Abstract
Since the first hatched larvae (preleptocephali) of freshwater eel were obtained in the 1970s (Yamamoto and Yamauchi 1974), rearing techniques for eel larvae (leptocephali) have significantly improved through the efforts of several groups (Tanaka et al. 2006; Okamura et al. 2014; Tanaka 2015). Accumulation of knowledge from field surveys elucidating the natural habitat of eel leptocephali (Tsukamoto 1992; Tsukamoto et al. 2011) has also supported the development of rearing techniques. In the Japanese eel Anguilla japonica, Tanaka et al. (2003) were the first to successfully obtain captive-bred glass eels, and over thousands of glass eels per year have been produced in laboratories since then (Okamura et al. 2021). Efforts have also been made to obtain captive-bred larvae of other temperate eels (A. anguilla, A. rostrata, A. dieffenbachii, and A. australis) (Lokman and Young 2000; Oliveira and Hable 2010; Butts et al. 2016). However, the survival rate of leptocephali in captivity remains low, and the time required to begin metamorphosis is still over 200 days, probably because of insufficient nutrition in the artificial larval diet. Thus, the mass production of captive-bred glass eels on a commercial scale has not yet been achieved. In this section, we outline the recent progress in the rearing techniques of eel leptocephali, mainly based on the findings on A. japonica, and clarify the current remaining issues.
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Okamura, A., Yamada, Y., Horie, N., Mikawa, N. (2023). Larval Rearing. In: Tsukamoto, K., Kuroki, M., Watanabe, S. (eds) Eel Science. Fisheries Science Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5692-0_15
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