The Ministry of Agriculture’s Fisheries Research Institute (FRI) has made a global breakthrough in its development of a captive breeding technique that can cultivate juvenile crimson sea bream to at least 5cm in length, institute researchers said on Thursday.
The institute has been developing captive breeding techniques for important coastal fish species for years to enrich offshore fishery resources, institute Director-General Chang Chin-yi (張錦宜) said, adding that it had made strides in breeding blackmouth croaker, spanish mackerel, common dolphinfish and rosy seabass from 2022 to last year.
It added another success with the breakthrough in breeding crimson sea bream and cultivating its juveniles, although the research is not the first of its kind, he said.
Photo: Yang Yuan-ting, Taipei Times
In 2001, China incubated fertilized crimson sea bream eggs in water at temperatures below 22°C for 36 hours and hatched the eggs, but it did not make further progress, Chang said.
Japan’s Niigata City Aquarium in 2015 artificially inseminated crimson sea breams in the sea and hatched the fertilized eggs, but they did not live for more than 12 days, he said.
The crimson sea bream fry hatched by the institute have been cultivated for 100 days as of this month and are able to eat feed, Chang said.
Crimson sea bream is more expensive than threadfin porgy and more delicious than salmon, he said.
It is also easier to cultivate than rosy seabass, as they would scramble for feed in shoals and aquaculturists can easily observe their growth status, Chang said.
“We believe that crimson sea bream has great potential for fishery resource rehabilitation and to become a fish species of high economic value that can be cultivated in aquaculture facilities,” he said.
Institute Coastal Fishery Research Center director Weng Chin-hsing (翁進興) said that captive breeding techniques for coastal fish species were developed to restore fishery resources that have been reduced by overfishing, marine pollution and climate change.
The annual catch of crimson sea breams has declined by about 90 percent to 344 tonnes in 2023 from 3,300 tonnes in 2001, he said.
The institute collected parent fish in waters off northern Taiwan during the crimson sea bream breeding season, Weng said.
The parent fish that are caught must have air released from their swim bladder immediately to reduce the air pressure, then are kept in water at temperatures of about 20°C to 22°C, he said.
“Their scales can fall off easily and they are prone to infections when their skin’s mucus dries out,” Weng said.
“The captain we hired was one of the most skilled and could press air out of swim bladders by massaging the crimson sea breams,” he added.
The parent fish were then delivered to the institute’s research center in Pingtung County’s Donggang Township (東港) and bred in a pool of 50 tonnes of water, Weng said.
They grew well at temperatures below 28°C and laid eggs in March, he said, adding that the eggs incubated in 28°C water hatched fry 32 to 36 hours later.
The juveniles could grow up to 5cm in length 82 days after they were hatched, Weng said, adding they had the same beautiful red color as those born in the ocean.
Crimson sea bream has high commercial value and is popular with customers, he said, adding that the fry are expected to help enrich fishery resources once they grow up and are released back into the ocean.
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