Production of Largemouth Bass for the food fish market using commercial split-pond systems

Largemouth bass (LMB - Micropterus salmoides) production for the foodfish market is growing in the US. Traditionally LMB producers in the US have relied on traditional earthen ponds as their primary production system for LMB culture. LMB producers in the Southeastern US use traditional earthen ponds as the primary production unit and are plagued by low survival slow growth poor food conversion ratio (FCR) losses to bird depredation water quality problems (i.e. low dissolved oxygen) and disease issues. LMB producers believe these production-related obstacles inherent to culture in traditional earthen ponds have translated to reduced efficiency and profitability of domestic LMB farming operations and inhibit growth of this aquaculture sector. The culture of LMB employing a split-pond system (SPS) can ameliorate many of the inefficiencies documented by commercial LMB producers using traditional earthen pond systems. In this Phase II proposal a modified 3-cell SPS design for LMB will be used as a commercialization tool to increase production. The advantages of SPS for LMB production can revolutionize the production of this expanding food fish speces in the US. This project will optimize densities and feed management strategies to evaluate production performance water quality and economic feasibility of raising fingerling to stocker LMB for the foodfish market in commercial-size modified 3-cell SPS.