Review of captive bred species and fry production of marine fish in China

Abstract

The artificial breeding of marine fish in China has been developed over a period of more than 50 years. Both species diversity and fry production have greatly increased since the 1980s. By the year 2000, at least 52 species belonging to 24 families of marine fish had been successfully bred. Large quantities of cultured fry can meet the needs of both sea cage culture and pond culture for most species. Fish fry production has entered a period of sustainable development. The number of artificially produced fry of large yellow croaker (Pseudosciaena crocea) exceeded 1.3 billion in year 2000. The species for which more than 10 million fry is produced annually through aquaculture are: red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus), Japanese sea perch (Lateolabrax japonicus), redeye mullet (Liza haematocheila), cuneate drum (Nibea miichthioides), red seabream (Pagrosomus major), milkfish (Chanos chanos) and three-banded sweetlip (Plectorhynchus cinctus). Several millions of artificial fry are cultured annually for the following species: Japanese flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus), black porgy (Sparus macrocephalus), silver sea perch (Lates calcarifer), Russell's snapper (Lutjanus russelli), javelin grunt (Pomadasys hasta), miiuy croaker (Miichthys miiuy), Chinese black sleeper (Bostrichthys sinensis) and skewband grunt (Hapalogenys nitens). Fishes belonging to the family Sciaenidae are now the major species for artificial propagation. - 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.