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General Category => News Views & Press Releases => Topic started by: Editor on January 03, 2014, 06:21:06 PM

Title: Jungle Perch Update
Post by: Editor on January 03, 2014, 06:21:06 PM
Below is a brief update from Dr Michael Hutchison on the Jungle Perch Breeding Program.




We started spawning fish again in November.  We had better quality spawns in December.  We have stocked several ponds with larvae.  To date about 1 million larvae have been put into ponds all up.  Some of the ponds had rotifer blooms early on, which isn't that good for jungle perch as they do not feed on rotifers, however one pond has had a reasonable copepod bloom and we are more hopeful of getting some larvae through in that pond. By early February we will know how that pond went. Most larvae have been stocked into ponds on the day of hatch, but some more advanced stage larvae went into a pond after ten days rearing in a tank.  We are having more success with tank rearing now.  A good supply of small copepods is the key.  We have also had swim bladder inflation in a tank for the first time.  Swim bladder inflation occurs 6 to 7 days after hatch. Larvae that don't inflate their swim bladders normally do not have a very good chance of surviving.
 
After Christmas copepod production will be boosted to enable more tank rearing experiments and experimentation with stocking more advanced jungle perch larvae into ponds.
 
I have attached a picture of an 8 day old larvae about 4.5 mm long.  They are about 1.5 - 2mm  on day of hatch.  I have also included a 7day old larva photo under different lighting and from a different angle so you can see the fins. A bright light image shows the swim bladder as a dark shape above the gut, whereas in the other image it looks like a shiny bubble.
 
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Title: Re: Jungle Perch Update
Post by: rayke1938 on January 03, 2014, 08:33:19 PM
Well done great to see progress.
 Cheers
Ray