Yellow Perch Aquaculture Laura Tiu, Ph.D.

tiu.2@osu.edu

Ohio Center for Aquaculture Research and Development

OSU South Centers

Piketon, OH

Yellow Perch, Perca flavescens

• Have a wide range – Great

Lakes

• Important sport and food fish

• Decline in commercial fishery

• Opportunity for fish farmers

• $3.00/lb live/wholesale

• $15.00/lb fillets

Yellow Perch • Ponds, cages, RAS, Aquaponics

• Fingerlings, pond stockers, food

• Takes 18 months to 8” market

• Optimum temp. 55 – 78 degrees F

• Stocking density is most productive at 3000

lbs./acre

• High demand

• Gaps in production

– Spawn 1X/year

– Sexual dimorphism

– Fingerling availability

– Nutrition/first feeding

– Genetic selection (30-40% larger)

Perch 101 • Spawn once a year: Late March in So. Ohio

• Eggs produced in ribbon structure –requires

unique procedures for incubation and hatching

• Fry (juveniles) need small live organisms for

first few weeks’ feeding – 6 week culture period

in fertilized open ponds.

• Juveniles trained to accept formulated diets –

“Feed training” or “Feed Trained Fingerlings”

• Open ponds – 2 seasons (18 months) to food

fish market size of > 8” from fry size

• RAS – approximately 12 months to market size

• Cages – 2 to 3 seasons to market size

Spawning Yellow Perch

• Perch spawn 1X/year in the

spring

– Research has achieved year-

round spawning with varying

success

• Males are generally smaller

than females and slower

growing – Sexual

dimorphism

– All female production is being

investigated

Unique Egg Ribbon Structure • Requires substrate in ponds to attach to, or

some structure in tanks to hold

Open Pond Spawning • Perch broodstock are stocked to ponds with

substrate ( Christmas trees) added

• Broodstock can be removed later, or left in if feed

trained

• Stocked 20 males,

with 10 females

• Our results were

average 10,000 fry

per 0.25 acre pond

Improving Fingerling Availability • Indoor Spawning with Hormone

Injection

– Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG)

– Incubate eggs indoors, stock resulting

fry to ponds

– 40,000 to 80,000 fry/acre

Compared to:

• Pond Spawning with no injection

– Allow natural spawning in ponds

– Egg incubation and fry culture in same

pond

– 40,000 fry/acre

Stocking Yellow Perch Fry

• Take fry to fertilized pond

• Fry do not like direct sunlight

– Cover bucket

• Closely match water temperature, pH

• Let fry acclimate, do not leave

• Watch oxygen

• Release

Rotifer Research and Culture Techniques

• Japanese researchers discovered that

rotifers, Brachionus plicatilis, could

be used to culture both fresh and salt

water species.

• Very important to fish whose mouth

gape was too small to ingest

artemia.

• Two Big Issues

• Producing the quantities needed

reliably

• Ability to predict and schedule

the needed production

• Training fish to switch from

their natural diet to

accepting a formulated diet.

• Understanding nutritional

needs and behavior of the

fish helps with feed training

• Age and size affect the

ability and willingness to

accept a prepared diet.

Feed Training

Important recreational and aquacultural species in the Midwest and elsewhere in the U.S.A.

Propagated in hatcheries with little or no genetic control since the 1970’s.

Urgent need to enhance growth rate through genetic improvement of broodstocks

The overall goal - Create superior yellow perch broodstock with traits amenable to commercial-scale aquaculture

Selected strain grows 32-45% faster than local strains

YP Genetic Improvement Program

Enterprise Budget by Robert Moore Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics

• Cage and Open Pond Culture Yellow Perch to

Market Size

• 1,000 lbs, 5,000 lbs and 50,000 lbs.

• Based on preliminary culture data from OCAD

and published Enterprise Budgets

• Annual and Seasonal Prices vary in perch

• Variable costs: Feed costs, labor costs, fuel costs

all change from year to year

• Difficult to dial in, in fact, more like a snapshot in

time.

Moore’s Analysis (available online)

• 5,000 lbs.

- Cages B/E @ $2.81 per pound

- Ponds @ $3.17 per pound

• 50,000 lbs.

- Cages @ $2.52 per pound

- Ponds @ $2.63 per pound

• Cages come out slightly better, as ponds assumed to be in existence for cage culture

• 2000-2012 price for whole yellow perch = $3.00+/lb.

• Retail Prices must be found by Ohio aquaculturists!

Contact Information

Laura Tiu, Ph.D

Aquaculture Specialist

tiu.2@osu.edu

OSU South Centers

1864 Shyville Road

Piketon, OH 45661

740-289-2071

800-297-2072 (Ohio Only)

http://southcenters.osu.edu/aqua