Water Temperature & Spawning Frequency as Proxies for Cobia (Rachycentron canadum) Broodstock Performance at the University of Miami Experimental Hatchery
Abstract of a master’s degree internship report at the University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science.
Supervised by: Dr. Daniel Benetti & Carlos Tudela
Broodstock management is a crucial component of any fish hatchery operation. This study evaluated the University of Miami Experimental Hatchery (UMEH)’s adherence to its Cobia (Rachycentron canadum) broodstock standard operating procedure (SOP), as well as evaluate broodstock performance. This was done by performing a spatial analysis in R Studio (build 4.1.1) using daily water temperature, holding tank, and spawn data from January 2018 to June 2022 for two genetically distinct cohorts of cobia broodstock maintained at the UMEH (Group 1 & Group 2). Statistical tests were performed to compare water temperatures in holding tanks across groups, holding tanks within groups, and to determine if a statistically significant correlation exists between water temperature and spawning frequency. Our findings show that water temperature in holding tanks is not significantly different across groups, though water temperature across several holding tanks within a group were found to be significantly different. Our findings also show that a significant correlation exists between water temperature and spawning frequency in Group 1, while a significant correlation does not exist between water temperature and spawning frequency in Group 2. This analysis shows that further research is needed to develop a better understanding of the dynamics between water quality parameters and spawning frequency to develop regressional models that can predict future spawning events.
Update 7/12: Published in the UM Graduate Student Library database - https://scholarship.miami.edu/esploro/outputs/991031808511202976