CYCLOSELECT: Quantification of grazing efficacy, growth performance and behavior of different lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus L.) families.
Production of lumpfish has increased rapidly and reached 15.2 million juveniles in 2015 in Norway and c. 10 million in the UK, and exceeded 50 million juveniles in 2018, 40 million in Norway alone. Previous studies have shown that there were significant differences in feed intake and preference for sea lice grazing between half sibling families suggesting that lice grazing may be genetically influenced and certain genotypes may be better suited than others for stocking in cages with Atlantic salmon.
Maintaining and even enhancing the feeding preference for sea lice is essential for the use of lumpfish as an ecological way of delousing salmon without any negative effects of the co-existence such as agonistic interaction or competition for feed.
The project will investigate variation in sea lice foraging behaviour of lumpfish to reveal potential correlations between inclination to graze sea lice and genetic composition. With this information, it may be possible to predict inclination for sea lice grazing in individual fish, and families, with clear applications for the aquaculture industry. These include the ability to select fish for breeding purposes, which have not been in contact with salmon, and to introduce a breeding programme for continuous improvements of the sea lice grazing efficiency of lumpfish. Establishment of breeding programmes also allows for improvements in the health status of lumpfish and reduces the need for wild captured broodstock. Production of robust healthy fish which are more inclined to graze sea lice may also allow for reductions of the number of lumpfish stocked in commercial salmon cages s seen presently.
Ten genetically different families of lumpfish will be used obtained by crossing 5 different males and 10 females (n = 48; N = 480) will be used per study and up to 2 studies per year. Thus the total number of lumpfish tested or being planned to test is 2880
The experiment is considered to be mildly stressful.
The stocking densities of salmon used in the study (0,9 to 2,3 kg/cubic meter of water) for each cage is well under the stocking densities seen in commercial salmon farming (Up to a maximum of 25.0 kg of salmon per cubic meter of water) thus ensuring freely available space for the fish to feed and grow.
The study is using stocking densities of lumpfish at 14% which allows for good statistical analysis of results. The number of fish (both salmon and lumpfish) also allows for accurate determination of growth and performance.
Maintaining and even enhancing the feeding preference for sea lice is essential for the use of lumpfish as an ecological way of delousing salmon without any negative effects of the co-existence such as agonistic interaction or competition for feed.
The project will investigate variation in sea lice foraging behaviour of lumpfish to reveal potential correlations between inclination to graze sea lice and genetic composition. With this information, it may be possible to predict inclination for sea lice grazing in individual fish, and families, with clear applications for the aquaculture industry. These include the ability to select fish for breeding purposes, which have not been in contact with salmon, and to introduce a breeding programme for continuous improvements of the sea lice grazing efficiency of lumpfish. Establishment of breeding programmes also allows for improvements in the health status of lumpfish and reduces the need for wild captured broodstock. Production of robust healthy fish which are more inclined to graze sea lice may also allow for reductions of the number of lumpfish stocked in commercial salmon cages s seen presently.
Ten genetically different families of lumpfish will be used obtained by crossing 5 different males and 10 females (n = 48; N = 480) will be used per study and up to 2 studies per year. Thus the total number of lumpfish tested or being planned to test is 2880
The experiment is considered to be mildly stressful.
The stocking densities of salmon used in the study (0,9 to 2,3 kg/cubic meter of water) for each cage is well under the stocking densities seen in commercial salmon farming (Up to a maximum of 25.0 kg of salmon per cubic meter of water) thus ensuring freely available space for the fish to feed and grow.
The study is using stocking densities of lumpfish at 14% which allows for good statistical analysis of results. The number of fish (both salmon and lumpfish) also allows for accurate determination of growth and performance.