even at 400t we were only ever a small player by global standards – New Zealand produces 1,000t - but our quality has always been superior,” he adds.

“We’ve used the export expertise of 88 Golden Eels and increased the quality co-efficients on our export product.

We’re actually sending out less product than we could send out, but what we are sending out is the very best. We send live eels to China and frozen round (whole) eels to our European customers. We try to match product to keep our regular buyers happy. Continuity of supply is everything.”

catch over the last 12 years, very noticeable over the last 10. The extensive aquaculture waters held on longer, in as much as while the production was going down they were still producing the lion’s share of the catch up until six years ago.

It was then that we saw wild swamps and some of the culture waters drying out. Other waters were lost to production through blue green algae or increased salinity to the point where there’s only

one extensive aquaculture water still producing. Realistically we’re in a one in two hundred year drought and we need a one in fifty year flood to fix it.”

That last remaining water is Lake Bolac.

Normally 1,600ha, the lake currently covers about half of that. The Federal Government hasn’t provided drought relief to eel fishers in the way it has provided drought relief to other primary producers undergoing hardship due to

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VEGG is made up of all of the extensive aquaculture license holders based in Western Victorian. The fundamental criteria for membership were a common economic interest, complementary skills and a demonstrated ability to work. The general philosophy is a co-operative philosophy so the group functions very much as a fish co-operative without being formally established as such. Each member brings something that is unique to them to the table and each has certain responsibilities within the business of the group. There are those who are good at investigating ways of value adding; others are good at developing capture and handling equipment and some have particular expertise in marketing at the export and domestic level.

The drought Bill says the faunas in Western Victoria were well aware of the drought before humans. “There’s been a decline in the June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 13

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optimistic, other years when there might be a flash flood I’m pleasantly surprised.

But generally I’m within a couple of tonne of my estimation.”

All this presumes a regular cycle of wet to dry seasons that the normally stable Western Districts enjoy. While a prolonged dry spell – such as the one the region currently is undergoing – takes the marginal wetlands out of production, the larger permanent bodies of water would usually manage to generate some product.

The eel processing works at Skipton has been one of the town’s major employers. VEGG plan to regain that position.

the drought. However the Victorian Minister for Primary Production, Bob Cameron, is currently considering whether license holders should be burdened with the full mandatory fees and levies imposed by Fisheries Victoria during this hardship period.

Production cycle Despite numerous attempts and millions of dollars of R&D expenditure, the breeding cycle for eels is yet to be closed.

Instead, sound management has been the byword. “One of the advantages the eel fishery has over a lot of other fishing activities is that we have been operating on environmentally responsible and eco-

logically sustainable principles long before they became buzz words in the bureaucrats’ jargon,” Bill contends. “The carrying capacity of the waters that are fished or stock enhanced is well known to the operators who utilize them them.

We work on a nine year cycle so at any one time there’s nine years’ production swimming around. We replace on a tail for tail basis with some allowance made for natural mortality, predation, the recreational catch, and in some instances, unlicensed commercial operators. If you look at the production figures over a long period of time, they vary no more than 8% to 10%. Some years I’m over

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14 Austasia Aquaculture | June/July 2006

The optimum harvesting conditions are triggered by temperature and water movement. The traditional peak is between September and the end of December. Some years it will extend to February/March. Ken points out that a good flush of water in June will see eels moving. Seventy percent of the catch is generally taken in the warmer months.

There’s also a fair amount of husbandry involved. ‘Informal intelligence’ Bill calls it. “I take a mental note of the number of anglers working the lake as well as bird activity. I try to keep a handle on what’s going on up in the catchment so I know if there’s going to be a change in any land management practice that might have a impact on my fishing activities. It may not be pure science but it’s the science of observation. It’s a critical management tool ensuring that the wetlands remain sustainable”.

Re-stock supplies Bill says whilst overstocking is rare, there are plenty of examples where wetlands had been understocked. “If for example a particular wetland is to be set aside for the larger export grade of 800g plus eels, less seedstock will be liberated in the three years leading up to the harvest.

The stock will be monitored and if that stocking regime suits the market requirement, that’s the stocking regime that will be employed over the next five to nine years.

Re-stock eels can be a problem. In the good years, any eel that is either under market size of doesn’t measure up to the quality standards becomes a candidate for re-stock as part of the put and take management cycle. “What’s happened

FARM PROFILE

with the drought is that all bets are off,” says Bill. “A lot of those wetlands are bone dry, or significantly reduced in production capacity. We’re going through the process of re-assessing our management goals for those wetlands for when they come back into production. That’s going to be a real challenge for us, because if we have a run of wet years, there’s a good chance that all of those wetlands will receive water and we may not have the available re-stock.”

Natural re-stocking is possible but, in the history of the commercial eel fishery, a prolonged dry spell of this magnitude hasn’t been recorded. While decade long dry spells must have occurred in the pre European history of the region, the full recovery time is unknown.

Ken says the glass eel option is a bit ‘hit and miss’. “If the glass eels are out there and the conditions are right in the rivers they’ll come in; otherwise they just move on. They could finish up in South Australia or Tasmania.”

A re-stocking option in the past has been to buy pigmented elvers from the Tasmanian Inland Fisheries Department. Going up to 4,000 to the kilo, depending on where they were harvested, they sold at $220/kg. However, the Tasmanian Inland Fisheries Department has changed its management program and hasn’t decided yet what it will be. Nevertheless, it is certain that priority will be given to Tasmanian re-stock. A significant part of the harvest has now been licensed to private collectors and it is not clear what will be left over for interstate sales, nor the price at which they will be offered.

Wild catch The wild catch sector is restricted – due to the drought – to about 8% of the allocated water. Most wild catch licenses have an extensive culture water attached to it, either as a sole beneficiary or shared access with another operator. The licenses that don’t harvest either from farm water storage under arrangement with the property owner or scheduled waters that are available to all license holders.

This is all set out in the Eel Fishery Management Plan which made licenses transferable, was based on traditional fishing

Top: Bill Allen loading purged eels into a transporter en route to the processing room.

Right: One of the purging tanks at VEGG’s Skipton works. Eels can be held at high densities.

practices and, as Bill put it, involved a fair amount of negotiation and concession between the participants at the time. The outcome after the ‘horse trading’ was a stabilised fishery; the downside has proven to be a restricted ability to be respond to drought.

The wild catch is made up predominantly of farm dam harvests and sea run migration. Ken says the farm dam harvest kept him going through the worst part of the drought but now even these eels are gone.

GST on live eels One production impost under dispute at the moment is the GST on live fish. It isn’t payable on dead fish because they are food. However, caught in the aquarium trade net, the traders in live food are faced with a 10% penalty their seafood competitors (particularly importers) avoid. The domestic live market dropped by over 50% at the introduction of GST.

One priority is the upgrading of smoking facilities at the works. Smoked product is traditional wood-fired, and Bill and Ken are adamant it will stay that way, believing that this gives a top quality product with subtleties of flavour that the different markets require.

Markets Eels were a major food source in pioneering times along the Western Districts and Gippsland coastal belt. Bill says that since the 1950s there’s been a drift away from fresh product to packaged pre-prepared lines. He also points out the change in focus of the recreational anglers. “You used to go angling to catch a feed of fish. Now a lot of anglers go for the recreational value of the sport. If they catch a quality food fish as part of the process that’s a bonus. We’ve seen a move away from the purchase and preparation of wet fish in the domestic market. We’re going to present a product June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 15

FARM PROFILE

your quality is right up there and the continuity is predictable”, says Bill.

The purging tanks where the eels are rested and held before processing or live sale.

their traditional smoking techniques and flavours, they are prepared to customize their preparation methods, where volumes make it economically feasible,

Quality is everything at VEGG. Bill showing off one of the export quality eels from the purging tank.

Bill has no doubts about the quality of VEGG’s product. Nevertheless, VEGG’s European buyer has been quite open about going to New Zealand for eels. Bill reckons that fishery is fishing down its existing stocks, taking the pressure off the food resource and therefore producing a bigger bodied animal.

that the consumer will be able to identify with as a quality product. It will be as easy for them to prepare it and as pleasant tasting as we can make it.”

In the interim, most of VEGG’s domestic product is going into the food service industry. Some restaurants have specific requirements. Having the ability to vary

But nowhere near the quality of the Victorian product, he reckons. “People don’t give you preferred supplier status unless

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“We’re not making any promises but our long term expectation is that by consolidating all our enterprises here in Skipton there will be enough cash flow and through product to ultimately provide some opportunity for employment and market expansion,” he says.

The joint venture operators are very aware of the cultural significance of eels to certain indigenous communities in Western Victoria and operate under Environmental Management Systems principles and Code of Conduct. They also support local businesses by shopping in the region, wherever they can, for goods and services, even if it meant paying a bit extra. “Because”, Bill says, “if we don’t support them there’ll come a day when they aren’t there when we need them most.”

VEGG is an equal opportunity and merit protection employer. The Skipton eel processing works was once the largest employer in Skipton. Ken and Bill would like to see that again become the case.

The extensive short fin eel culture in Western Victoria faces challenges from several quarters. Climatic instability has already reduced the available culture waters. While it is foreseeable the current dry cycle will correct itself, the challenge will then be to find suitable restock eels to phase these waters back into production. “Even if we got it back up to 200t I think it would be seen as a major achievement,” says Bill.

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16 Austasia Aquaculture | June/July 2006

The future The factory can hold 25 tonnes of eels — twenty tonnes of frozen capacity and another 5t in the cool room – plus three to five tonnes of blast freezing capacity that can double up as storage. Bill points out that if every water was producing to its maximum capacity the factory could handle the output.

The Victorian Eel Growers Group can be contacted by phone on (03) 5340 2005.

FARM PROFILE

Short production period for Gold Medal winning Pambula Lake oyster farmer Generally it takes 3-4 years to grow Sydney rock oysters through to market size. During this time problems such as diseases, predators and fouling can add significantly to the overall cost of production. One oyster grower has focussed his business on the growout of medium sized oysters over a one year period. The result is an excellent product which received a gold medal at this year’s Sydney Royal Agricultural Shows Fine Foods Awards.

T

he McIntrye name is pretty common on Pambula Lake, a beautiful stretch of estuarine water some six hours south of Sydney on NSW’s Sapphire Coast. There is Rod and Liz who run RG and EA McIntyre Oysters, daughter Sue who owns Broadwater Oysters with partner Greg Carton, son Allan with Hazelgrove Oysters and Uncle Jeff with Jeff McIntyre Oysters.

“We all work together to help each other out,” says Allan. “In fact on the Lake

everyone is pretty friendly. With the clean waters of the Lake the area is rapidly developing a good reputation for great oysters, locally, in Sydney and overseas.”

Allan has been farming oysters for more than nine years. “I named the business after my grazing property where I have my oyster shed. On the Lake I use my sister’s shed but I am only 10km away by road so I take my market ready oysters there for hand grading and packing.”

Given Pambula Lake’s wide mouth to the sea, there is good tidal flow. “We get two good tides a day so there is plenty of clean water coming in. The Lake’s water temperature drops down to 13-14°C in the winter and can reach as high as 24°C in the summer. We also get freshwater coming in from the Pambula and Yowaka Rivers. The freshwater gives a nice balance to the flavour of our oysters.

“Last season was the first in which we June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 17

FARM PROFILE

Allan McIntyre going to work on the Pambula Lake No.1.

Photograph Jacinta Gordon

mately 1.4 ha in area. “I am located out in the broadwater or middle part of the Lake. At low tide all of my racks are out of the water and you can easily walk around all of them. The daily tides are usually between 0.4 and 1.4m.

“I am gradually moving from the wooden trays with 17mm oyster mesh bottoms into the all plastic ones. I use Tooltech manufactured trays such as Excel or Aquatray. The trays are 1.8m long, 90cm wide and around 5cm thick. The plastic trays already have lids on them, on the wooden trays I use a covering of oyster mesh to keep out predators such as eagle rays.

“The plastic Aquatrays are used as a

Winter mortality (Source: Ian White 2001, Safe conditions and environmental guidelines for NSW Oyster Culture, Healthy River Commission).

Another protistan parasite disease of rock oysters, winter mortality (Mikrocytos roughleyi) is also temperature-dependant and infects oysters between July and September in the cooler estuaries from Port Stephens south. Evidence suggests that winter mortality appears highest in more saline waters close to estuary mouths and is less prevalent in fresher areas (Adlard, 1996).

had been classified (conditionally approved) by the NSW Shellfish Quality Assurance Program (SQAP) run by Safe Food NSW. This has been a major benefit as we can now direct harvest, both for domestic and export orders. The SQAP means we don’t have to depurate any more (there used to be a NSW-wide regulation that all oysters had to be kept in depuration tanks with recirculating UV-sterilised seawater for 36 hours before sale). This has taken a lot of work out of handling the oysters before market. The depuration limited the amount of oysters we could harvest in a week.”

The SQAP includes a monitoring pro18 Austasia Aquaculture | June/July 2006

gram that checks on water and shellfish meat quality. Trigger events that could close the area to direct harvesting are usually rain in the catchment which lowers the salinity in the oyster growing areas. Thus, the harvest area would be closed if any of the following occurred: • rainfall of 3mm or more in 48 hours, or • rainfall exceeding 50mm in seven days, or • salinity is below 28ppt measured at ebb tide at a specific site on the Lake.

