the

facts
CSIRO MARINE RESEARCH UNDERSTANDING OUR OCEANS

Nourishing the polka dot grouper

Nutritious live and pelleted feeds for different life stages is importnt to the efficient and
sustainable production of polka dot grouper, a reef fish prized for both its beauty and its flesh.

The polka-dot grouper (Cromileptes

altivelis) is an attractive addition to
any tropical aquarium. With its
distinctive spots and pronounced
hump, this reef fish, also known as
the humpback grouper, panther
grouper or barramundi cod, will
certainly stand out from the crowd.
But the polka-dot grouper is also
prized for its flesh and can fetch
US$70 per kilo in the live fish
market of Hong Kong.

To take advantage of this market,

a large grouper aquaculture industry
has developed in Indonesia, the
Philippines and other parts of
South-east Asia. Farmed species
include the polka dot grouper,
tiger grouper or flowery cod
(Epinephelus fuscoguttatus) and
the greasy grouper or gold spot
cod (Epinephelus coioides). But
several problems restrict industry
expansion and sustainability.
First, the industry is based on the
capture of wild juveniles or fry.
This practice is unsustainable and
wasteful as large numbers of smaller
fry, called tinies, die after capture
and during transport. There is also
a lack of control over the numbers
of juvenile groupers captured.
Secondly, those fry that do survive
to the grow-out stage where
the fish are reared to marketable
size are fed on small bait fish or
bycatch. Only about two thirds of
this food actually makes it into the
groupers stomachs. The rest is
A better understanding of the nutritional requirements of polka dot grouper will
guide the development of nutritionally-balanced feeds.
wasted primarily because it breaks Hatchery help
up easily and is then carried away,
Backyard or commercial fish
causing environmental problems.
hatcheries have proliferated in
northern Bali and are now
Finally, bycatch is nutritionally
appearing in other parts of
incomplete and subject to seasonal
Indonesia. The hatcheries primarily
availability and competition from
produce milkfish (Chanos chanos)
human consumption.
for human consumption and the
To address these problems, Japanese long-line fishery, and are
scientists from CSIRO Marine easily adapted to produce grouper.
Research, in collaboration with the
Queensland Department of Primary In the first two to three days of
hatching, young grouper rely on
Industries (QDPI) and fisheries
their egg sac for sustenance.
research groups in Indonesia and the
After that they must be fed live
Philippines, have been seeking ways
zooplantkon that are cultured in the
to culture grouper in back yard
hatchery. But the newly-hatched
hatcheries and develop nutritionally
larvae have such tiny mouths that
balanced pelleted feeds.
finding food small enough is a
problem. In the wild, larvae eat
microscopic animals called
copepods, but these are difficult
and expensive to grow in culture.
Instead, QDPI scientists and their
South-east Asian counterparts are
developing a super small strain of
rotifer (Brachionus rotundiformis).
These tiny crustaceans are less than
90 microns, and can keep larvae
alive in the critical first days after
hatching. Within four days the larvae
can manage larger rotifers. As they
grow they progress to brine shrimp,
then fish byctch or pelleted food.
While this research has increased
the survival rate of fry from less
than 3% to 3040%, many
challenges remain. These include
optimising the environmental
conditions in the early stages of life
so that the larvae are in the best
possible condition before they start
feeding, improving the nutritional
(fatty acid) content of rotifers and
brine shrimp, and developing
copepod culture techniques.
Grow-out grub
With so many fry now surviving,
scientists from CSIRO Marine
Research in Cleveland have been
studying the nutritional needs of
polka dot grouper in order to
develop pelleted feeds for grow-out.
Such feeds will address the seasonal
variability and environmental
problems associated with feeding
fresh fishery bycatch, and will
provide a more balanced diet.
In laboratory experiments, the
scientists looked at the two key
nutritional requirements of fish:
proteins and lipids. While protein is
a source of amino acids for building
body mass, carnivorous fish use
protein as their main energy source.
The conversion of protein into
energy, however, results in the
excretion of ammonia, which adds
more nitrogen to the environment.
Experiments with Atlantic salmon
have shown that fish fed diets
containing up to 40% lipid were
able to utilise the lipid as an energy
source. This allowed the amount of
protein in the diet to be reduced
from around 55% to less than 40%.
When a similar experiment was
conducted with polka dot grouper,
however, the scientists found that
the fish had only a limited capacity
to use lipids as an energy source.
On diets containing more than 15%
lipid the fish grew fat and their
appetite decreased. These effects
resulted in poor growth.
Intriguingly, the study found that
grouper can utilise short and
medium chain fatty acids such as
those that occur in coconut oil,
more efficiently for energy than the
long chain fatty acids found in fish
and some vegetable oils. The energy
boost acquired from short chain
fatty acids, however, triggered a
feedback mechanism that reduced
the fishes appetite. A better
understanding of this feedback
mechanism could lead to diets
based on shorter chain fatty acids
that dont affect appetite.
In the future, the scientists also
hope to replace much of the
fishmeal protein in grouper diets
with terrestrial sources of plant and
animal protein. This will reduce the
reliance of the aquaculture industry
on depleted marine resources.
The next challenge, however, is to
overcome resistance to the use of
pelleted feeds in South-east Asia
where they are perceived to be
more expensive than fish bycatch.
But where fish bycatch is 75%
water, pellets are only 10% water,
and the nutritional balance of
pelleted feeds delivers better
growth, leading to profits equal to or
better than those achieved from fish
bycatch feeds. The supply of pellets
is also reliable. CSIRO scientists say
an extension program with on-farm
trials will demonstrate to farmers the
benefits of pelleted feeds: benefits
that prawn and milkfish farmers have
long embraced.
Research partners include the Gondol
Research Institute for Mariculture, the
Maros Research Institute for Coastal
Fisheries, Sam Ratulangi University in
Indonesia, the South-east Asia
Fisheries Development Centre in the
Philippines, and the Network of
Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific.

Further information: www.marine.csiro.au

Bryony Bennett (communication group) phone (03) 6232 5261
email: bryony.bennett@csiro.au
Dr Kevin Williams phone (07) 3826 7284 fax (07) 3826 7222 email: kevin.williams@csiro.au
Mike Rimmer phone (07) 4035 0109 fax (07) 4035 6703 email: mike.rimmer@dpi.qld.gov.au

Acknowledgments
This research was funded by ACIAR and AusAID

Castray Esplanade, Hobart, Tasmania 7000 . . . . . . . . . Phone (03) 6232 5222 . . . . . .Fax (03) 6232 5000
233 Middle Street, Cleveland, Queensland 4163 . . . . . . Phone (07) 3826 7200 . . . . . .Fax (07) 3826 7222
Leach Street, Marmion, Western Australia 6020. . . . . . Phone (08) 9422 8200 . . . . . .Fax (08) 9422 8222
Fact sheet No. 57 May 2003