<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>A major reason why conservation aquaculture is needed to improve the success of aquaculture-assisted fisheries is that traditional production aquaculture produces fish with mal-adaptive behaviors. These behaviors can be produced via domestication and culture techniques, and preventing these mal-adaptive behaviors requires integrating improvements in genetic management and culture protocols. The genetic protocols needed to minimize hatchery-induced genetic changes have received considerable attention, but changing the way fish are raised has received less effort. Conservation aquaculture cultures fish in environments that resemble their native habitats so that when stocked, they behave like wild fish rather than hatchery fish. A purpose built-conservation aquaculture facility can also be used to learn about a species’ behavior and how it reacts to changes in the environment, something which can be difficult or expensive to study in the wild. These observations can then be used to help direct both propagation and recovery management. This paper provides the rationale for why genetic management, culture systems, and management practices need to be altered to produce fish that are behaviorally similar to wild fish for aquaculture-assisted fisheries programs. It then provides a description of some of the behaviors of the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow <italic>Hybognathus amarus</italic> that were observed at the Los Lunas Silvery Minnow Refugium, a purpose-built conservation aquaculture facility, and explains how some of these behaviors can be used in culture and recovery management. Behaviors described are: schooling; predator avoidance; feeding behavior; use of vegetation for cover and predator avoidance; habitat use by bottom substrate; location in the water column; upstream movement via a fish ladder; movement upstream in a high-velocity channel; response to changes in water level; spawning behavior; seine avoidance; and Kaah-chee-nyee Srkaash, a behavior described for the first time.</p></abstract>

A major reason why conservation aquaculture is needed to improve the success of aquaculture-assisted fisheries is that traditional production aquaculture produces fish with mal-adaptive behaviors. These behaviors can be produced via domestication and culture techniques, and preventing these mal-adaptive behaviors requires integrating improvements in genetic management and culture protocols. The genetic protocols needed to minimize hatchery-induced genetic changes have received considerable attention, but changing the way fish are raised has received less effort. Conservation aquaculture cultures fish in environments that resemble their native habitats so that when stocked, they behave like wild fish rather than hatchery fish. A purpose built-conservation aquaculture facility can also be used to learn about a species’ behavior and how it reacts to changes in the environment, something which can be difficult or expensive to study in the wild. These observations can then be used to help direct both propagation and recovery management. This paper provides the rationale for why genetic management, culture systems, and management practices need to be altered to produce fish that are behaviorally similar to wild fish for aquaculture-assisted fisheries programs. It then provides a description of some of the behaviors of the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow Hybognathus amarus that were observed at the Los Lunas Silvery Minnow Refugium, a purpose-built conservation aquaculture facility, and explains how some of these behaviors can be used in culture and recovery management. Behaviors described are: schooling; predator avoidance; feeding behavior; use of vegetation for cover and predator avoidance; habitat use by bottom substrate; location in the water column; upstream movement via a fish ladder; movement upstream in a high-velocity channel; response to changes in water level; spawning behavior; seine avoidance; and Kaah-chee-nyee Srkaash, a behavior described for the first time.

Behavioral observations of the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow in a conservation aquaculture facility

Croatian Journal of Fisheries

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

A major reason why conservation aquaculture is needed to improve the success of aquaculture-assisted fisheries is that traditional production aquaculture...

Behavioral observations of the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow in a conservation aquaculture facility

Published Online: Apr 11, 2018

Page range: 7 - 26

Received: Aug 15, 2017

Accepted: Nov 25, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/cjf-2018-0002

Keywords
Conservation aquaculture, Fish behavior, Rio Grande silvery minnow, Endangered species

© 2018 Douglas Tave et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Behavioral observations of the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow in a conservation aquaculture facility

Published Online: Apr 11, 2018

Page range: 7 - 26

Received: Aug 15, 2017

Accepted: Nov 25, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/cjf-2018-0002

KeywordsConservation aquaculture, Fish behavior, Rio Grande silvery minnow, Endangered species

© 2018 Douglas Tave et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Conservation aquaculture, Fish behavior, Rio Grande silvery minnow, Endangered species