Rack and Tray Culture Allan has between 600-800 trays spread across his two leases which are approxi-

Oyster growers in the Hawkesbury River and elsewhere use this to their advantage by relaying oysters to fresher, upstream locations during periods of potential infection.

Experience suggests that the probability of a severe kill due to winter mortality is higher after dry autumns and early winters.

Mortality is usually extremely variable, both between estuaries and within estuaries. Besides relaying to fresher areas, growers have found that raising their growing positions by 150mm also helps avoid the disease. Farmers try to sell their oysters before winter in infected estuaries.

NSW Fisheries has been carrying out selection trials to find faster-growing, disease-resistant oysters.

FARM PROFILE

Allan and Rod McIntyre netting the trays of single seed oysters with predator mesh. Photograph Elizabeth McIntyre

wind break in the high wash areas as they handle the wash well (without all the oysters being washed on top of each other and damaged or lost). Having compartments in these trays stops the oysters from all being washed into one corner. The plastic trays last a lot longer and are more environmentally friendly than the treated wood. I hope to be using only plastic trays by 2010.”

Allan used to use only treated pine wood for his rails but these are being replaced by plastic rails. “This is also for environmental friendly reasons. We use wattle posts for the uprights and wrap these in plastic flume to protect them from marine borers (toredo worms). These posts are set 1.2m apart, the rails are 1.2m wide and the rows are about 6m apart.”

Purchases of large seed Allan no longer catches his own spat in the Lake. “Most of the other 12 oyster farmers in the Lake will catch their seed on vinyl slats. If they don’t catch enough they will buy more single seed from other farmers.

“I have set up my business so I can go

Allan McIntyre’s Oyster lease Pambula Lake. Photograph Allan McIntyre

away or do other things for some of the year so I no longer catch my own seed. I buy large seed from Stewart Bale (North Coast), usually at the end of September or into early October. I usually get 150 bags of seed each year. The seed can come in a range of sizes from the size of

your fingernail up to around a 50c piece. I get the larger oysters, which are usually around 18 to 24 months old. Usually there are around 1,200 oysters in a bag or box.”

Allan says that some of these oysters could be around 22 to 24g, which was around half of his normal sale size. “I sell June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 19

FARM PROFILE

occasional problem but again there is not much time for them to grow too large before sale, so they are easy to chisel off.

There can be some fouling from white worm (Galeolaria), or green seaweed or the occasional cunjevoi (sponges) but again this can be easily removed.”

Stocking the trays Allan says that the trays are left on the lease before stocking with the purchased seed. “I usually get around 40L of seed in each bag which is sufficient to stock 3-4 trays. I just eyeball the numbers and go right along a row to use up all the seed.

I use a stocking density that means I won’t have to thin during the growing period so I can leave the trays alone until the oysters are ready for harvest. All I do is check them weekly and use a Honda

Fire Fighting pump to hose them back into place if they have been washed into one side or corner of the trays.”

According to Allan if there are too many oysters in a tray they will compete with each other and growth rates will be reduced. “On the other hand, if you have too few in a tray then they must move around with wash too much and so they also have reduced growth. With experience I now have a very good idea of how much I need to put into each tray to get the best growth.”

A 7.2m aluminium punt is used for getting from the shed to the leases. “I am only about 600m from where I park the punt so I only need a 30HP Yamaha outboard to run it. With a full load I can plane at around 10knots so I can get out

Single seed oysters growing out for harvest July to September. Photograph Allan McIntyre

around 20% of my crop as bottles (3039g), 60% as bistros (40-49g) and 20% as plates (50g plus). I start selling the oysters around July the following year and my sales might go on through to September. The aim is to sell the crop before winter mortality hits in September or October.

“We can get a few losses from this with our larger oysters. Otherwise there aren’t too many problems in the lake. Predation is not high and the waters have plenty of food so the oysters grow quickly. Mud worm is not a problem either.

“I have been selling most of my product to two main buyers in Sydney City Oysters and Better Choice Fisheries; however, recently I have also been selling some through my sister’s business on the edge of the Lake. I might keep around 10% of the whole batch over until Christmas, but sometimes they are runts which won’t grow much larger.”

The shorter culture period also means that problems from overcatch or fouling are reduced. “If there is an overcatch, a simple dip of the oysters into 80°C water for 3 seconds is usually sufficient to kill the young overcatch as their shells are still thin. The oysters are immediately dipped into cold water so that their shells don’t stay hot. Barnacles are an 20 Austasia Aquaculture | June/July 2006

Pambula Oyster Producers Sheds, Pambula Lake. Photograph Allan McIntyre.

Rod McIntyre hosing down oysters prior to harvest to remove mud etc. The oyster trays must be out of the water before this can be done. Photograph Elizabeth McIntyre

FARM PROFILE

to the leases pretty quickly. I have a Nissan Ute to get me from the Lake up to my property where I hand grade the oysters.”

Allan says that before sale each oyster is individually weighed to ensure his customers get what they paid for. “My product is very clean with no fouling or overcatch so I get good prices. At present I am selling around 10,000 dozen oysters a year - $7.00/dozen for plates, $5.50/dozen for bistros and $4.80/dozen for bottles.

“My whole approach has been to try to do everything as simple as possible with as little work as I can get away with.

However, I hope to triple my output within the next five years. I am busy with oysters at harvest time (July and August) and when the seed arrives from the North Coast (September and October) during these times I get a mate – Brad Wood –` to help out part time.”

Despite the minimalist approach, a few customers have been telling Allan that he has been producing some beautiful oysters. So he decided to keep a few oysters over the last summer and enter them into the Fine Foods Award held annually at the Sydney Royal Agricultural Show.

“This was the first time I had entered and I got a gold medal for my oysters. I will wait and see how things are going and will probably enter next year. February can be a time when our oysters spawn, so we could have some fat juicy ones full of flavour from all the eggs or spawn, or they could be thin and wasted.”

Management Metrics Key Management Decisions for Hazelgrove Oysters include: • Move from catching own seed to buying advanced single seed – this significantly reduced production period to avoid winter mortality and other problems such as fouling and overcatch.

• Selling to 2-3 outlets over a short period (3-4 months) allows the opportunity for the ‘brand’ to be promoted.

• Improvement of the environmental sustainability of the operation by moving way from arsenic treated sticks into plastic covered racks.

• Use of plastic trays means better protection for the oysters from wave/wash damage and predators, they also last longer than wooden trays.

• Setting stocking densities at an appropriate level so they don’t have to be thinned during the production cycle reduces labour.

• Hand weighing each oyster before sale ensures premium quality.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): • Culture System utilised: intertidal racks and trays.

• Growth rate (from stocking to market): <18 months (20g to 40g) • Survival rate: X% from first stocking to sale size • Av. stocking density: 8-10 litres of seed per tray • Annual harvest: 10,000 dozen, expanding up to 30,000 dozen.

• Production rate: not known • Productivity: 2 part-time workers = 10,0000 dozen per Effective Fulltime Unit (240 days, 48wk x 40hr)

He says that his family and all the other Pambula Lake oyster growers were excited about his win. “The general public is hearing more and more about how good Pambula oysters are. We are always getting great feedback from our customers on that. There is even one farmer who is exporting his product. We want to continue to promote the Pambula area for the best oysters.”

by Dos O’Sullivan.

For more information contact Allan McIntyre, Hazelgrove Oysters, PO Box 143, Pambula NSW 2549. Tel: 0429 827-320, fax: 02 6495-6544, email: mcintyreallan@hotmail.com June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 21

FARM PROFILE

Mountain Fresh returns to trout and salmon growout Like many other small farms, the Mountain Fresh Trout and Salmon Farm had morphed its operation into a tourism and fishout operation to ensure a good cash flow. The owner is now refocussing the farm into the production of top quality food fish.

W

hen getting directions to the Mountain Fresh Trout and Salmon Farm it’s not unusual to hear that “it’s on the Bright side of Harrietville”. This instantly conjures images of sunshine and fun and when it’s just off Victoria’s Great Alpine Road you can imagine the lush, beautiful greenery. Upon arrival it doesn’t disappoint.

The farm offers the opportunity to see all of the life stages of a number of salmon and trout species as well as the chance to catch your own fish from one of the well stocked ponds. Nestled in 8ha of beautiful bush, the Mountain Fresh Trout and Salmon Farm can provide a serene haven for a spot of fishing or a family day out.

Charlie Peel has been the proud owner of the farm for over ten years. “I grew up on a cattle farm and I’ve always loved animals,” he says. “That’s the thing with aquaculture. You have to be dedicated and you wouldn’t be able to do it if you 1

didn’t love it. It’s a well known fact that it’s a 7 day a week job all year round and when things are happening it can be a 24 hour a day job.

“While I’ve owned the farm for ten years, I had leased it out for the last four and a half. I’ve just taken it back. During the period that the lessees were running the farm they were very focussed on tourism with the fishout and restaurant being of a high priority (the farm was featured in AAM Volume 18 Number 6, December ’03-January ’04 issue). Since they have done such an excellent job, I feel I am able to direct my focus on the production of commercial quantities of fish.”

The farm has a fully working hatchery, growout ponds, fish out ponds as well as processing facilities. “We used to send our fish to the Melbourne and Sydney fish markets as well as supplying local businesses and stocking our own ponds for fish out. We are licensed to produce 50 tonnes 2

so I hope to bring the production up to between 40 and 45 tonnes by 2007.”

The farm stocks five species of fish – Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), Brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), Brown trout (Salmo trutta) and Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). “The main fish we have would be the Rainbow trout but we do find that in the fishout the Atlantic salmon are the more sought after fish and attract a premium of around $4 a kilo more than the other fish species. This is quite a turn around from years ago when the Brook trout was the most popular species in the fish out. In my opinion, though, the Brook trout is still the best tasting of them all.”

The farm’s water is supplied by the Stoney Creek which runs off Ovens River. This water source is of such a high quality that there is no requirement for any water quality testing. “The only water quality testing that is done that on the effluent water by the EPA which is done five times a year.

“The water is gravity fed throughout the farm ponds but we do have an emergency pumping system for when the creek falls below seven megalitres,” Charlie continues. “Then we pump directly from the Ovens River. We have screens on both the inlet and the outlet

4

3 1. The farm offers a peaceful scenic retreat for yourself or the whole family.

2. The kiosk is a warm and inviting area for a break between fishing and looking around the picturesque facility.

3. The fish-out ponds offer the chance to catch your own fish or just watch someone else do all the work.

4. The ponds are well stocked to ensure everyone can go home with a good catch.

22 Austasia Aquaculture | June/July 2006

FARM PROFILE

which have about a quarter inch (3mm) holes in them which are to ensure that there are no escapees and to stop any debris from entering the system.”

The effluent water is also held in a shallow settling pond (30m long by 6m wide) before being transferred to the Ovens River to ensure any suspended solids aren’t also transferred to the river.

Strip spawning The farm has about 1,000 broodstock – all of them over a kilo – kept in the 6m wide and 200m long inlet channel (which is divided in to five sections).

“We do tend to do a heavy cull on the broodstock every year with most of them about two years old. The only species that proves to be the exception is the Chinook salmon which only survives for one breeding season naturally. If we didn’t kill them before stripping them we would only get half the eggs and the fish would die in three weeks anyway.

“They usually are ready at the end of March and are the first fish of the year to be stripped. We usually strip about a total of 10,000 to 13,000 eggs from the Chinook.”

With the Brown, Rainbow and Brook Trout and the Atlantic Salmon becoming ready for stripping between late June to August, the Chinook eggs have plenty of time to incubate and hatch before being moved to make way for other eggs.

“With the other species, generally we can strip about 400,000 eggs which will give us a survival of at least 150,000 fingerlings for stocking our ponds. If we get a higher survival rate we prefer to sell off the surplus fingerlings so we don’t over stock any of the areas on the farm.”

Once stripped from the fish the eggs are fertilised with milt from the males before being placed in trays in an upweller system. The hatchery has eight of these upwelling baths which each hold 6-7 trays. The trays themselves hold 1015,000 eggs. “The trays are an 18 inch (45cm) square tray with a fine mesh screen around 40mm above the bottom.

The eggs in the tray are about one to two deep and stay in the trays until the eyed stage (the dark eyes are visible through the egg membrane, indicating that they are ready to hatch).”

Once the eggs hatch the fry are able to swim down through the screen and will

stay there resting on the bottom of the trays until they have exhausted their yolk sac. At this point they will swim up through the mesh and will be ready for the first feed stage.

“The Chinook go through the incubation stage very quickly as the water temperature is about 16°C at the moment (early April). For the other species this will take longer as the temperatures over the winter months can average around 7 or 8°C and have been known to drop as low as 3°C.” The fish are transferred to tanks in the hatchery for first feeding. The hatchery has seven, large, all-steel tanks each 5.1m diameter and 90cm deep. Sloping bottoms make them virtually self-cleaning and the use of paint over the steel has removed any potential of rust.

The fish are all hand fed on the farm using a commercial feed from Ridleys.

“We have always just used hand feeding but the use of belt feeders will be something I will be considering in the future.

It would certainly free up a lot of time.”

And since Charlie is running the farm almost on his own he will certainly be looking for time saving options. “I do

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June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 23

FARM PROFILE

Management metrics Key Management Decisions for Mountain Fresh Trout and Salmon Farm include: • Combining both commercial growout and fish-out/tourism operations • Keeping staff levels low until some sales (cash flow) are made.

