Monitoring shrimp growth with control charts in aquaculture

This work proposes a method for the statistical monitoring of the weekly weight of shrimp in a fish farm. The design of control charts for shrimp growth presents several challenges, the main ones being the presence of trend and autocorrelation. Several control charts are proposed, the most efficient being a chart based on the residuals of a second order autoregression whose parameters vary with the week. A control chart with less computational complexity is also provided. It is simply based on growth rates and works well at detecting negative weight changes. Real data from a large shrimp farm has been used for both the design and the evaluation.     

Open-design Recirculating Systems for Zebrafish Culture

The zebrafish is an established vertebrate-animal model in biomedical research. Currently, their mass culture is mainly done using systems provided by commercial suppliers. Commercial systems are compact, recirculating, and use auto-cleaning tanks. These features minimize space use, labour cost, and water wastage; thus, facilitating maintenance of a large number of zebrafish using minimal resources. However, the often considered costs associated with these systems often impose a barrier to current and prospective researchers, especially those with limited funds or working in labs with no access to institutional centralized zebrafish culture facilities. In contrast to commercial systems, custom-made zebrafish maintenance systems are also described in the literature. To distinguish custom-made system from commercial systems, we termed them as “open-design” systems. Open-design systems are cost-effective, modular, and frequently being improved by zebrafish researchers. However, for further development and to present them as a viable option for zebrafish researchers around the world, a review of their current status and technical understanding is required. Here, we compile the disparate data on the purpose and technological development of the open-design systems. We believe this review will be a valuable resource for all zebrafish users and help streamline the open-design technology for zebrafish culture.     

Characterization of Spray-Dried Hydrolyzed Proteins from Pink Perch Meat Added with Maltodextrin and Gum Arabic

In the present study, spray-dried pink perch meat protein hydrolysate (PPH) and hydrolysate with maltodextrin and gum arabic (PPHMG) were characterized in relation to their physical, rheological, functional, antioxidant, thermal, and sensory properties. The Herschel–Bulkley model was suitable to explain the flow behavior of PPH and PPHMG emulsions. Both the samples exhibited functional and antioxidant properties. Antioxidant activities were significantly higher for PPH compared with PPHMG (p<0.05). PPH and PPHMG alone did not exhibit antimicrobial activity but enhanced the activity of chitosan against pathogens. Sensory acceptability of the samples in soup revealed that PPHMG of up to 4% was highly scored without any traces of bitterness, whereas for PPH, a concentration of up to 3% was acceptable.     

Dietary fishmeal levels affect the volatile compounds in cooked muscle of farmed large yellow croaker Larimichthys crocea

A comparative study on the volatile compounds in cooked muscle of wild and farmed large yellow croaker (LYC) was conducted. The two farmed LYC groups were fed with diets containing 44% (CF) and 25% (LF) of fish meal (FM) respectively. Results showed that 48 volatiles, including aldehydes, alcohols, ketones, hydrocarbons, aromatics, acids, esters, furans and miscellaneous compound, were detected in cooked fillets. The LF group had significantly lower amounts of total aldehydes and ketones, higher content of miscellaneous compound in cooked fillets than that in the CF and wild groups (p < .05). Compared with the wild group, the LF group had significantly lower amounts of total alcohols, acids and esters, while the CF group had significantly lower amounts of total aldehydes, higher content of total ketones in cooked muscle (p < .05). According to the principal component analysis (PCA), some volatiles (propanal, nonanal, etc.) could be considered as sensitive indicators to classify cooked muscle samples. In conclusion, differences in the volatiles in the cooked muscle between the wild and farmed LYC have been found. Low level of dietary FM (25%) changed the volatile profiles in cooked fillets of farmed LYC. A PCA may be useful to screen potential volatiles to classify cooked muscle samples in this study.     

Experimental investigation on the transport of different fish species in a jet fish pump

A jet fish pump with a throat of ø60 mm was designed to study its performance in the transport of different fish species and the physiological changes in fish thereafter. Experiments were conducted to investigate the fish transport rate and energy required to transport each ton of fish when transporting Carassius auratus, commonly known as the Chinese goldfish, Megalobrama amblycephala, or Wuchang bream, and Ctenopharyngodon idella, the grass carp. Fish were examined for external injuries as well as for several important enzymes and hormones which are indicators of tissue injury and stress. The results showed that the transport rate for all three species of fish rose dramatically with an increase in the primary stream rate. In this experiment, the transport rates of C. auratus, M. amblycephala and C. idella reached 2357 ± 37.2 kg ∙ h⁻¹, 2888 ± 41.6 kg ∙ h⁻¹, and 2060 ± 40.2 kg ∙ h⁻¹, respectively. However, both injury rate and energy required to transport each ton of fish increased no matter whether the primary stream rate was too low or too high. Considering both transport rate and injury rate, the mean primary stream rate of 80 m³ ∙ h⁻¹ was determined to be the optimal operating condition in this experiment. Fish were stressed and most likely some of their organs were damaged. However, most physiological indexes almost fully recovered after several hours.     

