Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Aquaculture & Fisheries

Among physical deformities in fish, skeletal, gill and fin malformations are most common, and they can range from barely detectable to lethal. With few exceptions, the motivation among fish growers to eliminate physical malformations is strong; at the very least these deformities reduce the market value of aquaculture crops. At worst they can cause the loss of an entire cohort. The search for definitive information about the causes of deformities in fish leads us in several directions - some genetic configurations can increase the susceptibility to physical and developmental malformations, but in other cases morphologically similar deformities are clearly not heritable. Slight aberrations in the rearing environment, e.g. temperature, water flow rate or diet, can trigger high rates of deformities in a clutch of fish. Occasionally, associations are made between handling stress and an elevated incidence of deformities, suggesting that stress can disrupt a genetically predetermined plan of development. The sum of the available evidence suggests that certain fishes are more susceptible to environmentally induced aberrations of development than are others. In other words, some species appear to adapt relatively well to captive rearing and may be more suitable for culture and domestication than others. This is not surprising, considering the widely varying degrees to which other animals adjust to captivity and the relatively small fraction that have adapted well.

NOP 10-A08 (English)