• Bird netting, god water quality and low stocking densities mean losses to predation or diseases will be minimised.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): • Culture System utilised: earthen growout ponds, concrete nursery raceways • Growth rate (from stocking to market): <15 months (0.5g to 800g) • Survival rate: 40% from first stocking to sale size • Av. stocking density: 5kg/m3 • Annual harvest: 10 tonnes • Water use: 12 mega litres a day • FCR: 1.2:1 (number of kg of food to produce 1kg stock)

have a youngster named Daniel who comes in and watches the fish out two days a week which is good. When we get back to producing the commercial quantities of fish then we will need more staff.

We used to have two full-time staff plus 2 or 3 casuals for the days we harvested for market.”

The hatchery tanks hold about 10 to 12,000 fingerlings which are transferred out to one of the raceways outside after five months or so. The farm has 15 raceways – each about 6m wide, , 35m long and 1.2m deep – in all but only three of these are fitted with fine screens and have a concrete base; the others have an earthen base. These three are where the fingerlings are first placed until they grow a little larger. While in the raceway the fish are divided and thinned to

ensure they aren’t overstocked. The raceways will each hold 10 to 15,000 fish.

The farm has a further nine earthen ponds which are all stocked with fish from the raceways. Of these ponds two are run as fishout ponds while the other seven are used for growout. The fishout ponds – 60m by 20m and 50m by 30m – are the biggest ponds on site. The smaller ponds are about 20m by 15m.

All are around 1.5m deep.

Some of the ponds are covered with a 10cm bird netting to stop any predation “We don’t really have any problems with predation,” Charlie explains. “We do get the odd cormorant under the netting which can be a nuisance with the smaller fish. But my dog usually scares them away pretty quickly.”

“The only health problem we have with

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the fish can be the odd case of white spot on the fingerlings. To reduce the likelihood of that we spread the fish out and make sure we never overstock them.”

Processing plant Given plans to restart processing, Charlie predicts it will take less than two years to have that function back to its former glory. “All we need is a good run of fish and since we have already started stripping things are already in motion. The rainbow trout can be ready for commercial sale in just 15 months.”

The rainbow trout can be harvested at 300 to 400g; for other species it’s a little larger. The fish are killed, gilled and gutted in the processing room before being packed on ice and delivered to local businesses. With fish available for sale Monday to Friday the freshest product is guaranteed.

Although Charlie has grand plans for his growout and processing, this doesn’t mean the fishout will be neglected.

“Easter is by far the busiest time of the year for us. We average about 35 cars a day as we are the only fish farm on the Great Alpine Road (only 3 hours drive east of Melbourne). And the Great Alpine Road is one of the most travelled roads (in country Victoria) and is actually used more than the Great Ocean Road.”

It is not surprising that farm is so popular with the tourists as it offers the chance to catch your own fish, learn about the various life stages of five fish species, feed the fish or just relax by the ponds. One of the best drawcards though would have to be the free entry to the farm making it an affordable day for the whole family. “The farm also has a kiosk, barbecue facilities and sheltered picnic areas so you can enjoy the day no matter the weather,” Charlie says.

by Andrina Fay with Dos O’Sullivan.

For more information contact Charlie Peel, Mountain Fresh Trout and Salmon Farm, PO Box 459, Bright, Vic 3741.

Tel: 03 5759-2558, Fax: 03 5759-2558.

24 Austasia Aquaculture | June/July 2006

FARM PROFILE

Jon breeds a range of African cichlids including this Paracyprichromis sp.

Photo by Jon Amato

Turning a fish hobby into a business Like many people in the ornamental fish trade, Jon Amato started out as a hobbyist. He currently breeds African Rift Lake cichlids, specialising in Electric yellows (Labidochromis caeruleus) and is hoping that future expansions will involve more varieties.

J

on Amato’s business, Babel Fish, could be said to have began back when he was only eight years old. It was then that the hobby first took hold of him after being given the care of the class goldfish for the school holidays. Unfortunately for the class, he kept the fish and never returned the tank. From this humble beginning, his hobby has grown until it could no longer be contained by a normal house. He now focuses on breeding hard-to-get cichlids.

Jon’s hatchery and nursery facility – currently at his domestic residence in Reservoir, in NE suburban Melbourne – has gone through much experimentation and redesign. Jon first realised he needed

a specialised fish room more than six years ago when it was brought to his attention that his obsession had over ran his home.

“You get one tank, then one more,” he explains. “You get a good price on another tank and then you realise you can get three in the bedroom. A fish you like the look of catches your eye and then it starts breeding so you need another tank. Like most hobbyists, it just keeps expanding.”

His first purpose-built fish room is a modified double garage containing a 10 x10 m room with 90mm styrofoam insulating the walls and 100mm panelling the ceiling. To save costs, he built the room himself and based his setup on

what he has previously learnt will and will not work. “When you are expanding as a hobbyist, you soon learn to do things cheaply as equipment can be very expensive and you are constantly redesigning things to save your money and time.”

He found the most cost-effective and reliable heating method to be a column oil heater. Not only did this negate the need and cost of individual heaters in every tank, but it also decreased the need for additional power points, giving him more flexibility in the room design. The room has been outfitted with earth leakage circuit breakers to immediately cut all power if there is a short circuit somewhere in the system. The lighting is on a June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 25

FARM PROFILE

So what are Rift lake Cichlids?

Rift lake cichlid is the generic term used to describe a group of freshwater fish coming from Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika in Western Africa. The lakes are of a naturally high ph and hardness of water, as well being recorded as having a temperature of over 24°C. The hardness of water mainly stems from the presence of chloride and sulphate salts of calcium and magnesium although other chemicals may be involved. The fish are commonly found around the shorelines and in shallow water and all have the characteristic of being mouth brooders. Another characteristic of the group is sexual dimorphism, with the females often being quite plain in appearance while the male shows bright colours and striped patterns.

This often makes the male only desirable by the consumer while the females are sought out by the specialised hobbyist. The fish can grow between 8 to 15cm in length (sometimes larger) and are known for their aggressive, territorial behaviour towards their own kind and others.

All these factors make them quite a specialised group to keep as a delicate balance can be difficult to maintain.

Jon uses glass aquaria for breeding and growing fish due to the good visibility of the fish. The tanks are supported by wooden stands in rows to maximise the use of floor space. Photo by Jon Amato.

12 hour on, 12 hour off schedule which is maintained by a timing device.

Tank setup Currently the room holds 36 x 100L glass tanks in which the broodstock and market fish are kept. These tanks are either bare bottomed or have a thin layer of coral sand. The sand provides a natural buffer system and also allows some ‘nesting’ behaviour by the brood stock. A single air pump (The Pump 620) provides aeration for the entire room. Filtration is provided by an air-driven sponge filter 150mm x 100mm x 100mm) that consists of foam block cut to size. Jon cuts a hole into the top of the block into which he inserts a 20mm PVC pipe to

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act as the uplift. The filter is glued with silicone to a 100mm square ceramic tile, to act as a weight and also to maintain the filter in an upright position. “The larger fish can easily knock the filters over and this is just an easy way to prevent this from happening.”

A weekly water change of 25% helps ensure good water quality as it removes all uneaten food and detritus. Water changes are worked around Jon’s current fulltime position at Aquarium Industries Pty Ltd. As it is from a domestic water supply, this water needs to be buffered by rift lake cichlid salt to have the correct chemical constituency. The salt is purchased in bulk (from Aquasonic) and commonly lifts the water hardness to over 300 ppm (mg/L) and gives a higher pH reading, as these cichlids require a pH over neutral. The plumbing is directed to take the waste water from the facility into the stormwater drain or, as an option in dry weather, it can be recycled onto the garden.

Breeding and Stocking Being mouth brooders, breeding and raising the fry are quite easy as the parents do most of the work. Breeding colonies consist of ten females, that are kept ‘in service’ by two males. The eggs are laid, usually on an area of 10cm2 on sand that has been cleaned by the parents.

The female then scoops them into her mouth where they are protected and

FARM PROFILE Many species of African cichlids are mouth brooders and incubate their eggs inside their mouth.

This Labdiochromis sp is a mouthbrooder and has a well developed large mouth and buccal cavity for incubating eggs. Photo by Jon Amato

kept free of fungus until they hatch. She then bites at the ‘egg spot’ on the male’s anal fins which stimulates the male to release sperm to fertilise the eggs which soon hatch.

The fry remain in the female’s mouth and only allowed out to feed until the female decides they are large enough to survive on their own. To hasten the female’s breeding regime, Jon manually catches the female and removes the fry from her mouth, a process he calls ‘milking’. “It is very easy to damage a female while doing this,” he says, “But I take great care and have had a lot of practice, making it quite a simple process now. I try to milk some females every two weeks to keep a balance between the size they are put into grow-out and the number I need for my customers.”

Feeding Feeding takes place twice a day, at morning and night, and consists of three types of food. The youngest fry are fed brine shrimp which Jon hatches out himself.

This is done by hatching the eggs in salted water (to mimic seawater) over 24 hours at a temperature of 25°C. The hatched shrimp go to the bottom of the container when the aeration is removed allowing them to be harvested and then the whole system is reset. NRD, an

Artemia replacement food from Inve, can be fed as the fry are removed from their mother and this helps to wean them onto a basic crumble (Skretting) that is supplied to all of the grow-out fish and brood stock.

Jon also supplements their feed by harvesting Daphnia from wild sources and by feeding a mix of frozen food. This consists of bloodworms, mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, prawns, peas, Spirulina and a vitamin mix. “Variety helps to make

Each female will produce 10 to 30 fry.

These will take 6-8 weeks to reach market size at a stocking density of 1 to 1.5 fish per litre during the grow-out stage. A sample of fry is kept back by Jon to provide him with future brood stock. It will take about 11 months for these to reach breeding age (at about 6 cm in length).

June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 27

FARM PROFILE

Management metrics Key Management Decisions for Babel Fish include: • Backyard hobby that has grown into a profitable part-time business • Works business around a full time job • Long term supply arrangement with customer • Target high value culture species Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) include: • Culture System utilised: glass aquaria with air driven sponge filters.

• Growth rate (from stocking to market): 6 to 8 weeks to market size of 35mm total length • Survival rate: 90 - 95% from first stocking to sale size • Av. stocking density: 1 to 1.5 fish per litre at market size • Annual harvest: 400 to 500 per shipment • Power use: single largest business cost

sure that they get all of the nutrients they need, which is necessary if you want to provide a high quality product”, he says.

Being an indoor facility, predators are not an issue but the intensive nature of the hatchery and nursery can bring some problems. “White spot has been a problem at times,” Jon says “but commercial medications such as Aquasonic’s Ichonex have worked well in treating it.”

Working fulltime also limits the amount of time Jon can spend in his fish room.

This means he has to take extra care in noticing when the fish are not behaving or feeding as they should to ensure any problems do not get out of hand before he can remedy them.

• FCR: Not recorded due to high value per kilogram of fish

V I S I T U S AT B O O T H 7 9

Markets Jon supplies his fish to his regular customers – Australia’s largest wholesalers of ornamental fish (Aquarium Industries) and other cichlid collectors around Melbourne. Manual grading is the best way of harvesting the cichlids. This takes place when the fish are 35 mm in length and a close check is kept on the colour, form and condition of the fish as he is aiming to provide an excellent quality to the local market.

After identifying the fish which are ready for market, these are packaged in plastic bags with clean water and oxygen and delivered by Jon in his car. Market prices vary with demand but as the cichlids are a highly coloured fish they have remained

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Jon believes that the market is very particular with what it wants; quality is vitally important. “The colour and form of the fish needs to be right otherwise we can’t sell it.”

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June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 29

Tasmanian Aquaculture Expertise and Innovation on Display Australasian Aquaculture Exhibition 2006 - Adelaide 27-30 August 2006 Australia’s Island State of Tasmania Tasmania is well-known for its rich maritime heritage and we have a reputation for excellence in the industry. The State’s temperate maritime environment, and its proximity to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica, has seen the relatively small island (68,300 square kilometres) become home to major industries including aquaculture, fisheries, Antarctic science and ship building. At Aquaculture Exhibition 2006 we will showcase our world-class production facilities, products and services.

AQ1 Systems Pty Ltd

Plastic Fabrications Pty Ltd

VISIT BOOTH 57

MEET THE COMPANIES

VISIT BOOTHS 50 & 51 AQ1 Systems Pty. Ltd. is a leader in technology-based products and services that optimise production efficiencies for the aquaculture industry. AQ1 Systems develop, manufacture and market sensor systems and control software for managing feed intake and biomass control in the production of farmed finfish. From stand-alone feeders to centralised feeding systems, AQ1 Systems have technology for sea cages and landbased systems. AQ1 Systems has over 2000 feeding control and sensor systems in operation worldwide with a broad range of solutions for the fish farmer and the researcher. We operate globally, with offices in the Asian-Pacific region and through a bilateral agreement with AKVAsmart AS, in Europe. Come and see our new range of solutions for managing feed intake - including the novel use of dissolved oxygen for feeding control and operation of oxygen grids (AQ300, CAS100) plus our new range of “intelligent” pellet sensors (AQ2).

Plastic Fabrications is the largest fabricator of polymer based equipment and products in Tasmania. Plastic Fabrications Pty Ltd was established in 1974 as a manufacturer and supplier of plastic products.

In the ensuing years the company has undergone considerable expansion and has significantly diversified its manufacturing capacity and product base. The company also specialises in rotomoulding PE products and product components used by the Aquaculture Industry.

