Description

Abstract: Large-scale production of sand goby fry was conducted at the Nong-Sua Hatchery Station, Thailand, for one year. Approximately 1,000 egg nests containing 25 million eggs were collected from January through October under semi-natural breeding conditions. The hatching rate of fertilized eggs reached 80%. Fry were reared in two stages. In stage 1, the newly-developed fry, with average total body length of 4 mm and mouth clutch opening of about 0.1 mm, were first fed with a combination of chicken-egg slurry and live rotifers. The survival rate at this stage ranged from 7 to 55%, with an average of 20% among batches of egg nests collected during the year. Stage 2 involved raising older fry that were fed with live Moina sp., chironomid larvae, and ground trash fish from days 30 to 60, during which the survival rate ranged from 60 to 90% and length increased from 2.4 to 3.8 cm. Growth rate was inversely related to stocking density at this stage. A total of 147,300 juvenile fish was produced in the one-year effort.