June Sucker Recirculation Facility 2008–2009

2006–2007 | 2008–2009 | Photos

Construction of the recirculating aquaculture facility began in October 2005 and was completed in the summer of 2006. The new warm water recirculation facility — which was completed in June 2006 — is helping to greatly increase the growth rates and reduce the disease outbreaks on the captive June sucker. The fish raised in the new facility are in better condition and the fraying of fins and shortening of the operculum have all but been eliminated. Basically, the overall condition and health of the fish were greatly improved over those fish raised in 65°F water in the AAHRC flow-through system. FY2008 completed our second full year of raising fish in the recirculation facility and we are exceeding the production goals designed for the facility. Once the carrying capacity of the recirculation facility is reached, we inject a coded wire tag into the fish and move some of the fish into the flow through facility. The majority of the fish that are transferred to the flow through facility are later transferred to the Springville Hatchery, Rosebud Ponds or Red Butte Reservoir.

We have a total of 22 brood lots from 1989–1995; 2000–2003 year classes totaling 907 fish. Progeny lots and replacement brood were created from our brood in June 2008 and are being raised in the recirculation facility.

In 2008 we had a fairly successful egg take. A total of 264,076 eggs were taken to create 28 crosses and 7 of these were within lot crosses for future replacement brood. 35,315 eggs were transferred to the Bozeman Fish Technology Center for a starter diet study using larval fish at initial feeding. FES kept 228,761 eggs, of which, an estimated 130,987 larval fish went on feed. This is about 57% on feed, which is one of the better years we have had. A total of 79 females were injected and of those, 34 females ovulated (43%). The fecundity rate was 6,728 eggs per female.

Fish transferred or stocked in 2008

Summary of replacement brood at FES

In 2009 we had a fairly successful egg take. A total of 209,019 eggs were taken from 29 females to create 27 progeny lots. A total of 13,000 from lot11 were transferred to the Bozeman Fish Technology Center (BFTC) for a future feed study. We also created 6 more within lot crosses for future replacement brood. FES kept 196,019 eggs for our needs. A total of 63 females were injected and of those, 41 females ovulated (65%). The fecundity rate for the females we used for progeny lots was 7465 eggs/female.

In 2009, we evaluated extracting eggs using the catheter technique and injecting HCG in those females with an egg diameter over 2 mm. Molly Webb and Eli Cureton from the BFTC, performed studies in 2008 to determine the proper time to inject/spawn females based on egg diameter. Based on a water temperature between 13C–16C their recommendation was for those females with an egg diameter over 1.9 mm to be spawned within 2 weeks. An egg diameter between 1.800–1.899 may be spawned in 2.5–3 weeks and those with eggs less than 1.800 mm may be spawned in 3.5–4 weeks (Webb and Cureton 2008).

On May 27, 2009, Eli — from BFTC — visited FES and gave FES personnel training in the egg extraction technique and also the proper method for preserving eggs and reading egg diameter. FES followed the normal HCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin) injection/spawning protocol that has been successful over the past few years. We injected the females with 400 IU of HCG/kg of body weight the first day, 750 IU/kg of body weight the second day and 1000 IU/kg of body weight the third day. The females were not handled on the 4th day and then eggs were taken for spawning on the 5th day after the initial HCG injection.

One of the main issues we had using this technique was hitting the kidney with the catheter tube while trying to extract eggs. We used 54 females for the catheter technique, and of those, we hit the kidney on 22 females = 41%. We were able to extract eggs with the catheter from 28 females = 52%, and after hormone injections, 15 of these females gave enough eggs to make crosses = 53%. When we hit the kidney, a lot of blood would enter the catheter tubing as we tried extracting eggs. If this happened, we would stop and immediately place the female back in the raceway to recover. To help reduce stress, all females were treated with a .2% salt treatment after handling. Three of the females that we hit the kidney on ended up dying.

Summary of egg take using egg diameter technique

After the first round of injections and our struggle with perfecting the catheter technique, we decided to go with random selection of our females for hormone injections. This is what we have done in the past and more than likely, we will continue to do this in the future. We randomly selected 35 females for our injections and of these, 22 ovulated = 62.8%. With the catheter technique, 19 of 28 females ovulated = 67.8%. For us to use the random technique, it is faster and not as stressful on the fish.

Comparing catheter vs. random selection

Fish transferred or stocked in 2009

June Sucker Recirculation Facility

2006–2007 | 2008–2009 | Photos

The design and planning phases for a recirculating aquaculture facility were completed in 2004. PRAqua out of Nanaimo, British Columbia and JUB, out of Logan, Utah, were the engineers for this project. Bailey Construction, from Wellsville, Utah, was the general contractor. The facility will allow us to increase the water temperature to improve growth rates and survival. The goal is to annually raise 33,000 June sucker to eight inches—which is about 5,900 pounds—and stock them into Utah Lake or other refuge waters. Studies to improve production techniques will also be done in the facility.

Construction of the recirculating aquaculture facility began in October 2005 and was completed in the summer of 2006. Once the facility was ready for fish, we placed part of the 2005 young of year and several lots from the 2006 year class into the new facility.