The company has been an aquaculture supplier since 1985 and also operates a branch in Port Lincoln, South Australia.

Represented by: Peter Blyth

Represented by: Ric Murdoch Phone +61 3 62 740 222 Email ricm@plasticfab.com.au

Phone +61 3 62 315 588

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Plastic Fabrications supply a wide range of aquaculture products to all parts of the world: • AquaSURE seacages from 20m diameter to 50m diameter floatation units to meet the needs of fin fish farmers worldwide • AquaTRUCK Vessels • Corner Markers • Buoys and Floats • Aquaculture Components • Net Weights • Moorings

Fiomarine Industries Pty Ltd

SED Shellfish Equipment

VISIT BOOTH 67

VISIT BOOTH 72

Fiomarine Industries Pty Ltd was founded in 1996 and has developed leading edge technology for submersible buoys.

Fiomarine’s main product, the Fiobuoy® is a robust submersible marine marker buoy and retrieval system specifically designed for military, research, fishing and aquaculture applications. The Fiobuoy® is submerged to depths of up to 200 metres. It can be pre-programmed to release itself from underwater mooring at a certain time and date or triggered via an ‘Acoustic Command’ signal, when it floats to the surface to fulfill its marking function.

The Fiobuoy® has many benefits, most importantly improved security for underwater assets, improved safety for marine navigation and zero visual pollution.

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SED Shellfish Equipment is recognised as a leading supplier of innovative grading solutions for the aquaculture industry. The company’s ShellQuip machine is an automatic grading system which uses a video camera to size shellfish.

The system is fully automatic; oysters can be loaded into a hopper straight from a barge or punt. Then depending on options they can be washed, separated, measured, sorted, counted and bagged at the push of a button. It will even shut the system down if a full bag or basket is not replaced with an empty one.

ShellQuip is revolutionising the industry because of its process speed (1200-1800 doz/ hour), low cost and low labour requirements. Farmers with a ShellQuip machine have more time and are making higher profits as a result. ShellQuip will have a fully functioning sorter for viewing at the exhibition booth.

Represented by: Kent Lyon Phone +61 3 64 421 563 Email kent@sedesign.com.au

Fax +61 3 64 421 564 Web www.sedesign.com.au

Seven Tasmanian companies will exhibit at the Australasia Aquaculture Exhibition 2006 to be held in Adelaide during 27-30 August.

The Tasmanian contingent has been organised through the Department of Economic Development.

Shellfish Culture Pty Ltd

W A Cromarty & Co Pty Ltd

VISIT BOOTH 73

VISIT BOOTH 56

Shellfish Culture Pty Ltd is the largest shellfish seed producing company in Australia and is the preferred seed supplier to the Australian shellfish farming industry. Its unique combination of technical expertise and natural resources allows the company to produce shellfish seed that are of exceptional quality. Shellfish Culture has a number of land and sea-based hatchery and nursery facilities at sites in Tasmania and South Australia.

Originally producing several million Pacific Oyster seed in 1979, the company has grown to keep pace with a rapidly expanding market to now produce several hundred million seed from a range of species.

Shellfish Culture has been producing triploid Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas) since 1988. Triploids are reliably produced by naturally mating diploid oysters with tetraploid oysters and are commonly referred to as “natural triploids”.

MEET THE COMPANIES

The tetraploid technology is a patented process. Shellfish Culture has formed a partnership with US-based 4Cs Breeding Technologies, Inc. (4Cs), who has the exclusive worldwide rights to market and sub-license the tetraploid technology.

Shellfish Culture now has the exclusive Australasian licence for natural triploid production from tetraploids. On the back of this, Shellfish Culture has established a tetraploid broodstock breeding program to guarantee a steady supply of quality triploids.

Represented by: Richard Pugh Phone +61 3 62 489 441 Email richard@shellfishculture.com.au

The company has introduced the 2NDSEA Aquaculture Control System, recently developed in conjunction with research centres in Japan and Australia. It offers the potential to deliver immediate and on-going benefits such as cut-costs, reduced risk and lift the efficiency and profitability of land-based aquaculture to operations focused on growing fish in land-based enclosures.

One of the system’s major advantages is that it combines automatic feed control with environmental monitoring (such as temperature and pH), trending and logging. The system can be retrofitted to many existing manual feeder installations in single or multi-tank facilities, or installed as a fully comprehensive turn-key system at green-field sites.

The company will also be exhibiting the FLOSCAPE Current probe, which is designed to measure and log current flows in aquaculture applications. It can be used as a stand-alone device or integrated into other systems.

Represented by: Bill Cromarty Phone +61 3 63 449 110 Email bill.c@wacco.com.au

Fax +61 3 63 441 221 Web www.wacco.com.au

Fax +61 3 62 489 761 Web www.shellfishculture.com.au

ABOUT THE

Technolab Marketing Pty Ltd VISIT BOOTH 66 Technolab distributes a wide range of on-line and discrete monitoring and control systems for aquaculture and general water treatment applications, such as dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, conductivity/salinity flow, level, turbidity and carbon dioxide.

Through OxyGuard International, Technolab is a specialist in continuously monitoring and or controlling dissolved oxygen in fish road transport vehicles or at the hatchery and grow out facility. Single and multichannel systems are available and they are custom designed to suit each application.

For isolated applications, where water quality and other data are required to be transmitted to other locations, Technolab can supply the DATACALL remote transmitter unit, which uses cellular technology. Datacall can replace traditional hard wired telemetry systems with an inexpensive SMS system.

Using datacall and a mobile telephone, clients can control almost any remote telemetry application. For example a message sent from a mobile phone could start or stop an electric pump, motor or to monitor just about any remote device.

Represented by: Stephen Powell Phone +61 3 62 297 437 Email stephen@technolab.com

W.A.Cromarty & Co. Pty Ltd., established in 1988, specialises in all forms of industrial automation, process control, and industrial information management which links process data with business systems.

Fax +61 3 62 292 748 Web www.technolab.com

Department of Economic Development - Tasmania The role of Economic Development is to lead economic and industry development in Tasmania.

Our services to industry and business include: • providing general information on the Tasmanian business environment and industry sectors helping businesses enter and expand markets outside the State • helping businesses become more internationally competitive • helping businesses commercialise innovative products and services • facilitating business investment into Tasmania.

For more information on the Department of Economic Development or Tasmania’s presence at the Australiasian Aquaculture Exhibition 2006 contact Business Point on 1800 440 026 or visit www.development.tas.gov.au

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▼ Jon uses air driven sponge filters that he makes himself. The filter is a sponge block that has a tile siliconed on to the bottom to weigh it down. Water is pulled through the sponge and passes out through a PVC airlift pipe.

Photo by Jon Amato

quite popular ever since rift lake cichlids first came to the attention of aquarium keepers. Being the more passive of this type of cichlid also often makes them an ideal ‘first buy’ for those just starting in the hobby. These two characteristics have ensured that the electric yellow has a large consumer following.

Jon’s desire to expand his business by developing more lines of cichlids has just recently come to fruition. After months of keeping them, a West African cichlid (Steapochamus tinanit) has bred, providing Jon with a new product. “They are a lovely little fish that will be attractive for buyers of specialised rift lake cichlids,” he says, “And it’s been a personal challenge to achieve this success.”

by Louise Willis with Dos O’Sullivan For more information contact Jon Amato, Babel Fish, 3/21 Harrier Street, Reservoir, Vic 3073. Tel: 03 9462-6468, email: ghoulies@tpg.com

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Prawn seedstock Quality Assurance has relevance for all of aquaculture The equation is simple yet unequivocal â&#x20AC;&#x201C; high quality seedstock = better growout performance, less risks and higher profits! With lower priced imports and increasing costs of production and compliance, it is vital that all aquaculture operations start with the best seedstock possible. This article discusses the developments with quality assurance of seedstock in the prawn sector and explores the benefits for other sectors of the Australian aquaculture industry.

H

atcheries (and their associated nurseries) are a major link in the aquaculture production chain. In Australia the majority of our aquaculture sectors rely on hatchery produced seedstock â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the notable exceptions are southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii), Sydney rock oysters (Saccostrea commercialis) and blue mussels (Mytilus edulis planulatus). Even so, research is underway in South Australia on tuna propaga-

tion and several commercial batches of Sydney rock oyster and mussel seed have been produced recently.

Poor quality seedstock usually means poor growth and survival on the farm; these in turn result in increased costs and decreased profitability. Whilst the salmonid and Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) sectors seem to have had relatively few problems with seedstock supplies

over the past decade, there have many times when supplies of seed for prawns (Penaeus monodon), barramundi (Lates calcarifer) and other native fish species have been limited.

For the Australian aquaculture industry to grow it is imperative that a strong hatchery sector producing quality assured seedstock develops quickly. This QA process has to start with the brood-

June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 37

FARM PROFILE

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6

1. A fine harvest of monodon prawns. 2. The QA process must include using the best quality broodstock for spawning. 3. Casting a net top check the growth and health of prawns at the Australian Prawn Farm Photo courtesy of APF. 4. Top quality PLs can result in top quality prawns at harvest.

5. Using short trawl times and specially designed nets can result in less stress to the prawn broodstock. 6. Hatchery manager Brian Murphy checking the quality of prawn nauplii at Gold Coast Marine Hatchery. 7. Checking the quality of PLs in a Thai prawn pond Photo courtesy of Michelle Burford.

stock (collection, maturation and spawning), continue into the larvae and then post larvae (PL) or juvenile production units. Transportation, holding (quarantine or health checking) and stocking stages should also be taken into account.

It must include other hatchery biosecurity risks such as the inlet and broodstock transport water, feeds, hatchery staff and culture equipment.

in Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia and other Asian countries.

Vannamei dominance due to disease resistance A special session of the May 2005 World Aquaculture meeting in Bali discussed issues associated with hatchery production for shrimp (prawns). Recommendations from several of the key note speakers had particular relevance to the Australian prawn farmers, but also for the wider aquaculture industry.

He considered that biosecurity should be a major focus all along the production chain. “Whilst biosecurity is usually well undertaken in hatcheries it also needs to occur on farms. Let’s use selective breeding for disease resistance as an example.

In Japan they have been able to domesticate P. japonicus stocks that are White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV) free. They have successfully maintained these stocks due to biosecurity in both the hatcheries and in the farms.”

Andrew Kuljis (Aquatic Farms, Hawaii) discussed the considerations for broodstock and post larvae. He pointed out that whilst there were almost 10 different commercial Penaeid species under culture, now Litopenaeus vannamei was the most widely cultured (replacing P. monodon). He said that the species now dominates production of prawns in China and Thailand and is of increasing importance 38 Austasia Aquaculture | June/July 2006

“Resistance to Taura Syndrome Virus (TSV) and ready supplies of broodstock were the major reasons that vannamei replaced P. monodon and Litopenaeus stylirosteris as the most popular culture species,” he said. “This occurred despite the faster growth rates and larger maximum size of the two latter species.”

He said that the problem that was limiting the expansion of P. monodon was the lack of control over biosecurity. In a worrying turn for Asian prawn farmers, Andrew reported that TSV had been found in P. monodon on prawn farms in Thailand.

Andrew noted that due to the reliance on wild caught broodstock, it could be

sometime before Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) and Specific Pathogen Resistant (SPR) PLs could be commercially evaluated for P. monodon. This meant that it would be several years before monodon could become popular again.

Andrew continued: “Less stressful collection methods for broodstock should be used, for example, gill nets rather than trawls. It is important to recognise that once quality is lost it can’t be recovered.”

PL screening Dan Fegan (Alltech Biotechnology Corp.

Ltd, Thailand) said that in the shrimp (prawn) industry world wide there were problems with the quality of PLs. “There is little information on PL physiology and the factors affecting their viability (these factors may include feeds, tank design and broodstock management).

However, I am seeing many of my old colleagues from Latin America – where hatchery procedures for PLs are pretty good – now working with hatcheries in Asia. Thus, the standard of the hatchery procedures (in Asia) are being lifted.”

Dan pointed to problems in the PL supply chain. “There is a lack of co-operation between the hatcheries, nurseries and PL purchasers (farmers). This can be

FARM PROFILE

Stress Tests

Gross and Microscopic Examination

Several stress tests were recommended by Daniel O’C Lee:

As described by Daniel O’C Lee

1. Temperature • 20°C for 1 hr (Villalon 1993).

2. Salinity • Drop by 15 ppt (Bauman & Jamandre 1990) • Drop to fresh for 0.5hr then return to normal • 5 ppt for 1hr (Villalon 1993) • 3 ppt for 2hr (Samocha et al. 1998).

3. Combined Temperature and Salinity • drop by 20 ppt and 10°C for 4 hr (Clifford 1994).

4. Formalin exposure • 600 ppm for 2hr (Samocha et al. 1998) • 100 ppm for 2hr (Bauman & Jamandre 1990).

Gross inspection: • Behaviour - activity; tail flicks; clinging to sides of vessel – benthic; not planktonic – not zig-zagging; not spiralling • Fouling - not ‘fuzzy’ • Colour - not reddish or pink.

