Fish Eggs
Challenges
The annual reproductive success of natural fish populations in part depends on the quantity and/or quality of eggs deposited during spawning.- Relatively little is known of how egg quality varies either within, i.e., among females, or among populations of most species. Egg quality variation may have a major influence on early life survival and recruitment success.
- In the fish farming industry, it would desirable to have a means of detecting good-quality eggs, i.e., those that will exhibit low mortalities at fertilization, eyeing, hatching and first feeding.
- Conventional methods of analyzing composition of fish eggs are destructive, time-consuming and costly. They are not suitable for screening live eggs.
- Sorting of fish produced by aquaculture by such features as oil or fat content and colour is desirable for marketing. Ideally, this can be done rapidly and non-destructively, therefore providing a potential method for the analysis of live fish.
PDK is exploring the feasibility of using NIRS as a rapid, cost-effective technology for the screening of clutches of fish eggs for proximate composition and for potential to hatch and to survive through early life stages.
Partners/Collaborators
- Thomas A. Johnston, Fish Ecology Lab, Department of Biology, Queen's University Kingston ON
- B.C. Ministry of Fisheries, Fisheries Research Section, Abbotsford B.C.
Project
- Determination of total protein and total lipids in live (fresh) and freeze-dried eggs of several species of freshwater and anadramous fish, including walleye, Stizostedion vitreum, using NIRS.
References for the analysis of live fish and fish quality using NIRS
Ako, K.O., T. Aasmundstad, and S.A. Korsvoll. Undated. Breeding for reduced fat deposition and desired fillet colour through spectroscopy. 1 p. Available at http://aquagen.no.
Mathias, J.A., P.C. Williams and D.C. Sobering. 1987. The determination of lipid and protein in freshwater fish using near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy. Aquaculture 61: 303-311.
Solberg, C. 1996. Use of near infrared transmittance in quality analysis of fish. pp 591-595 In A.M.C. Davies and P. Williams (eds). Near Infrared Spectroscopy: The Future Waves. NIR Publications, Chichester UK.
Solberg, C. 2000. Diode-array NIR analysis of whole and filleted salmon. pp 889-891. In A.M.C. Davies and R. Giangiacomo (eds). Near Infrared Spectroscopy: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference. NIR Publications, Chichester UK.
Wold, J.P. and T. Isaksson. 1997. Non-destructive determination of fat and moisture in whole Atlantic salmon by near-infrared diffuse spectroscopy. J. Food Sci. 62: 73