Aquaculture America 2020

February 9 - 12, 2020

Honolulu, Hawaii

ON-FARM DEMONSTRATION OF A KAOLINIC CLAY FOR BACTERIAL AND ALGAL CONTROL IN AQUACULTURE

Anita M. Kelly, Luke A. Roy, Nilima Renukdas, Jesse James and Sunni Dahl
Auburn University
Alabama Fish Farming Center, 529 S. Centreville Street, Greensboro, AL 36744
amk0105@auburn.edu
 

Kaolinic clays are used in a myriad of products from Kaopectate™ to cosmetics. Recent studies have shown that certain kaolin clays bind to Flavobacterium columnare and Aeromonas hydrophila bacteria and remove them from the water column.  This clay has been shown to reduce disease outbreaks in hatcheries that treat at rates of 1 g/L. Additional studies have shown that this clay will remove cyanobacteria from the water column. This past production season the cyanobacteria Microcystis sp. has been extremely prolific in aquaculture ponds in the southeastern US.  We conducted on-farm demonstrations to determine if laboratory trials using a kaolinic clay would be successful when the technology was transferred to commercial farms. Bacterial disease in fish treated with the clay were significantly lower in hatcheries compared to non-treated fish.  The use of the kaolinic clay for removal of Microscystis sp. from the water is being analyzed and will be presented.