Microscopic examination: • 6th abdominal segment - shorter than carapace length • Rostral spines - 6-7 dorsal, 2-3 ventral (monodon) • Gill development - branched • Fouling absent • Chromatophores on 6th segment (monodon) – Developed – Individual spots with slight spreading of pigment; no coalescence giving red tinge • Muscle:gut ratio in 6th segment - 4:1 or greater • Appearance of tail muscle - Translucent, clear; not opaque, cloudy or white • Hepatopancreas - full, dark, well-developed, with lipid vacuoles • Anterior gut - full, well-developed • Appendages - intact; no deformities; no necrosis • MBV occlusion bodies (monodon) – absent.

addressed through a PL Quality Assessment program.”

ning system. Characteristics evaluated included:

He saw benefits for all concerned. “The main benefit for a hatchery is for management to have the ability to determine the effects of changes in technology or procedures. They could examine more parameters than just (nauplii or PL) survival. In addition, having higher quality stock can increase their value. It can also grow the business. From a farmer’s point of view, the quality assessed PLs can improve performance and reliability of the production. Secondly, the improved chances of a good yield can mean more investment return. Overall the QA program can mean more predictable pond performance and a reduction in the risks of production.”

• Muscle to gut ratio should be at least 4:1; • The muscle meat should be at least 50% of the width of the 6th abdominal segment; • A well developed and operating hepatopancreas to show that the PL was feeding and digesting food well; • No fouling on the antennae or legs (also an indicator of poor quality environment and that the prawns were not moulting well); • No deformities (eg. bent antennae); and • No necrosis or loss of walking or swimming legs.

To support his case on the increasing utilisation of QA in the prawn industry, Dan provided an interesting summary of how the QA procedures had developed and become more sophisticated. He said that before 1990, the Quality Assessment on PLs was on gross appearance, size and swimming activity. Then in the early 1990s microscopic examination was introduced. This was supported by a more formalised evaluation and scan-

cific Pathogen Resistant (SPR) PLs. In the Phillipines one hatchery group took over two years to demonstrate that their monodon Baculo Virus-free and high muscle:gut ratio PLs gave better yields than other hatcheries. They were successful in attracting more sales because they continually culled any PLs not meeting the quality criteria.”

“These provided an early warning on the larval production,” said Dan. “Also the use of stress tests, such as formalin or salinity, provided further evaluation criteria . Other stress tests are in use – such as pH or dissolved oxygen or temperature – but they are a lot harder to do in the hatchery. Salinity and formalin are quick and easy to do.”

Critical results from PCR tests Dan Fegan said the main diseases of concern to prawn farmers are bacteria (Vibrio spp.), viruses (such as Monodon Baculo Virus [MBV], White Spot Syndrome Virus [WSSV] and TSV), and Gregarines (protozoans that produce spores and require various hosts for their life cycle to work; prawns eat infected intermediate hosts such as molluscs or polychaete worms). Farmers believed that the main source of transmission of diseases to their farms was through the PLs. Dan noted that the PCR tests were developed to overcome this problem.

Dan said that the late 1990s saw the introduction of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test methods to screen PLs for viruses. “This lead to the development of Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) and Spe-

Even though PCR Tests Kits were costly, complex to use and destructive (the entire PLs sampled have to be killed), Dan believes that the results are critical for farmers. He noted that if the tests June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 39

F E AT U R E

• Stress test 1: 0 ppt for 0.5hr then return to normal; • Stress test 2: 15 ppt for 0.5hr then return to normal; • Survival rate; • Gross inspection • Hepatopancreas; • Necrosis; • Fouling; and • Gill development.

Monodon Prawn Hatchery Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) (suggested by Australian Prawn Farms) • • • • •

Growth rate: 25 days to PL15 Months operating: 12 months, dry out January and July) Survival rate: 40% average from nauplii to PL Av. stocking density: 800,000-900,000 / 10tonne tank Minimum Annual harvest: After stocks APF’s 33 ponds, we undertake runs based on orders we receive; this year (2005-2006) we’ll produce around 35 million PLs.

demonstrated that the batch of PLs was infected with a disease, then that batch would be destroyed (chlorinated and then dumped with the tank water). Tests should also be immediately undertaken on other tanks or batches to see if the problem was widespread.

Dan also discussed what options were available when using PCR tests for prawns already stocked in ponds. “You can find PCR-positive shrimp in a pond even though there are no major disease problems. If the water quality is good and there are no sudden changes in any parameters (to stress the prawns) then you have a good chance your crop may survive. But it depends on the season. If you’re in the dry season, the water quality control is easier. So if you were three months into the crop and were willing to remove infected shrimp coming near the banks, then you might risk it (not destroying the prawns). But if you were early in the crop you might see that with the feeding and continued loss of stock, the overall cost of production might be too high and so you’ll destroy the crop.

If it was in the wet season, then prepare for the worst!”

Dr Ian Anderson (Oonoonba Vet Lab) said there had been some use of PCR test for Gill Associated Virus (GAV) in prawns in southern Queensland. They had also undertaken some PCR tests on a couple of export batches of PLs as requested by the receiving country. Ian pointed out

that fortunately TSV, WSSV and Yellow Head Virus have not yet been detected in farmed or wild prawns in Australia.

According to Dan, now hatcheries are undertaking the stress tests to identity batches that may be disease compromised. Any batches that looked suspicious would then be PCR tested. “In this way we are able to bias the sampling, or make the program more sensitive to pick up infected PLs.” This is certainly a procedure which Australian hatcheries, not just for prawns, should adopt as more diseases become prevalent here.

PL quality and performance on the farm Daniel O’C. Lee (CAMS, UK) said that there are several desirable attributes of a PL quality measure; it should be: • Objective; • Reproducible; • Simple; • Quick; • Independent of PL size; and • Meaningful.

He described a quality index that was based on quality measures that didn’t just rely on PL size. The index, used at the Industria Nacional Agropesquera (INA, Dominican Republic), selected 10 measures of quality including: • Size; • Homogeneity;

INA’s Quality Index used samples of 30 PLs per tank. The individual results were converted to scores by comparing them with expected (mean) outcomes: • Score 0: within bottom 10%; • Score 3: between bottom 10% and mean; • Score 5: mean; • Score 7: between mean and top 10%; or • Score 10: within top 10%.

This scoring process resulted in 10 individual scores which were combined to make a quality index that ranged between 0 and 100. However, Daniel found that in the Dominican Republic there was no correlation between the PL quality and performance at the farm. He also analysed results from other countries (Indonesia and Ecuador) and again couldn’t find a correlation between PL Quality data and farm performance.

“The link between PL quality and farm performance is generally difficult to demonstrate because quality checks usually identify bad batches of PLs so they rarely reach the farm. Also there are large variations between farm ponds which can mask small differences in PL quality.”

With respect to PL growth versus PL survival in the hatchery, Daniel compared data from a dirty hatchery (diseases present) from Ecuador (1986 data) and a modern (clean) hatchery from the Dominican Republic (2003) (see Table 1). Daniel said that the data suggested: • In an IHHNV infected hatchery, the growth and survival rates of PLs correlate positively.

Table 1: Evidence linking PL quality and performance Hatchery

PL growth

Farm survival

PL survival Link between PL growth and PL survival

Data Broodstock Ecuador 1986

Wild

Dominican Republic 2003

Domestic, SPF

Disease status IHHNV infected SPF, biosecure

40 Austasia Aquaculture | June/July 2006

mean (mm/day)

CV

mean (%)

CV

mean (%)

range

1/0

1/0

2/28

1/0

Yes

2/14

25-70

1/0

1/0

2/20

1/0

No

3/15

40-90

F E AT U R E

• In a disease-free hatchery, the growth and survival rates of PLs vary independently.

It seems that the situation is similar in Australia. Tony Charles (Australian Prawn Farms Hatchery Manager) also said that they had found that growth and survival rates of their PLs varied independently of each other.

“The condition of our PLs is monitored daily within the hatchery,” he explained.

“The tests we have done at our hatchery include ‘swirling’ PLs in a bowl for gross examination of activity and behaviour, and a 0ppt salinity test for half an hour.”

Screening of PLs is done as requested by the purchasing farm. “We are rarely asked (twice in the last three years) to perform a stress test, and more often than not farmers don’t inspect the PLs they are purchasing. The farmers understand that the quality of the PLs used to stock their ponds is critical to maximise the farm’s production and I think most farmers would prefer to be more selective when sourcing PLs. Perhaps the distance between most farms the hatcheries, or the lack of alternative PLs at the

time of stocking, make it hard for farmers to be more selective than they’d prefer.

“Formal testing (sending samples away for a pathological report by an independent testing laboratory) is not done on a regular basis. Samples are only sent away when persistent disease problems exist or as requested by purchasing farms (although this has only been requested once).”

Tony recommends three basic areas that farmers should concentrate on to maximise initial survival in the ponds: 1. Source quality PLs; 2. Take special care of the PLs during transport to the farm; and 3. Ensure an appropriate acclimation process is undertaken.

A quick ring around a few people in our industry indicated there was a need for a QA program documenting the procedures undertaken, monitoring the PLs and assessing the results against established standards. It was agreed that such a QA program would become an invaluable tool for the hatcheries and the farmers.

In concluding his presentation, Dan said that QA standards should be commonly used by everyone in the supply chain.

He said that farmer should be able to track PL quality and undertake cross comparison and validation between batches and even hatcheries. In the hatchery the assessments can assist identify outcomes from changing practices or technology, eg. feeding or water quality parameters. “The main problem is the unknown relationship between the test results and farm performance, so more R&D is needed to understand relevance of the quality criteria.”

by Dos O’Sullivan For more information contact: Dan Fegan (Alltech Biotechnology Corp.

Ltd, Thailand), email: dfegan@alltech.com Andy Kuljis (Aquatic Farms, Hawaii), email: officeafl@aol.com Daniel O’C Lee (CAMS, UK), email: d.lee@bangor.ac.uk Tony Charles (Australian Prawns Farms), email: ausprawnfarms@hotmail.com Dr Ian Anderson (Oonoonba Vet Lab), 07 4722-2610 Dr Darryl Hudson (Aquatic Diagnostic Services International), 0409 727-853.

June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 41

C O N F E R E N C E A U S T R A L A S I A N A Q U A C U LT U R E 2 0 0 6

Fresh By Design and AGK Technology Fresh By Design and AGK Technology have joined forces to provide the Australian and International Aquaculture industry ‘Fresh Solutions’ supplying an extensive range of Aquaculture products and engineering experience focussing on land based aquaculture.

This joint association covers all areas from hatchery, nursery, through to growout and processing. FBD and AGK strive to provide honest advice along with the best equipment recommendations.

FBD/AGK has a charter of ongoing product development and research at our display centers in NSW and Victoria.

As a team, we endeavour to keep involved and informed of current issues to develop leading edge technology, enabling us to better serve the aquaculture industry and relate to the end user.

Our team are happy to recommend and supply either equipment that we have tested, developed or use on a daily basis to ensure the best result with ongoing support, with products that work, the best prices and efficient to operate so you can get on with looking after your fish.

feeders, processing equipment and live fish transport.

New equipment is always being developed. Peter is based just out of Melbourne.

Fresh By Design engineer and manufacture many of its own products in the Southern Highlands as well as import and distribute equipment from Australia and International suppliers.

Major products include the Dual Drain tank system with waste collectors currently under installation supplied to Curtin University and Geraldton Tafe.

Australian distributor for Faivre drumfilter and associated equipment along with Hydrotech Drumfilters, TPS water quality monitoring equipment, AMB Biomedia, Esam blowers, Evolution Aqua and much more.

If you have any enquiry’s or issues to solve, bring some photos and come and see Peter Koller and Ben Pope in booths 52 and 53 and we would be more than happy to help you out. See you there!

AGK Technology and products are produced in Germany by the Australian principal Mr Peter Koller’s family. Products include blowers, graders, paddlewheels and other aerators,

Imbros Imbros – the scientific one stop shop Imbros has everything you need for your science requirements. > Hatchery and laboratory: Chemicals, Nutrients, Plastic and glassware, Silicone tubing, stoppers, and everything from agar to zip lock bags. > Water Quality: Test Kits, Instrumentation, and accessories. Microscopy Products. Check out the newly released Zeiss Primostar. > Underwater Video Inspection: VideoRay ROV and Handheld Inspection Scopes.

42 Austasia Aquaculture | June/July 2006

> Marine Science Instrumentation: Current Meters, Temperature/Salinity Sensors, Sampling equipment and more.

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Please visit us at Australasian Aquaculture 2006 Stand 21 and see how fresh we look.

C O N F E R E N C E A U S T R A L A S I A N A Q U A C U LT U R E 2 0 0 6

Aquasonic Aquasonic are the single largest aquaculture supplier in Australasia. They manufacture many products at Wauchope NSW and represent over 36 overseas companies, thus stocking and supplying over 5,000 different products specifically for live aquatic life.

finfish diets) from Pacific Trading Co, DAN Monitoring System (an Australian developed and manufactured web based monitoring system which can be used for ponds through to tank applications), Algal Growth Media from UK based Varicon Solutions, among others.

Aquasonic will have a large presence at the Australasian Aquaculture Conference, having 3 booths (30, 31 & 32), where, many products will be on display. From water quality monitors, books, ozone generators, oxygen concentrators, UVâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, nets, filtration equipment, heaters, pumps, air pumps, blowers, diffusers to name a few.

There will be a number of representatives from Aquasonic manning the booth, but also representatives from local & overseas companies, such as Point Four Systems, Aqualogic, DAN, ESAM, YSI, Pacific Trading Co.

Many new products will be on display, including a new Aquasonic manufactured complete filtration system called the R& L Filtration System.

