Sustainable Marine Aquaculture

COLLECTION, HANDLING, AND REFRIGERATED STORAGE OF SPERM FROM SOUTHERN FLOUNDER AND FLORIDA POMPANO

Research Team:
Ken Riley (HBOI) - Principle Investigator

In order to improve hatchery techniques for Southern Flounder and Florida Pompano, procedures were developed for the collection, handling and refrigerated storage of sperm. Utilization of refrigerated sperm in spawning allows efforts to be focused on maintaining female broodstock, monitoring ovarian development, and increasing efficiency during the strip-spawning process.

Sperm were collected from domesticated southern flounder broodstock (n = 6) in the winter of 2004. Sperm were also collected from Florida pompano (n = 7) which were captured in the commercial fishery during the spring of 2004. Sperm collected were diluted 1:4 with calcium-free Hanks' balanced salt solution (C-F HBSS), placed in 25-ml centrifuge tubes, and transported to the laboratory on ice. Undiluted southern flounder seminal plasma had an osmotic pressure of 320 ± 5 mOsmol/kg while Florida pompano seminal plasma was 411 ± 45 mOsmol/kg. Activation studies of southern flounder and Florida pompano sperm found that sperm motility was suppressed by decreasing the osmotic pressure of artificial seawater. In a series of refrigerated storage experiments, sperm samples suspended in 200 and 300 mOsmol/kg C-F HBSS retained motility for 10 d at 4 °C. This study demonstrated that southern flounder and Florida pompano sperm can be stored for short-term repeated use in the hatchery.