Muskie Production Using OtohimeFeed at East Fork State Fish Hatchery

James Skipper

The Indiana MUE Program

• Broodstock MUE taken from Webster Lake In Northern Indiana.

• Eggs and milt are stripped by the staff at Fawn River State Fish Hatchery.

• Fertilized eggs are transferred to East Fork State Fish Hatchery after approximately 10 days of incubation.

• Developed eggs are force hatched using heat stress. 55-65F

• 60-70% hatch rates from received eggs.

The Indiana MUE Program

• Roughly 375,000 Sac fry are incubated in heath trays until swim up development. Usually 12-13 Days.

• Approximately 80-90% survival from incubation trays.

• Around 300,000 swim up fry transferred to linear production tanks.

• Grow out tanks stocked at 40,000 to 60,000 MUE per tank

Rearing Tanks… Big Rearing Tanks

• 20 foot Linears

• 2 foot standpipes

• As much flow as the fish can take.

• Around 6 GPM

Feed Training MUE

• The Indiana MUE program does not utilize brine shrimp as a first feed.

• Historically feed training MUE directly onto commercial pellets proved effective.

• Survivals hovered around the 20-30% range

• Historically used BioVitaDiet.

• 2016 Was the first small trail using Otohime

“Feed Trial”

• Four Tanks considered for trial. Two for each Diet.

• Each Stocked with 40,000-50,000 Fry. Weighing 1000-1200Grams

• Varied rates stocked in order to keep hatch dates together.

• All other culture practices were kept as constant as possible.

• 50 Day time span (First Inventory)

• Feed rates started at around 50% bodyweight per day. 500 g per day per tank.

• Once feed trained, rations were tapered off to 5 % bodyweight per day. Roughly 1000g per day per tank

• Feed presented every 5 minutes for 24 hours with Louden Feeders

Feed Overview

• BioVita Starter

– #0 ; 0.3-0.6 mm

– #1 ; 0.4-1.0 mm

– #2 ; 0.8-1.4 mm

• 53% Protein

• 20% oil

• Fish Meal Based

• Brown in coloration

• 44 kg Bags

• Otohime

– B2 ; 0.36-0.65 mm

– C1 ; 0.58-0.84 mm

– C2 ; 0.84-1.41 mm

• 50% Protein

• 10% oil

• Krill Meal Based

• Orange in coloration

• 2 Kg Resealable Bags

Biovita Starter

Otohime Starter

Feed Handling Comparison

• BioO

– Tendency to float longer than desirable.

– More oil films

– Clumps form more readily

• Otohime

– Sunk much better while still allowing for plenty of “presentation time”

– Less oil films

– Dryer feed less likely to form clumps.

BioO Tank

Otohime Tank

BioO Feeder

Otohime Feeder

MUE Growth

• The MUE from all tanks were inventoried on 5/31/16.

• Roughly 50 Days in tanks.

• Otohime tanks averaged 2.27 and 2.38 inches

• BioO tanks averaged 1.88 and 1.83 inches

• The Otohime MUE were better in both coloration and condition.

Otohime MUE at 1st Inventory

BioVita MUE at 1st Inventory

MUE Survival

• BioVita diet typically produces 20-30% survivals in our system.

• Has been falling in recent years.

• Record lows for 2016

• Biovita tanks resulted in 20% and 6% survivals

• Otohime tanks produced record high survivals for the Indiana program. 78% and 57%

Otohime Tank

Biovita Tank

Transition back to Bio Oregon

• Both groups made the transition to the Bio Oregon grower feed well.

• Slight but insignificant difference in final size.

• More experience with this diet is needed to determine if it can result in bigger fish stocked.

Conclusion

• Encouraging results for both growth and survival of MUE

• If positive results continue it should stabilize production numbers allowing more cuts in both egg take and grow out labor.

Questions?

James Skipper

Jskipper@DNR.IN.Gov