Catfish Aquaculture

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Catfish Aquaculture

• Brian Peterson, Ph.D.
• Research PhysiologistCatfish Genetics Research
  Unit
• Stoneville, MS

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Outline

• Catfish Industry
• Catfish Genetics Research Unit
• Research

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Frequently Asked Questions

• How long does it take to produce a fish?
• 2 years
• How large to market weight?
• 1.0-2.25 lbs
• How much food is fed to grow fish?
• 2 lbs feed to grow 1 lb fish

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Frequently Asked Questions

• 4. How many fish stocked per acre?
• 5,000-8,000
• 5. Average production per acre?
• 5,000 lbs
• 6. What is catfish feed made from?
• SBM
• How long does it take to process catfish?
• lt 30 min

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Catfish Production

• Shrinking industry
• MS 206 million
• AL 93 million
• AR 64 million
• TX 13 million
• LA 12 million

Source National Agricultural Statistics
Service, USDA
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Catfish Industry

• 146,900 acres of catfish in US
• -80,200 acres in MS
• MS leads nation in production of catfish
• -50
• -centered in Delta
• -427 operations

Source National Agricultural Statistics
Service, USDA
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Why Mississippi?

• Level land
• Clay based ponds
• Abundant ground water

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Catfish Strains

• Strain--A breeding population having a similar
  history and possessing unique characteristics.
• -Ictalurus punctatus (Siluriformes)
• -Channel catfish
• -Mississippi Normal Redneck Catfish
• -USDA103/NWAC103
• -Norris

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Channel Catfish

• Advantages
• -Easily accessible.
• -Fast growth.
• -Easy to reproduce-sexually mature 2-3 yrs.
• Disadvantages
• -More susceptible to diseases?

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Catfish Strains

• -Ictalurus furcatus
• -Blue
• -Hybrid
• -Blue Male x Channel Female

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Blue
Hybrid
Channel
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Blues

• Advantages
• -Reduced disease susceptibility.
• -Easy to seine.
• Disadvantages
• -Processors not set up to process fish.
• -Large nugget.
• -Sharp spines.
• -Long time to sexually mature 4-5 yrs.

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Hybrids

• Advantages
• -Reduced disease susceptibility.
• -Seine better than channel but not as good as
  blue.
• -High yield.
• Disadvantages
• -Labor intensive to produce.
• -Terminal to male.
• -Survival is low from fertilization to fry.

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Catfish Strains

• -Ictalurus catus
• -White catfish
• -Different than albino

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Catfish Strains

• Advantages
• -Tolerate low oxygen.
• -Sexually mature at 1 yr.
• Disadvantages
• -Large head results in poor dress out.
• -Difficult to seine.
• -Susceptible to bird predation.

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Two Types of Producers

• Fingerling
• Food fish

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Major Diseases

• Enteric septicemia of catfish ESC
• -Edwardsiella ictaluri
• Edwardsiellosis
• -Edwardsiella tarda
• -E. ictaluri
• Proliferative gill disease PGD
• Columnaris
• -Flavobacterium columnare

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Major Diseases

• Channel catfish virus CCV
• Brown blood disease (high nitrite)
• Nitrite Hemoglobin Methemoglobin
• Channel Catfish Anemia No Blood
• Contaminated Feed?

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Major Diseases

• Visceral toxicosis
• VTC
• Toxin?
• Others

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Enteric Septicemia of Catfish

• Medicated feed containing florfenicol
  (antimicrobial)
• Aquaflor
• Expensive
• Must be fed under direction of veterinarian
• May be effective against other diseases?

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Off-flavor

• Attributed to
• -actinomycetes bacteria (Streptomyces tendae)
• -blue-green algae (Symploca muscorum)
• -Metabolites
• -Geosmin (1, 10-trans-dimethyl-trans-9-decalol)
  Musty or Muddy
• -MIB (2-methylisoborneol)
• Woody
• -Easily absorbed into fat tissue, and are hard
  to remove by simple diffusion.

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Off-flavor

• Off-flavor serious problem (50-80).
• Associated with old ponds high nutrient
  loading (fish waste, high pH).
• Test for off-flavor prior to harvest.
• -Geosmin biggest concern (3-4 wks)
• -human threshold of 0.01 ppb
• -MIB (3-5 days)
• -human threshold of 0.03 ppb

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Off-flavor

• Treat ponds with CuSO4 (algicide).
• -Diuron ( herbicide).
• Purge off-flavor fish.
• -Place fish in raceways or flush-out ponds.
• Costly problem (25 million).
• -fish lose weight
• -stress/disease
• -transportation costs

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Bird Predation

• Costly (25 million)
• Cormorants, pelicans, ducks
• -7-9 fish/bird/day
• Wire, string grid system
• Scare tactics
• Kill (permit required)

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Catfish Spawning

• Catfish
• -Gonochoristic (maintain same sex throughout
  lifespan)
• -Male (XY) and Female (XX)
• -Oviparous (egg laying)
• -Cavity or nest spawners
• -Male guards nest

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Spawning

• 3 Males to 2 Females
• 5 lb Female-2,000-3,000 eggs/lb BW

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Spawning

• Late spring, early summer
• Cans are placed in ponds

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Spawning

• Run cans every other day

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Spawning

• Eggs treated with iodine and placed in hatching
  baskets.

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Spawning

• Spawning success only 30-60.

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Spawning

• Eggs hatch in 4-5 days.
• Yolk sac remains for about 1 week.

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Aeration

• Supplemental--1-1 ½ horse power per surface acre
  (5-7 hrs per night).

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Aeration

• Emergency 1 ppm. Run aeration until 4 ppm.

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Catfish Genetics Research Unit

• Mission-develop and evaluate genetically improved
  lines for release to commercial production.
• USDA103 (NWAC) released Feb 2001.

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Catfish Genetics Research Unit

• 50 full time employees
• 11 research scientists
• -3 molecular biologists
• -2 physiologists
• -2 immunologists
• -1 microbiologist
• -2 reproductive physiologist
• -1 biologist

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Genetic Improvement Through Selective Breeding

• Growth Rate
• Fillet Yield
• Disease Resistance
• Feed Efficiency
• Reproduction

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Fillet Yield
Evaluate families at harvest.
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Carcass
Shank Fillet
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Growth Rate and Feed Efficiency
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Selection for FCR

• Identification of catfish with improved feed
  efficiency.

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Selection for FCR

• Difficult
• -Cant get individual FCR
• Other methods?
• -Associate mitochondrial proteins with feed
  efficiency.

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Ongoing Studies
Growth Evaluations
NWAC103
USDA303
5.5 Weight Gain 3.3 Feed Efficiency 10.2
Disease Resistance
USDA403
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Disease Resistance
Challenge fish with E. ictaluri.
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Family Disease Challenges
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E. ictaluri Challenge
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Susceptibility to ESC
Industry Pool
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Disease Resistance

• Challenges in selecting disease resistant fish.
• -Low h2
• -Expensive
• -Growth and disease resistance neg. correlated.
• -Tank challenges represent pond environment?
• -Other diseases?

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Questions