The demands for rearing more numbers of June sucker for stocking back into Utah Lake continue. Due to a lack of warm water in our present facility, the fish grow at a rate of 3 inches per year. The 65°F degree water that these fish are being raised on is a constant stressor on the June sucker and this increases the possibility of disease outbreaks in the hatchery. The new warm water facility should help increase the growth rates and reduce the disease outbreaks on the captive June sucker.

With the help from biologist from Utah's Division of Wildlife Resources Central and Northern Region all fish stocked into Utah Lake are coded wire tagged. This is a labor intensive task that takes several days to complete. The tagging efforts have gone very well and we have had extremely low mortalities after the fish are tagged.

Growth comparisons of those fish raised in the 73°F recirculation water vs the 65°F flow through water system.

On August 25, 2006, we placed some 2005 progeny fish at 4.74 inches into 73°F water in the grow out portion of the facility. A portion of this group remained in the 65°F water, which is what the fish were raised on since initial feeding in June 2005. After being in the 73°F water for 97 days the fish grew to be 7.32 inches. This is a 2.58 inch growth increase and a daily growth of .0266 inches. In November 2005, these fish grew .97 inches, which is a daily growth of .032 inches. In comparison, over the same 97 day period, the fish that remained on the 65°F water were only 6.01 inches and this is a daily growth of only .012 inches. Just an observation, but when condition factors were taken on these fish the fins on the fish in the 73°F water looked very good, while those fish on the 65°F water had a high percentage of frayed and eroded fins.

Condition factor on above fish as of Feb. 23, 2007

Treatment	Condition factor
Fish moved to 73°F water	.0003527
Fish remaining on 65°F water	.0003485

Below is a photo showing the improved condition factor and growth on a typical fish being raised in 73°F water in the recirculating facility compared to 65°F water in our flow through system. The photo shows two fish from the same lot with the larger one placed into the 73°F water on Aug. 25, 2006. This photo was taken on Feb. 21, 2007.

Daily growth comparisons from various groups

Automatic belt feeders: In October 2007, we began evaluating automatic belt feeders purchased from Aquatic Ecosystems, Inc. The results have been very promising with excellent growth rates on those fish being raised in the grow out portion of the recirc facility. The two tables below show a growth comparison from October–December 2007 for those fish in the grow out system being fed using automatic feeders compared to hand feeding 8 times per day.

2007 automatic feeder results

Lot number	October	November	December	Average
070604LotFE08	.039 inches	.035 inches	.032 inches	.035 inches
070604LotFE09	.032 inches	.029 inches	.029 inches	.03 inches
070604LotFE17	.036 inches	.036 inches	.03 inches	.034 inches
070604LotFE10	.032 inches	.033 inches	.025 inches	.03 inches
Totals				.032 inches

Hand feeding 8 times per day, 2007

Lot number	October	November	December	Average
070604LotFE26	.025 inches	.03 inches	.023 inches	.026 inches
070604LotFE21	.027 inches	.028 inches	.024 inches	.026 inches
070604LotFE19	.022 inches	.03 inches	.017 inches	.023 inches
070604LotFE29	.025 inches	.018 inches	.023 inches	.022 inches
070604LotFE24	.024 inches	.028 inches	.02 inches	.024 inches
070604LotFE11	.022 inches	.022 inches	.025 inches	.023 inches
Totals				.024 inches

For the short period of time that we have been raising fish in the recirculating aquaculture facility, it is obvious that the fish do much better in the 73°F water. The overall health and condition of the fish are much improved and disease issues have been all but eliminated so far. Necropsies were taken to compare those fish raised on the 73°F water compared to 65°F water. The fish in the warm water had better condition factors, the fats were 3.2 in the warm water compared to 1.8 in the 65°F water and the condition of the fins in the warm water was very much improved with little if any fraying or erosion. If the growth rates continue, we should expect to get the fish to 8 inches in 11–13 months compared to 24 months with the fish being raised on 65°F water. It looks like recirculating aquaculture facilities are very promising and to help in recovery efforts more recirculating facilities may need to be built.

Progeny lots: The new facility receives larval fish from fertilized eggs taken from the AAHRC's brood stock. The eggs are hatched in the present facility and then moved to the recirculation facility when the larval fish are about 2–4 weeks old. We will need to make several crosses, as outlined in the genetics management plan, to meet the goal of stocking 33,000 fish at 8 inches annually, plus other needs for other programs as needed.

Research studies: These will be done on an annual basis as needed. Proposals for funding of research projects will be prepared as needed and funded separately. Personnel time for these projects will be charged to the interim O&M budget.

In June 2007, we began another feed trial in the early rearing portion of the new recirculation facility using progeny fish from the 2007 egg take. Five different diet types were formulated at the USFWS Bozeman Fish Technology Center. About 36,000 eggs were shipped to Bozeman and we kept the remaining portion of those eggs taken from several combined lots. The larval fish from those eggs were used in the feed study and each treatment had three replicates with 350 fish per replicate. Both facilities are rearing the fish in 73°F water. The study ran for three months and was terminated in mid September 2007. Our standard feeding protocol of initially feeding brine shrimp for two weeks and then converting over the June sucker diet, proved to be the best diet.