Culture of sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) larvae in four experimental tank designs

• We compared four different tank types for sablefish larva culture.
• Adjustments to past sablefish spawning protocols produced healthy eggs.
• The largest volume tanks with the greatest surface area produced the most larvae.
• The second largest volume tanks produced good numbers of larvae.
• 150 L conical and square tanks did not produce weaned larvae.

The effects of tank design on live feed consumption, growth and survival of sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) were examined from first-feeding larvae to weaned sub-juveniles. Larvae were stocked into wide circular 1920 L (WC, 152 cm diameter × 121 cm deep), tall circular 960 L (TC, 104 cm diameter × 152 cm deep), rectangular 150 L (RT; 78 cm × 49 cm × 54 cm deep) and conical 150 L (CO; 61 cm diameter (top), 20 cm (bottom) × 79 cm deep) tanks and reared under similar conditions and feed regimes. The experiment was conducted twice in close succession between March and August of 2012 and results from both trials were combined. At 20 days post first feeding (dpff), larvae from the WC and TC tanks were longer (p < 0.05) and consumed more Artemia than larvae from the CO tanks. The RT and CO treatments were terminated at 20 dpff due to poor survival. At 41 dpff, length, weight and SGR were not significantly different (p > 0.05) between the WC and TC treatments (WC-26.33 ± 0.71 mm, 145 ± 45 mg, 2.63 ± 0.19%; TC-26.45 ± 1.19 mm, 113 ± 40 mg, 2.76 ± 0.65%). However, survival was better in the WC treatments (21.1%) compared to the TC tanks (13.2%). Differences observed in larval survival between tank designs were most likely related to the overall volumes of the tanks as well as the relationship between depth and surface area that may be necessary to maintain optimal flow patterns. Because there is no recent published information on culturing sablefish from spawning through the sub-juvenile stage, this manuscript also includes an expanded methods and materials covering these topics.