SELF-CLEANING LARVAL REARING TANKS TO IMPROVE LARVAL PRODUCTION OF CALIFORNIA YELLOWTAIL Seriola dorsalis AND WHITE SEABASS Atractoscion nobilis  

In 2015 a new aquaculture engineering project was launched by researchers from Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute (HSWRI), the University of Southern California (USC) and Ocean's Design of San Diego. The primary goal of the project is to advance sustainable marine aquaculture in the United States by improving larval rearing success through automated larval marine fish tank cleaning. In March of 2015 the team installed a single production-scale, self-cleaning culture tank (SCT) at HSWRI's laboratory in San Diego. After testing it with a batch of white seabass (Atractoscion nobilis) in June of 2015, various modifications were made to improve on the design.  Among these were the addition of an upright tank wall-cleaning component, facilitated center screen attachment equipment and a reduction in overall internal surface area through trimming of stainless steel cleaning components.

Phase II of the project, which is currently underway, is comparing batches of WSB and California yellowtail (Seriola dorsalis) reared in SCT's as opposed to those reared in standard larval tanks.  Thus far, one WSB trial and two CYT trials have been completed.  These trials each compare the performance of a single SCT to a single control tank during the larval rearing stage of culture (from egg to 1-gram "transferrable" juveniles).  Results these trials indicate that the SCT technology mitigates bacterial loading, improves larval survival, reduces suspended solids and offers more than a 4-fold reduction in the labor associated with siphoning tank-bottoms during larviculture.  Two more WSB trials are slated to be completed in 2016.