An all in one combination system built into its own sump, including biological, foam fractionation and UV filtration in a compact design which can be applied to tank(s) up to 6,000L. Ideal for research, institutes, growing or holding etc.

We will be running a special promotion during the trade show where we will be giving out a discount voucher which will give customers a 10% discount off all orders taken at the show. Also, it is redeemable for up to 3 months following the conference, then being worth 7.5% discount. A great opportunity for those who visit our booth, to save money. The Aquasonic team look forward to speaking with you all there.

Other new products will be surface aerators from Kasco Marine, Chlorella and Otohime (Japanese made Larval

Donaghys Pty Ltd The Donaghys name is synonymous with quality manufactured goods for the Aquaculture sector.

Donaghys has a world class reputation for manufacturing mussel cultivation ropes and spat collection ropes.

Independent tests have proved Donaghys ropes to be the highest yielding compared with any comparative system. Donaghys also manufactures a range of UV stabilised extruded plastic mesh products for shellfish farming.

Donaghyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s products are now being used in The Netherlands, Spain, Chile, Greece, Norway, Ireland and further trials are underway in several other countries around the world.

44 Austasia Aquaculture | June/July 2006

Donaghys - world leaders in yield enhancement systems: > > > > >

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C O N F E R E N C E A U S T R A L A S I A N A Q U A C U LT U R E 2 0 0 6

Natfish Natfish – Flexible Aquaculture Training TAFE NSW, North Coast Institute, National Fishing Industry Education Centre (Natfish) has been delivering aquaculture courses by flexible delivery methods since 1995 to service the growing aquaculture industry. Natfish has gained a reputation for excellence in flexible distance delivery – a significant proportion of the successful fish farmers on the East Coast have studied through Natfish.

Students study at home from comprehensive workbooks written by Natfish staff. Learner support is offered by email and free-call phone number direct to a teacher.

Additional information is available via the internet.

Students attend practical workshop blocks to learn the practical skills that are so important in aquaculture, these are performed using the college facilities and on a variety of local commercial fish and prawn farms. For example the Certificate 2 in Aquaculture requires attendance at 2 workshops each about 7 days long

during which learners visit the NSW DPI Grafton Aquaculture Centre and a successful commercial Silver Perch farm.

The courses offered range through Certificate 2, 3 and 4 to the Diploma in the Seafood industry (Aquaculture) as well as very popular short courses in recirculation technology. Seafood handling, safety and processing courses are also popular, particularly with the fishermen’s co-operatives and processing companies.

Visit our stand (booth 92) and talk to our teachers at Australasian Aquaculture 2006 in Adelaide to pick up full details of how Natfish can help you to achieve success in the aquaculture industry.

If you can’t make it to Adelaide check our website www.natfish.tafensw.edu.au or call us on 02 6641 4400

Quinntech/Soladome Bio-balls are small egg shaped plastic shapes 28mm x 24mm that have a number of prongs so that each ball has a large surface area. The open structure allows easy passage of air and water but provides plenty of area for nitrifying bacteria to colonise each ball.

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June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 49

RESEARCH

Breeding success for Macquarie perch leads to culture stalemate 1

3

2

4

1: Dam-caught Macquarie perch 2: New egg hatcher tank 3: Yarra River-caught fish about to be checked for eggs 4: Very basic hatchery setup with coke bottle egg hatchers

And his catch from the Yarra routinely composed just two species – redfin and trout. Here, on the box, NFA were expounding the virtues of another fish, a native. “They made them sound really quite special.”

Keen fisherman Andrew Tonkin with a yellowfin tuna caught off Bermagui.

E

ver the mad-keen fisherman, it was no surprise that sixteen year-old Andrew Tonkin found himself ‘glued to the box’ one afternoon in 1988 watching Go Fish Australia.

“It was one of the Government’s bicentennial programs and I saw on that TV show a couple of members of Native Fish Australia catching Macquarie perch from the Yarra (River) in the centre of Melbourne.”

Now Andrew lived in St Andrews north of Melbourne, just ten minutes drive away from the Yarra. “When you’re young, the only fishing spots you can get to are the ones your parents will drive you to or are close enough to ride your bike to.”

50 Austasia Aquaculture | June/July 2006

So Andrew joined NFA to learn more about them and other native fish. And he tried to catch the Macquarie perch for himself.

That was easier said than done. “They do take lures but the main way to catch them is on bait. But they tend to be in some spots and not others. And it took me a fair time to land my first one. In the end, I found out where they had filmed the television program and I caught one that way.

“Now I’ve worked out where they are and where they tend not to be – I reckon it’s to do with the food – and I’m able to catch them pretty much wherever I go.”

What makes them so special? Andrew believes it’s partly to do with their reputation as an excellent fighting fish. “I’ve talked to some of the older guys who used to catch them when there was a lot

around and they’re known as a dogged fish compared to other species.”

Apparently, Andrew says, tonnes of Macquarie perch were pulled out of the feeder streams into the Eildon in the 1960s.

And are they good to eat? “Oh yes,” Andrew says. “They’ve got a very firm white flesh but I don’t eat them on a regular basis. Native fish are more like pets to me. I catch and release. The only ones I keep are for breeding purposes.”

In fact, Andrew’s interest in breeding native species extends back to his early days as an NFA member. As a teenager, his first lessons took place with silver and golden perch in the NFA’s own small hatchery closer to Melbourne and in a commercial hatchery on a fish farm near Shepparton.

The NFA’s hatchery moved on to trout cod and Macquarie perch. It nailed trout cod quite early on but success was limited with the perch.

Then, ten years ago, Andrew met a keen enthusiast called Willy Truman. “Willy

RESEARCH

was an incredible guy. I only met him for a few weeks before he moved to Queensland and left all his research with me. I really needed to sit there with a tape player; he had so much information that it was just phenomenal.”

And quite daunting too. “Here I was without any real scientific background and suddenly I had to deal with all this information. But I think what he taught me best was not so much how to do it but how to look at the whole situation in a different way.

bigger fish

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“He created such enthusiasm that you couldn’t help but get excited. He was so passionate and so keen to share his knowledge.”

Andrew’s short time with Willy took in a three-day field trip to catch wild catfish for breeding and several visits to Andrew’s own small hatchery in his parent’s shed.

The field trip was to the Yanco River up in budgie country past Jerilderie. Three enthusiasts went along: “There was myself and Wille and Chris Vincent from Wartook Native Fish Hatchery. The deal was that we could go onto the property and we’d put something in (silver perch) and take something out (catfish).”

So the trio camped by the stream, fished by day, got eaten by mozzies at night.

And listened to Willy talk and talk about fish breeding.

“You’d ask him a question and it would never be a simple answer,” Andrew recalls. “He lived it and his enthusiasm was so infectious. When we got back to his small hatchery with the catfish the guy was so excited he couldn’t sit still because the eggs were ready to fertilise.

“It was all about the fish, not about him or making money or anything like that.

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RESEARCH

year after year. Five years it took him to crack the conundrum, but crack it he eventually did. And whilst the hormone that did the trick was Willie’s idea, Andrew’s educated use of it was the real key to breeding success.

Now that hormone is used to get the process underway although Ovaprim is still needed to take the more mature eggs through to fertilisation.

Two years ago, Andrew and Chris from Wartook managed to breed from dam fish, despite the lack of environmental stimuli for fish in that situation.

Again, however, keeping water quality up to scratch proved a challenge.

Chris Vincent taking an egg sample from a river-caught fish

Not egotistical at all.”

And then Willy simply took off. “He came up to my house one day not long after I’d met him and gave me all his papers, all his studies he’d done on Macquarie perch and the ways he thought they could be bred. He was off to Queensland. Apparently he’d missed out on a job with Victorian Fisheries and had had enough.”

Given the NFA had a licence to try to breed the Macquarie perch, its hatchery was allowed to hold the broodfish. So Andrew spent hours and hours down the river in his canoe trying to catch suitable fish. These would be brought back to the hatchery where he’d work through the hormones and strategies that Willy had written down.

It was slow and painstaking. Not without its frustrations too. “I had been told that I could use the NFA hatchery and be Egg samples waiting to be viewed under a microscope

head of the breeding program. But when I took some fish in the heaters had been taken out of the tanks to breed bass – which aren’t exactly rare – so the only fish I got to work with were the ones I was catching myself.”

So he withdrew to his own small hatchery.

A major reason progress was so slow was that, to begin with, the hormone used (Ovaprim) required the nucleus of the egg has to be at least halfway migrated.

And only one in 20 or 30 of the hardcaught perch would be in that condition.

“For some reason, river fish don’t seem to bite when they’re running ripe.” So that means Andrew has to bring the fish on himself and the hormones won’t work on fish where the nucleus is centred. The trouble is that whilst 90% of the fish have a centred nucleus in their eggs, when the nucleus moves, it does so quickly.

The reason NFA used Ovaprim was that Victorian Fisheries had embarked on a substantial breeding program. “They took 200 or so Macquarie perch from Lake Dartmouth but had no success with breeding from them.

“I was also told that as part of the program a (feed) pellet was also developed so I assume that they were looking to aquaculture them.”

But Andrew persisted with his program,

52 Austasia Aquaculture | June/July 2006

“Being a river fish, Macquarie perch breed more than once in a season and it seems that they have three stages of eggs.

So after the fish has been hit with the hormone, all off the eggs progress but only some of them will be fertile. The others begin breaking down immediately and destroy the water quality.

“We’re getting better and better at fertilising eggs but water quality hassles are holding us up.”

So Andrew has now reached a stalemate.

“Native fish Australia has been supplying the hormone but everything else has been supplied by myself. And I’ve taken a lot of time off from work (Andrew is a landscaper). Last time I took two months off and headed down the river every day to catch fish.”

That’s not very productive. “You can go a week sometimes without a bite. But that’s how I have to do it as I don’t have he licence or the equipment to net the fish.”

What’s on his wish list then? “We need either a lot of fish in dams or for Fisheries to net a heap of fish the way they used to. And a good water system. If I had access to a decent hatchery and numbers of fish, there’s no reason why I couldn’t breed lots of fish.”

That would help redress the natural populations which Andrew says are way down. “An old Lance Wesley book says they used to pull a tonne of Macquarie perch out of one hole on the Jamieson River in the breeding season. So it’s a bit like what they did with the orange

RESEARCH

Andrew holding one of his Murray cod broodstock

Andrew holds a Macquarie perch netted from a dam

roughy, catch them on the breeding run – at their critical time – and then wonder where the fish have gone.

“There’s also competition from other fish and habitat destruction. But you see them in the Yarra where they’re doing nicely despite the trout and the carp and whatever else.”

Andrew doesn’t like stalling at these crossroads. “I keep honing the skill of breeding them but it’s depressing that I can’t get the result. Ultimately all I wanted to do was get them back into the rivers. But seeing how hardy they are and being a good eating fish, they’d be right for aquaculture too.

“I’ve put fish in the worst situations – muddy, shallow dams – and their growth rates are better than silver perch. And being a cold water fish, they breed at 16°C and grow all year. That’s much better than the silvers and goldens which stop growing over winter unless you’re a lot further north.”

So Andrew’s got the technology for breeding a hardy southern native fish.

Now all he needs is the right opportunity to put it to good use.

by Tim Walker For further information contact Andrew Tonkin. Phone: 03 9710 1465; Email: theblonks@hotmail.com June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 53

RESEARCH

Fish culture systems for large irrigation dams

The team harvesting, grading and counting Murray cod with some of the property’s wine making infrastructure in the background.

Pilot scale production trials underway in north-west Victoria are assessing the technical and economic potential of growing fish such as Murray cod in big irrigation storage dams. These trials are part of a larger project funded by the Victorian State Government investigating innovative multiple use of water in agricultural landscapes to add value and sustainability to this limited natural resource.

W

e’re driving south of Mildura in Victoria’s far north west Sunraysia irrigation region, past the soldier settlement and irrigation hub of Red Cliffs. The dust is just starting to settle from a huge semi-trailer that has flashed past. It is only 9am and the temperature is already shooting past 30°C on its way to a maximum of 40°C. It’s dry and dusty on the dirt road but we’re driving through a sea of green – as far as the eye can see there are long rows and rows of vineyards, all thanks to a labyrinth of irrigation pipes and pumps.

Scooting off the track to avoid another road train we drive up a steep embankment to look down into the yellow-brown waters of a 140 Megalitre storage dam, 54 Austasia Aquaculture | June/July 2006

one of hundreds scattered throughout the irrigation districts of northern Victoria and southern New South Wales In addition to the usual 80-120cm black HDPE inlet and outlet pipes and the colourbond clad pump houses dotted around the sides of these dams, this particular dam has something different. On one side, a little off the middle is a cluster of floating raceways joined by a walkway back to the bank. This aquaculture facility is one of three in the area which are part of a case study designed to examine multiple use of irrigation water for horticulture.

Marissa Bailey, a Primary Industries Research

Victoria (PIRVic) project scientist and our guide explains what is it all about – “It is all part of the ‘Our Rural Landscape’(ORL) initiative in which the Victorian Government is investing more than $50 million over four years. The ORL investment is across a series of R&D projects in the primary industries sector in Victoria, with one of the major aims being to produce greater value from the sustainable use of natural resources.

The work in the Sunraysia irrigation region is part of one such project which also includes three other related case studies all investigating various aspects of multiple water use in agricultural landscapes. The specific objective of the Sun-

RESEARCH

raysia case study is to develop, evaluate and demonstrate aquaculture systems and species as an additional use of the irrigation water before it goes onto the crops.”

