Evaluation of Two Species, Cobia and Giant Grouper, As Alternative Species to Farm in the WSSV Affected Areas of South East Queensland
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Evaluation of two species, Cobia and Giant Grouper, as alternative species to farm in the WSSV affected areas of South East Queensland Brad Cherrie, Serena Zipf, Richard Knuckey, Peter Lee, Trevor Borchert, David Nixon July 2020 FRDC Project No 2017 - 103 Version 1.0 27 Aug 2019 © 2020 Fisheries Research and Development Corporation. All rights reserved. ISBN 978-0-656-82111-5 Evaluation of two species, Cobia and Giant Grouper, as alternative species to farm in the WSSV affected areas of South East Queensland 2017 - 103 2020 Ownership of Intellectual property rights Unless otherwise noted, copyright (and any other intellectual property rights, if any) in this publication is owned by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation and the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries This publication (and any information sourced from it) should be attributed to Cherrie, B., Zipf, S., Knuckey, R., Lee, P., Borchert, T., Nixon, D. Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Queensland, Rocky Point Prawn Farms, The Company One. 2020. Evaluation of two species, Cobia and Giant Grouper, as alternative species to farm in the WSSV affected areas of South East Queensland. Brisbane, September. CC BY 3.0 Creative Commons licence All material in this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence, save for content supplied by third parties, logos and the Commonwealth Coat of Arms. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence is a standard form licence agreement that allows you to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt this publication provided you attribute the work. A summary of the licence terms is available from creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/deed.en. The full licence terms are available from creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/legalcode. Inquiries regarding the licence and any use of this document should be sent to: [email protected] Disclaimer The authors do not warrant that the information in this document is free from errors or omissions. The authors do not accept any form of liability, be it contractual, tortious, or otherwise, for the contents of this document or for any consequences arising from its use or any reliance placed upon it. The information, opinions and advice contained in this document may not relate, or be relevant, to a readers particular circumstances. Opinions expressed by the authors are the individual opinions expressed by those persons and are not necessarily those of the publisher, research provider or the FRDC. The Fisheries Research and Development Corporation plans, invests in and manages fisheries research and development throughout Australia. It is a statutory authority within the portfolio of the federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, jointly funded by the Australian Government and the fishing industry. Researcher Contact Details FRDC Contact Details Name: Dr Peter Lee Address: 25 Geils Court Address: Bribie Island Research Centre Deakin ACT 2600 144 North Street, PO Box 2066, Phone: 02 6285 0400 Woorim Qld 4507 Fax: 02 6285 0499 Phone: 07 3471 0956 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Web: www.frdc.com.au In submitting this report, the researcher has agreed to FRDC publishing this material in its edited form. Contents Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................... i Abbreviations .......................................................................................................................................... i Executive Summary............................................................................................................................... ii Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 1 Project aim .........................................................................................................................................2 Objectives ............................................................................................................................................... 2 Methods .................................................................................................................................................. 3 General husbandry .............................................................................................................................3 Sampling and data collection .............................................................................................................4 Results ..................................................................................................................................................... 6 Water Quality .....................................................................................................................................6 Tanks ...........................................................................................................................................6 Cages ...........................................................................................................................................7 Production ........................................................................................................................................ 10 Giant Grouper ............................................................................................................................ 10 Cobia ......................................................................................................................................... 12 Health and Survival .......................................................................................................................... 14 Discussion ............................................................................................................................................. 17 Water Quality ................................................................................................................................... 17 Production ........................................................................................................................................ 18 Giant Grouper ............................................................................................................................ 18 Cobia ......................................................................................................................................... 19 Health and Survival .......................................................................................................................... 20 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 22 Implications .......................................................................................................................................... 22 Recommendations ............................................................................................................................... 23 Further development ........................................................................................................................ 23 Extension and Adoption ...................................................................................................................... 24 Project coverage ............................................................................................................................... 24 References ............................................................................................................................................ 26 Appendices ........................................................................................................................................... 30 Appendix 1: List of researchers and project staff ............................................................................ 30 Appendix 2: Tank water quality and production .............................................................................. 31 Appendix 3: Study Tour of Hong Kong and Taiwan, Cobia and Grouper Facilities. ...................... 32 Tables Table 1. Details of fish received and monitored in the project. ......................................................... 3 Table 2. Details of fish stocked into production systems. ................................................................... 4 Table 3. Water quality parameters of rearing tanks during the initial rearing of Batch 1 Giant Grouper. ............................................................................................................................... 6 Table 4. Water quality parameters of rearing tanks during the initial rearing of Batch 3 Giant Grouper. Values are mean (max, min) for the duration of rearing. ............................... 7 Table 5. Water quality parameters of rearing tanks during the initial rearing of Cobia Batches 1 and 2. .............................................................................................................................. 7 Table 6. Specific growth rate (SGR) of cage-reared populations of Giant Grouper. .................... 10 Table 7. Specific growth rate (SGR) of tank-reared populations of Giant Grouper. .................... 10 Table 8. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) of tank-reared populations of Giant Grouper. ................. 12 Table 9. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) of cage-reared populations of Giant