Larval Fish Aquaculture (Fish, Fishing and Fisheries: Marine Biology)

Aquaculture continues to grow more rapidly than all other animal food-producing sectors. The gap between seafood supply and market demand suggests a great potential for aquaculture development to meet the needs of seafood consumers. Larval fish rearing is a bottleneck to supply sufficient quantity and high quality of fingerlings for grow-out production. This book aims to provide comprehensive references on larval fish aquaculture. Specifically, it attempts to update the recent development in larval fish feed and feeding, environmental manipulation and hatchery management and to suggest future research needs for improvement of production efficiency in larval fish culture. Currently no book of this kind is available to cover major issues in larval fish aquaculture from an environmental, biological and managerial perspective. This book starts from environmental factors including temperature, salinity and light, and then extends to the major biological and managerial issues in larval fish rearing including live feed production, feeding and digestion, gas bladder development, metamorphosis, cannibalism control and weaning strategies. This book will become a useful reference text for researchers and hatchery managers advancing knowledge in larval fish rearing and a supplementary textbook for advanced courses in larval fish biology and aquaculture.