Irrigated agrifood production is a major industry in Australia with rural and urban communities alike dependent on increasingly limited water supplies. Principal Investigator Geoff Gooley explains: “Irrigation water is often under utilised within traditional, single-use farming systems. In addition, saline groundwater and nutrient rich, urban wastewater typically have limited use and value. However, all water resources can increase in value and sustainability by applying integrated, multi-use systems incorporating various forms of aquaculture and agriculture.

Novel ORL production systems at Red Cliffs Well all that sounds great, but what’s in it for our struggling inland aquaculture industry? Is it more of the same, R&D projects searching for the elusive ‘Holy Grail’ of commercial viability? Or can some progress be made towards providing aquaculture systems that are cost effective and profitable for inland farmers?

Initial results are promising, and, accord-

ing to Geoff, a full report with pilot commercial scale system and species performance data will be published by the Victorian Department of Primary Industries at the completion of the project in 2007. A summary article will also be prepared for AAM at this time. In the interim, the ORL project team have conducted a series of workshops and ‘farmwalks’ both locally and in Melbourne, and presented preliminary results

“These systems have the potential to increase farm profitability through generating additional revenue and offsetting irrigation management and infrastructure costs without any net increase in water consumption and external impacts such as eutrophication as nutrients from aquaculture are directed onto crops.

“Multiple water-use systems can also recover and add value to otherwise wasted aquatic resources such as nutrients in effluent water. They can, for example, facilitate cost-effective, ecological bioremediation systems (such as high volume/low value finfish production) for urban wastewater as an adjunct to more conventional, highly engineered treatment plants, before being finally used for third party horticulture and/or amenity use in parks and gardens in peri-urban areas.” Geoff adds that this concept is the focus of another related case study in the ORL multiple water-use project.

In the Sunraysia case study, regional demonstration sites have been established at commercial irrigation properties in direct partnership with the farmers – large-scale irrigated horticulture businesses growing table and wine grapes, or other fruits and vegetables – the intended next users of the R&D outputs. “They are allowing us to evaluate the economic viability and risk management of different aquaculture production systems, species and products, including their interaction with other irrigated enterprises,” Geoff says.

A close-up of the above surface part of the Semi Intensive Floating Tank System.

The floating walkways extends to the Tamco raceway system being trialled with Murray cod culture in large irrigation dams.

June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 55

FARM PROFILE

to date, as part of the communication and technology transfer strategy for the project. Further such activities are planned over the next 18 months for the Sunraysia case study, as well as for the other fieldbased ORL case study at Kyabram, in Victoria’s Shepparton irrigation region (to be the subject of a later article in AAM).

Three discrete aquaculture production systems were established at Red Cliffs, each in a separate large, private, irrigation storage dams. The aim is to produce primarily Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii), on a year-round basis and salmonids such as rainbow trout and Atlantic salmon on a seasonal (winter) basis These dams are typically several metres deep and have a massive throughput of irrigation water right throughout the year, obviously with peak flows in the drier, warmer summer months. The systems are: • Conventional floating cages (or net pens) systems – 3 x 32m3 capacity; • Innovative floating tank system (from McRoberts Pty Ltd’s, the New Inventors award winning Semi Intensive Floating Tank System or SIFTS) – 2 x 10m3 and 1 x 5m3 capacity; and • Innovative floating raceway system (from TAMCO Pty Ltd) – 2 x 10m3 capacity.

Smaller floating cage culture units for purging, grading and nursery production were also added at each site. All three of the systems have duplicate rearing units and are accessed via floating walkways (made by TAMCO).

Marissa says that the cage system relies on passive water exchange from within the storage dam with supplementary aeration as required. “We have installed a 1.5HP 4-paddlewheel (made by Chenta

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The McRobert Semi Intensive Floating Tank System (SIFT).

and imported by Primo Aquaculture) which we automatically switch on from midnight to 8am every night. The other two systems rely on active water exchange via air blower systems (from PDA Blower Co., 2.2 KW for the raceways and 6.6KW for the SIFTS) which are located on the pond bank and operate off mains supply.”

The two air-lift systems have the added benefit of automatic, direct injection oxygen back-up in the event of power and/or blower failure, including a direct dialler to Marissa’s mobile to alert any problems.

All three systems were easily retro-fitted to the dams. Whilst water levels fluctuate with irrigation demand the systems are designed to move up and down as required. “They require a minimum operating depth of 1m ‘free water’ underneath the units, typically this would equate to a minimum of 3-5m under normal operating conditions,” Marissa explains. “They are all suitable for manual and or auto feeding systems. We use belt feeders supplied by AGK Technology, rotary disc feeders from Aquasonic Pty Ltd and feeders from Sweeney Enterprises (USA) which can be programmed to deliver a certain amount of pellets over a 24 hour period. These certainly save on labour costs as the systems are spread out with approximately 15-20 minutes drive from each other.”

are preferred for optimal water quality.

• Access to mains power (3-phase for paddlewheels and air blowers) for support services.

• Access from land by a floating walkway or pontoon.

• Minimum standards of OH&S for routine operations as well as security of stock, equipment and infrastructure from theft or vandalism.

• Secure anchorage, typically both to the substrate of the dam and to the bank at or near the point of access (special anchorage would be necessary for plastic or rubber lined dams).

Key requirements of the systems include: • High through-put irrigation storages

Ready and convenient access by operators on a daily basis for routine management.

Parts of the modular TAMCO floating raceway system. Note the raceways are around 1.5m deep.

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In December 2006, a ‘farmwalk’-type field day was help to provide an update on the project. An impressive amount of details on the specifications and features of the 3 systems were included as part of a comprehensive information , including commercial suppliers, costs construction and design, dimensions, water exchange or aeration options, environmental performance, capital costs, predator control, maintenance, reliability and versatility.

Winter and summer crops The irrigated water is pumped from the Murray River so there is usually some level of suspended solids. Depending on the base of the dams (clay, sand or loam), that turbidity can further increase in the dams. Accordingly the clarity of the water varies markedly – as indeed does the appearance of the fish with clearer water providing darker coloured fish and more turbid water producing more pale coloured fish ... just as occurs in the wild.

Although the dams are generally deeper than 6m, there is usually a fast changeover rate with most dam levels rising and falling by up to 4 m over the summer period. Water temperatures can fall as low as 12°C in winter and be up to 28°C in summer. For Murray cod this means the water temperatures are optimal for seven months and sub-optimal for two more. There’s little or no growth for a further three months during which time they are supplied with a maintenance diet to reduce costs and ensure condition isn’t lost.

Geoff says that starting with advanced stockers (50-150g) allows market size fish (>600g) to be produced in 6-9 months, with most fish topping 1kg after 12 months.

A 24 month Murray cod growout trial began in January 2005 at all three sites.

“Market size Murray cod (1-1.5kg) are now being harvested for domestic market appraisal locally in Mildura and for export market appraisal in Singapore.

We have had great response with a number of people commenting on the superior, natural quality of what are being branded as ‘open water’ farmed Murray cod. In addition, internationally acclaimed celebrity chef Stefano De Pieri

These Murray cod were grown in the raceway systems where the water turbidity was much lower and hence they took on the more ‘natural’ and darker mottled green-grey colour.

from Stefanos at the Grand Hotel, Mildura, claimed that they were the best farmed Murray cod product they had ever dealt with.”

Over-wintering trials have also been conducted with Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in 2004 and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in 2005. “An alternative crop of salmonids also looks promising for the winter period,” Geoff continues.

“Stocking at 100g in May, fish of market size (>600g) can be harvested within four months and for up to 6 months in the Sunraysia, before it gets too hot for the fish.” The rainbow trout trial in 2005 resulted in approximately 1 tonne of plate-sized fish being sold readily into Mildura at commercial farm-gate prices, with buyers once again commenting on the sensational fresh quality from a locally sourced product.

Marissa says that the trout didn’t like highly turbid waters (secchi disc reading below 15cm) as they had trouble locating pelleted feeds. However, Murray cod handled the turbid conditions well and developed an attractive mottled yellowgreen colour to their skin; in less turbid ponds they would be appear a little darker.

With respect to production capacity, Marissa says that it was dependent on the culture species, but was up to 30kg/ m3 for cages and 50-100kg/m3 for the raceway and SIFTS systems. “It is well

established that the cages are good for a range of marine and freshwater species in either protected or exposed locations.

Commercial and pilot or experimental applications for the raceways have included silver perch (Bidyanus bidyanus), Murray cod and eels (Anguilla spp.). Typically these have been in protected freshwater locations although there can be some use in protected marine situations. The SIFTS have been used in protected freshwater and inland saline locations and species tested have included mulloway (Argyrosomus hololepidotus), barramundi (Lates calcarifer), rainbow trout and Murray cod.”

Geoff says that monitoring was regularly undertaken to determine various key performance indicators, including: • Fish production – growth, survival and feed conversion; • Environmental – water quality, interactions with pests and predators; • Economic – capital costs, production costs, revenue; and • Market – food safety and product integrity, market acceptance and sensory analysis.

Marketing Murray Cod To the end of February 2006, some 500 kg of Murray cod has been harvested with market (farm-gate) prices ranging from $12 to 14/kg. “We have sold whole fish, including live and fresh/chilled (bled and/or gilled and gutted) to local June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 57

FA T EC RH MN PORLO OFGI Y LE

low-rate recirculating raceway systems at the Kyabram study site. Geoff says that a later article in AAM will look more closely at these other ORL studies which are all designed to investigate different but otherwise complementary aspects of the Murray cod aquaculture supply chain, from ‘pond to plate’.

“Various community engagement, industry development, extension and commercialisation activities are being planned at the ORL study sites and will be rolled out over the next 18 months as more data becomes available,” he says.

Light coloured’ Murray cod from the highly turbid dam with the floating cages.

restaurants, pubs, some private buyers and retail and wholesale fishmongers.”

In addition to local sales, some Murray Cod have been exported to Singapore with good results. These trials have been supported by DPI Agribusiness and another DPI R&D project funded through the Naturally Victorian Initiative, designed to develop cool chain strategies for exporting high quality Victorian agrifoods into Singapore for the food services sector. The ‘open water’ farmed Murray cod from the ORL project in the Sunraysia have gained positive recognition from selected seafood importers in Singapore and weekly sales have now commenced.

“We are looking to co-ordinate our production and marketing efforts through an industry network approach,” Geoff explains, “hopefully in the longer term also with other ‘open water’ cod producers such as those in SE Queensland. The focus will be on moving towards a standardised Quality Assurance program and branding system. At the present time

ORL and the Victorian Department of Industry Innovation and Regional Development (DIIRD) are also conducting a Murray cod industry network feasibility analysis for this purpose, as well as investigating new Murray cod product and export market development opportunities.”

Other related ORL R&D A major constraint to industry development for integrated ‘open water’ Murray cod aquaculture is ensuring a reliable and cost-effective supply of Murray cod seedstock for the final growout. To this end ORL has also invested in another project at DPI Snobs Creek, under the management of Senior Scientist, Dr Brett Ingram.

Brett’s project is developing new and innovative genetic technologies for marker-assisted selective breeding of Murray cod; this has the added benefit of providing new information on management and conservation of wild stocks of Murray cod. The project is also investigating various controlled breeding technologies for Murray cod and other species to enhance hatchery capability in years to come. With selectively-bred, elite strain Murray cod juveniles being made available ultimately for commercial farmers, production efficiency is expected to be substantially increased.

In the interim ORL is also investigating new and innovative alternatives to semiintensive nursery production of advanced Murray cod stockers, particularly over the winter months, in solar-enhanced,

58 Austasia Aquaculture | June/July 2006

Marissa adds that as fish produced in the systems were being showcased around the district, interest in the program was picking up. “One of the biggest owners of irrigation dams in the area had a friend cook up three of the Murray Cod from one of our trial sites for a colleague visiting Sunraysia from Italy. His Italian colleague was so impressed by the quality of the fish he immediately started talking about exporting the fish to Italy and the feasibility of commercial farming!

“The owners of the three dams where our trials are located have each visited each other’s site and all three are keen to commercialise themselves in one way or another. We have also been approaching various dam owners or operators and conducting information ‘farm walks’ with good success. Once we have more information on the economics, and assuming it shows good prosects for one or more of the system, then we are confident we will see take-up by several operators as they diversify into aquaculture as an adjunct to their core irrigation business. This will mean exciting times over the next few years.”

by Dos O’Sullivan For more information, including a detailed Information Package, contact Marissa Bailey, Project Officer – Aquaculture, PIRVic, Department of Primary Industries, PO Box 905, Mildura Vic 3502.

Tel: 03 5051-4623, Fax: 03 5051-4523, Mob: 0427 098-961, email: marissa.bailey@dpi.vic.gov.au or Geoff Gooley, Tel: 0409 968-744, geoff.gooley@dpi.vic.gov.au

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TECHNOLOGY

Australian innovator taking RAS global C

ell Aquaculture is an Australian public company, having listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) in July last year. The company is established around a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) with a focus on biosecurity and risk mitigation. Cell Aquaculture has researched and experimented with RAS concepts for 9 years, developing their modular system to a stage where it is ready for sale to Australian and international markets.

