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Growth and gonadal development in diploid and triploid Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua)

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Abstract

Induction of triploidy has been suggested as an effective tool to prevent spawning of farmed fish. This experiment examined the growth potential of triploid cod when reared communally with diploid ones after the juvenile stage. Pressure treatment was used to induce triploidy in a batch of cod eggs in April 2009. The resulting offspring were reared separately from their diploid counterparts until they reached the proper size for PIT tagging. At the age of 8 months, an equal number of 115 diploids (135.5 ± 3.95 g) and triploids (93.6 ± 2.63 g) were communally reared in a circular flow-through tank until the age of 22 months. By the end of this rearing period, diploids (1,002.4 ± 39.9 g) were significantly heavier than triploids (654.6 ± 27.7 g), but the specific growth rate did not differ significantly during the growth trial. Gonadal development at the age of 22 months was also lower among triploids than diploids, especially for females (5.3 and 91.9 %) but also for males (32.5 and 72.7 %). Sterility among female triploids was evident by the reduced size and dysfunctional gonads, but gonadal development in male triploids was less suppressed. Prevalence of body deformities was, however, significantly higher among triploids (62.6 %) than diploids (33.9 %). Higher prevalence of deformities in triploid cod underlines the need for further fine-tuning of the triploidization procedure or finding other methods of sterilization. At present, triploid cod are still far from being established as an alternative for commercial production.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the many people who collaborated in this research, especially Matthías Oddgeirsson, Njáll Jónsson and Kristján Sigurdsson, who took good care of the fish. Gamete collection was carried out at the IceCod hatchery with the help of Theódór Kristjánsson. We are especially thankful to Albert K. Imsland for a thorough review that improved the manuscript. This study was funded by the AVS R&D Fund.

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  1. Marine Research Institute, Skúlagata 4, P.O. Box 1390, 121, Reykjavík, Iceland

    Amid Derayat, Árni Magnússon, Agnar Steinarsson & Björn Björnsson

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  1. Amid Derayat
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  2. Árni Magnússon
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  3. Agnar Steinarsson
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  4. Björn Björnsson
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Correspondence to Björn Björnsson.

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Derayat, A., Magnússon, Á., Steinarsson, A. et al. Growth and gonadal development in diploid and triploid Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua). Fish Physiol Biochem 39, 1195–1203 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10695-013-9775-9

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