Q&A

Q&AFish Feed Issues

LOWER SNAKE RIVER COMPENSATION PLANHATCHERY PRODUCTION MEETINGBOISE, IDAHO - MAY 15 & 16, 2012

Fish results risk versus feed costs– What is LSRCP’s perspective on what we test for fish food to save money that may affect fish quality / goals?

When we have sufficient funds to purchase fish food, we tend to lean on the side of a higher quality diets to reduce the risks of particular stocks of fish. Other hatchery feed information would be valuable in assessing what could be tried at our facilities to reduce costs with results.

Question #1

Don’t know LSRCP’s perspective on trying new feeds but doing small feeding trials to compare feeds might be well worth it to the hatchery

Testing fish feeds

Update on fish meal replacements in salmonid culture; is anyone using plant diets in conservation hatcheries?

Question #2

To date, there are no all plant diets. Bio-Oregon has what they call their alternative diet, BioClark’s, see following tags

Growth is not as good, plant ingredients have antinutrient factors and can cause gastro-intestinal enteritis

There have been advances…

All plant diets

What ingredient change in Rangen's fish feed has occurred within the past two years that makes slow sink formula, randomly become rejected by the fish?

Question #3

Just changing ingredients in the diet can put the fish off feed

Formulations are “least cost”, generally

How fish are transitioned to a new lot of feed is important

Feed rejection

Are there any known problems or benefits to feeding a low lipid diet to spring Chinook? If anyone has experience with using a low lipid diet I’d like to hear about it.

Question #4

Low lipid diets have been tested experimentally but not in full production

One large scale experiment is currently underway but it will be a few years before a complete data set of SARs is available

One concern is the fish aren’t going to be “big” when they leave the hatchery

Low lipid diets

With all the quality issues seen with fish feed in the past few years, has there been any thought about making fish feed quality control a similar routine task for Lower Snake Hatcheries?

Question #5

Generally we get a feed sample (sometimes more than one) from each hatchery once a quarter

Work with Fish Health

There is a per hatchery cost

FFQC program

I would be interested to know if any facilities have used the new Bio Pro diet. We will be doing a trial with this feed on the Wallowa and Imnaha stocks in June.

We are going to feed the Bio Pro directly after ponding and through transfer to outside raceways. The duration of this trial will be for six weeks.

Question #6

This new feed is just starting to be used. Bio-Oregon said they have several facilities trying it but no results right now

It is a BioVita based feed formulation

Bio Pro Diet

How do different fish meals and fish oils influence palatability for the fish?

Question #7

Freshness of the fish meal is critical; biogenic amines, histamine, cadaverine, putrescine, tyramine; bacterial action degrading protein

Processing conditions can affect the quality of the fish meal

Both raw material freshness and processing conditions can greatly affect growth performances and feed conversions

Effects of different fish meals and fish oils

Fish oils as well as meals come from various sources: herring, sardine, pilchard, menhaden as well as fish offal/fishery processing waste

Freshness of the fish oil is critical; peroxides, an indicator of rancidity, can cause fish to stop feeding

Effects of different fish meals and fish oils

How do we judge one feed to be better than another? - feed conversion, in hatchery survival, adult returns, other, other??

Question #8

Ultimately it would be adult returns

While in the hatchery: healthy fish, smolt condition, feed conversions are important

Is the feed clean (fines), does it hold together well in water? (important for feed conversions and water quality)

How do we judge a feed

More Questions?