Passive Nursery System including filtration system Single Cell™ System module

The first stage of Cell Aquaculture’s commercial development has been the establishment of two joint ventures in the Netherlands (Barramundi Farming Company BV) and the USA (Delta Aquaculture). Jointly owned by Cell Aquaculture and foreign partners, each of these companies are establishing Cell™ systems scaled to grow 50 tons of barramundi per year. Barramundi Farming Company (BFC) received their first full shipment of barramundi fingerlings in March this

year, and will receive 13000 fingerlings every two months from Cell Aquaculture’s Australian facilities. During the interim two months, the fingerlings sent to BFC will be grown to a target 60g in Cell Aquaculture’s unique Passive Nursery System.

The Cell Aquaculture Passive Nursery System incorporates custom made 1000L parabolic tanks, joined in groups of four to eight tanks. A simple and maintenance free grading system has been incorporated into the tank design, allowing rapid and effective grading to be completed without the need to physically remove fish from the nursery tanks.

The grading system leaves the smaller fish in the original tank, while crowding the larger fish to one end of the tank. A simple gate can them be opened between tanks, allowing the larger fish to be passively moved to a new tank. The nursery operates on its own closed recirculating system, using all of the same components as Cell Aquaculture’s growout module.

After the two month nursery stage, fish are stocked into the Cell Aquaculture growout module (the Cell™ System), a balanced RAS comprising tanks, mechanical and biological filtration, ozone treatment, oxygenation and UV sterilization to optimise water quality to increase fish growth capacity. Each Cell™ System module is designed to produce 4.2 tons of fish annually, with the average fish size of 750 g after eight months.

There are two stages within the three tank Cell™ System module. A 5000L tank provides the environment for the first stage growout, concentrating the fish into a dense feeding aggregation, suitable for this growth stage. After two months in the first growout stage, fish are transferred to the final stage growout in either of the two 10000 L final stage growout tanks. By dividing fish growth into nursery and two growout stages, the Cell™ System is tailored for the changing requirements of fish and allows for a continuous production system.

60 Austasia Aquaculture | June/July 2006

TECHNOLOGY

Each Cell™ system is comprised of two 10000L and one 5000L tank with conical bottoms and a centre standpipe in each drawing water into the front of the custom-made mechanical belt filter where particles down to 40 micron are removed. The filtered water then flows into one of two biofilters, each containing 0.6 m3 of assisted moving bed media (giving 510 m2 surface area) that is constantly moving using air from a blower which is pumped into the bottom of the filter. The water is then pumped up into one of the two contact chambers where a combination of oxygen and ozone is mixed with the water to increase the dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration to 15 ppm and the ozone acts as a sterilization and micro-flocculation agent. After passing through one of two 120W UV sterilizers it is returned to the tanks. Water exchange is also a critical part of any recirculating system and the Cell™ System exchanges 8-10% of water per day.

Each Cell™ System module is designed for a maximum biomass of 1,440kg, which equates to an average stocking density of 60kg/m3 over the whole module.

Production growth curve for barramundi in the Cell™ System

The Cell™ System is designed with a full monitoring and backup system that offers a high degree of safety to owners and operators. In case of power failure, the entire system can be operated from a back-up generator which starts automatically when the mains power fails.

Spare oxygen bottles will activate when the pressure in the oxygen/ozone line drops off and two pumps per Cell™ means that if one fails the water will still be going through the filtration system, but at a slower rate. This ensures the

operator has time to replace the pump without any detriment to the fish.

Another key aspect of the system is the water heating technology. This is often ignored when it comes to developing a recirculating system and if not designed wisely it can contribute to expensive running costs in cooler climates. Firstly, the building used to house the system should be well insulated. Cell Aquaculture suggests coolroom panels as the best option due to their great insulating properties. The next step is to heat the incoming water into the system and the water in the system itself. While simple immer-

Diagram of single Cell™ System module

June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 61

TECHNOLOGY

as a stand alone RAS, the individual components are also suitable for improving most existing systems. The tanks, mechanical belt filters (which filter particles as small as 40 micron), biofilters, contact chambers and UV sterilizers are all available individually and can be customized to suit any existing system.

The key components of the Cell™ System are manufactured in the company’s workshop in Perth, WA. This has allowed the R&D process to develop and optimize the nursery and filtration systems over time to tailor these components to Cell Aquaculture’s production system.

Oxygen and ozone generators for a 17 ton Cell™ System

sion heaters do a good job they can be expensive to run. Cell Aquaculture is currently developing a unique hydronicbased heating system that thermostatically controls the temperature in each Cell™ System module as well as the incoming water into the system. This will ensure that the water temperature is maintained at the optimum 28-29oC all year round.

While the Cell™ System has been designed

Users of the Cell™ System also have access to the company’s own fingerling supply. Run by Dr Leo Nankervis at James Cook University (JCU) in Townsville, the Cell Aquaculture larvae rearing system grows barramundi larvae from 1 DAH (day after hatch) to a range of fingerling sizes (0.5 – 2 g) for distribution to the Cell Aquaculture client network.

While larvae are currently being purchased from other commercial hatcheries, licensing is currently being sought for broodstock facilities to complete the lifecycle and increase production control. The larval rearing facility is fully temperature and photoperiod controlled and utilizes modern recirculating technology to provide as close as possible to optimal rearing conditions. Future development of the larvae rearing system will include the incorporation of the company’s Passive Nursery System to allow for grading of metamorphosed fingerlings from late stage larvae to decrease cannibalism when it starts, rather than waiting until they are able to be handled.

The company has been producing fish using the The Cell™ System at the company’s Fremantle site for the past 4 years.

Interestingly, some of these fish have

Locally manufactured Cell Aquaculture Belt Filter

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TECHNOLOGY

been sent all over the world for taste testing in many international markets with great results. An ongoing R&D project has been implemented to optimize fillet quality through purging and post-harvest handling techniques. Results of blind taste tests from a variety of subjects has allowed Cell Aquaculture to optimize their product in the back-end of the production system.

Most people that have been involved with recirculating aquaculture understand the risks and costs involved. Cell Aquaculture, through their years of research & development and their talented team, have developed a system that reduces the risks involved in recirculating aquaculture, produces premium quality fish and provides a sound return on investment. What more could you ask for in a recirculating aquaculture system?

Cell Aquaculture will be displaying their Cell™ System and equipment at Stand 68 at the Australasian Aquaculture Conference in Adelaide 27 - 30 August.

Software sale to US Aqua Assist Pty Ltd (www.aquaassist. com) an Aquaculture Software development company in Tasmania Australia, has recently sold its Hatchery to Growout Assist stock management system to Hubbs - SeaWorld Research Institute in California USA (www.hswri.org).

Hubbs SeaWorld is Aqua Assist first USA customer and welcomes the opportunities to work with this knowledgeable customer.

Hatchery to Growout Assist software is designed to work with recirc based tank / pond companies that may or may not have a Hatchery but deals in growout.

The software written for Microsoft Windows and comes network enabled gathers data on the total operating environment of a company from Egg to Plate traceability.

The system also interfaces with many third party vendors in DO / Temp, Hatchery Water Monitoring, Bar Code Scanners and RFID Technology.

Hubbs SeaWorld is dedicated to ensuring that future generations experience the benefits of a healthy environment by conserving the ecological integrity of our oceans and estuaries as a foundation for marinebased economies, sustainable fisheries, public recreation, transportation, tourism, and quality of life.

For more information contact: Robert Bronstein, Managing Director, Aqua Assist Pty Ltd, Tasmanian Technopark, Dowsings Point, 7010.

Tasmania, Australia. Ph 03 62 726555.

Fx 03 62 728424. Mb 0417 383366

FOR TENDER

FINFISH AQUACULTURE LEASE FOR SALE

• 30 coils of P/E rope 36mm x 250mm – 8 plait – UV treated, black colour. Breaking strain 11 tonnes

Cowell – Franklin Harbour. 5 h/a licence for 75 tonnes 5 approved species (include kingfish, snapper, whiting).

No further leases allowed.

3 X 12 poly flotations secured with ropes and anchors.

Asking $200,000 but all realistic offers will be considered.

Please ring Desmund F Hutchens – 08 8344 4746 or 0408 816 450

• 1,000 floats 300mm diameter – double lugged – black colour working depth to 100m – buoyancy 15 kgs Reliable manufacturers. All offers considered.

Phone: 08 9433 6340 • Fax: 08 9433 5764

Prawn Grading Machines and systems for the prawn farming industry.

• • • •

Prawn Grading Machines Prawn Cookers Prawn Washers Single machines as well as complete systems

Prawn grader KM1000

K.M. Fish Machinery A/S Tel: +45 98 86 46 33 Fax: +45 98 86 46 77 Web Page: www.Km-fish.dk Agent in Australia: Terry Gorman & Associates Tel: (02) 9979 7269 Fax: (02) 9997 4203

June/July 2006 | Austasia Aquaculture 63

YABBY TRAPS $4.30 each in lots of 30

$4.10 each in lots of 60

$3.75 each in lots of 90+

Orders of 100+ POA All prices ex tax/ex store Melbourne

RIVER FRONTAGE AQUACULTURE FARM At Byabarra near Port Macquarie (NSW 2444) The 20 acre property is located in a bend of the Thone River, providing for a permanent water supply (irrigation license for 10megalitres included) Approval for D/A from Hastings Council received and temporary accommodation in part of the 5-bay steel shed (6X30M).

Total 9000 square meter in 5 ponds, electricity connected to two. Stocked with yabbies and silver perch est. value $15,000 .

River flat for grazing and small forestry plantation included as well as fully equipped purging system and other basic equipment.

For more detail and photos go to www.noagentproperty.com.au or contact owners: Peter and Leticia Koop tel (02) 6587 1061 • mobile 0417 871 095 • e-mail pkoop@optusnet.com.au

Ph: 03 9817 3043

FOR SALE

Aquaculture Services Australia Pty Ltd 30 Cecil Street, Kew 3101

SIEMENS AIR BLOWER 2.2kw – large capacity 250,000 l/hr – 240 volt Perfect condition – $1200 (plus GST)

GLADSTONE WATER BOARD AND PORT AUTHORITY

Tel: 02 6956 2305 • 0427 695 662

FISH HATCHERY • Suppliers of barramundi, mullet and mangrove jack fingerlings • Quality, disease-free stock • Large order discounts

Ph/fax (07) 4972 9548 Lord St, Gladstone, Qld

Seafood Technologies Pty Ltd Suppliers of insulated bins and fish processing equipment • Bonar Insulated and single wall bins • Ziegra industrial ice machines • Aier-02 aspirator aerators • Heading, gutting, filleting and grading lines • Skinning machines for fish fillets and squid tubes • Industrial smokehouses hot/cold laminar flow • Oyster shucking/prawn easy peel machines • value adding equipment – Paoli deboners, forming and portioning machines Seafood Technologies Pty Ltd Email: seafoodtech@netspace.net.au Address: PO Box 2139, Mansfield BC 4122 Unit 5/53 Riverside Place, Morningside Queensland P: +61 73899 1601 • F: +61 73899 1672 • Cell: 0403 861 611 www.mariashort.com.au

64 Austasia Aquaculture | June/July 2006

FOR SALE • BIO-BALLS – 40mm diameter.

Bags of 1000 balls. $50 p/bag (Gold Coast, QLD) 0407 390 336 • RAINWATER TANK – Duraplas (green). Never used.

2000 gallon (9,000 litre) $950 (Gold Coast, QLD) Call: 0407 390 336

Silverwater Native Fish

!

Suppliers of Silver Perch, Murray Cod & Golden Perch fingerlings

&

Tel: 02 6956 2305 Mobile: 0427 695 662 or Email: silverwater@webfront.net.au

AQUACULTURE CONSULTANCY SERVICES Fast Disease Diagnosis & Control • Independent Lab Confidentiality • Microbe & Parasite ID’s • Water Quality & Biofilter Taming • Depuration Monitoring & Control • Disease Risk Assessments •

• All Hours, All Species, Every Day • Larval Mortality Control • Specialty Vaccines Prepared • Designs for Disease Minimization • Serious Biofilter Microbes • Antibiotic Selection

Contact: Dr Steven Nearhos 446 Enoggera Rd, Alderley QLD 4051 aquacult@baseline.com.au

Baseline

Phone (07) 335 66 111 Fax (07) 335 66 833

OzBugZz © Biofilter Starter 1-2-3 Fast starts can be routine. Pure fresh-cultured OzBugZz© microbes nitrify & denitrify waste in marine & fresh water recirc. & purge systems. Quality + O.Night Del + Tech Support.

Dr Steven Nearhos Baseline (07) 335 66 111.

/FFERING NEW PERSPECTIVES FOR MARINE FISH HATCHERIES

3PECTRUM รงCOLOURSรงOFรงLIFE (ATCHERY PRODUCTION HAS ALWAYS BEEN ONE OF THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES IN MARINE FISH FARMING 3KRETTING n AS THE WORLD LEADER IN FISH FEED n OFFERS PRODUCT LINES TO OPTIMISE LARVAL GROWTH AND HEALTH 4HESE SPECIALIST HATCHERY LINES FORM A NEW PRODUCT PORTFOLIO CALLED 3PECTRUM MEETING ALL THE NUTRITIONAL NEEDS FROM BROODSTOCK TO FINGERLING DIETS &OR MORE INFORMATION ON 3PECTRUM PLEASE CONTACT $R -ATTHEW "RANSDEN 4ECHNICAL 3ERVICE -ANAGER ON OR EMAIL MATTHEW BRANSDEN NUTRECO COM

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