Jian Guan¹ , Zhenhua Ma² , Yongyun Zheng¹ , Shuguang Guan¹ , Chenglin Li¹ , Hongjun Liu¹

1 Healthy mariculture engineering research center of Shandong Province, Mari-culture Institute of Shandong Province, Qingdao 266002, P.R. China
2 South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Guangzhou 510300, P.R. China
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Aquaculture, 2013, Vol. 3, No. 12   doi: 10.5376/ija.2013.03.0012
Received: 08 Apr., 2013    Accepted: 11 Apr., 2013    Published: 27 May, 2013

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Guan et al., 2013, Breeding and Larval Rearing of Bluefin Leatherjacket, Thamnaconus Modestus (Günther, 1877) Under Commercial Scales, International Journal of Aquaculture, Vol.3, No.12 55-62 (doi: 10.5376/ija.2013. 03.0012)

The spawning of wild caught broodstocks bluefin leatherjacket (Thamnaconus modestus) as well as the development of egg and larvae were studied under commercial scales. Spawning period was lasted 55 days from 15th June to 9th August, 2010. Total 4.3 million eggs were collected during the spawning period, and 65.5% of eggs were subjected to be properly hatched and developed. The diameter of the eggs was in range from 0.59mm to 0.63mm. Total 1.8 million newly hatched larva were obtained in present study with a hatching rate of 41.7%. First feeding was observed on 3 days post hatching (dph), and the yolk sac was completely exhausted on 4 dph. Metamorphosis occurred between 29 dph and 33 dph, at the total length (TL) of (11.93±2.18) mm. The growth in terms of TL can be expressed as a polynomial equation TL=3.30394-0.31862(dph)+0.02222(dph)² (r²=0.90362, n=427). After 70 days rearing, 0.3 million juveniles (TL>40 mm) were obtained and the ratio of seedling/newly hatched larvae was 5.62%. The results in this study demonstrated that bluefin leatherjacket was feasible breeding under artificial environment, and our results might provide some technical guidance for the further application in breeding this species.

Bluefin leatherjacket; Thamnaconus modestus; Breeding; Larval rearing, Growth; Survival; Ontogeny