A behavioural sensor for fish stress

Due to water turbidity, fish stress might be difficult to observe. Evaluation of fish stress by blood sampling requires removing a fish from the water, which is in itself a stressful event. Therefore, we designed and built a sensor to detect fish behaviour that reflects stress. The electronic sensor detected early signs of fish stress by scoring the fish's inactivity. LEDs and detectors are embedded on a steel wand that is held underwater by an operator. In this preliminary (feasibility) study, the new sensor was validated for Tilapia (Cichlidae) and Hybrid Striped Bass (Morone). We induced stressful situations in the fish tanks by manipulating oxygen and temperature levels.ResultsLowering the temperature and oxygen levels both significantly increased the average number of signals identified by the sensor, which indicate stress. The effect of reducing water temperature from 24 °C to 15 °C was three times stronger than was the effect of lowering the oxygen saturation level from 85% to 50%. The difference in the number of signals between the good and stressful conditions was statistically significant, amounting to approximately eight sensor signals, 10.57 compared to 2.49 respectively. Lowering the temperature increased the mean number of signals by 5.85 and 6.06 at 85% and 50% oxygen saturation respectively, whereas lowering oxygen levels increased the mean number of signals by 2.02 and 2.23 at 24 °C and 15 °C, respectively. The results indicate that the stress status of cultured fish can be evaluated using the proposed behavioural sensor. The new sensor may provide an earlier indication of a problem in a fish tank or pond than was heretofore possible. This early warning can enable the fish farmer to take action before many fish are harmed.     

Seasonal Changes in Rigor Development and Flesh Texture of Wild Japanese Sea Bass (Lateolabrax japonicus)

The season for finding the firmest sashimi made from wild Japanese sea bass was investigated. Flesh rigor tension and contraction were measured by a “new” device with isometric (muscle length kept constant) and isotonic (balance beam moves freely) transducers. Both flesh rigor tension and contraction peaks appeared at the same postmortem times, with attainment of ultimate pH and adenosine triphosphate/inosine monophosphate ratio in four seasons. Seasonal seawater temperature correlated negatively to seasonal maximum rigor contraction and positively to seasonal flesh breaking strength at 72 h postmortem. After rigor peak tension attainment, the tension relaxation was much lower than that of other wild fish species, especially in summer. The sea bass muscle resisted structure disruption in rigor isometric tension generation. Wild sea bass sashimi was firmest in breaking strength in summer.     

A computer vision system for oocyte counting using images captured by smartphone

This work proposes a computer vision procedure for counting Twospot astyanax (Astyanax bimaculatus) oocytes in Petri dishes using images captured by smartphone. First, the proposed procedure uses simple linear iterative clustering (SLIC) to divide the images into groups of pixels (superpixels). Then, based on their color and space characteristics, the images are classified into light background, dark background, dirt, or oocyte by a machine learning algorithm. Five different types of machine learning algorithms were tested: support vector machines (SVM), decision trees using the algorithm J48 and random forest, k-nearest neighbors (k-NN), and Naive Bayes. To train the algorithms, 8.578 superpixels were classified by an expert into oocyte (n = 354), dirtiness (n = 651), dark background (n = 3.622), and light background (n = 3.951). Of the five learning algorithms, SVM obtained the best result with 97% correct oocyte recognition. Given the wide availability of smartphones, we therefore conclude that the presented procedure can be a valuable tool in future experiments and studies on fertilization and hatching success in Twospot astyanax.     

A computer vision system to analyse the swimming behaviour of farmed fish in commercial aquaculture facilities: A case study using cage-held Atlantic salmon

Knowledge of fish behaviour plays an important role in aquaculture farm management. Video systems are the most common and cost-effective way of observing behaviours in commercial aquaculture operations. However long term observation is not feasible due to a limited ability to analyse footage manually. This paper describes preliminary findings obtained via computer vision software that was developed to automatically analyse fish movement and behaviours in aquaculture sea cages. Results show that the system is capable of detecting fish shapes in video recordings and from these shapes quantifying changes in swimming speed and direction continuously throughout the day. Also variations between days were detected and these may have been associated with the daily shift in the tidal cycle. The system has the potential to act as an alarm to farm operators, informing them about unusual fish behaviours on a continuous, real-time basis. It also has potential to assist in the evaluation of fish welfare.