(Very) long‐term transport of Silurus glanis, Charcharhinus melanopterus, Scomber colias, Trachurus picturatus, Polyprion americanus, Rhinoptera marmoratus, Salmo salar, Scomber scombrus, Sardina pilchardus, and others, by land, water and air

In this paper, we cover 4 years of live fish transports that ranged from 14 to 200 h (8 days), and bioloads from 3.8 to 76.9 kg/m3. The key ingredients for success in all trips, where virtually no mortality occurred, was atributed to (1) pre‐buffering the water with sodium bicarbonate and sodium carbonate at 50 g/m3 (each)—and/or ATM Alka‐HaulTM at 25 g/m3—and applying additional (partial or full) doses throughout each transport, whenever the tanks were accessible; (2) pre‐quenching ammonia with ATM TriageTM at 32 g/m3, and applying additional (partial or full) doses throughout each transport, whenever the tanks were accessible; (3) keeping the dissolved oxygen saturation rate above 100%, ideally above 150%; (4) Keeping temperature on the lower limit of each species' tolerance range; (5) Using foam fractionators to effectively eliminate organic matter from the water and (6) Using pure sine wave inverters, which allows for a steady supply of electrical current throughout the transport. The use of a ‘preventive’ versus ‘corrective’ pH buffering philosophy is also discussed.

Keywords

PH buffering Ammonia quenching Foam fractionator Protein skimmer Skimmer Voltage inverter

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/7431

Citation

Correia, J., Daghfous, G., Silva, D., Graça, G., Beltran, I., Reis, J., Marques, J. P., Silva, L., Guedes, R., & Morato, T. (2022). (Very) long‐term transport of Silurus glanis, Charcharhinus melanopterus, Scomber colias, Trachurus picturatus, Polyprion americanus, Rhinoptera marmoratus, Salmo salar, Scomber scombrus, Sardina pilchardus, and others, by land, water and air. Zoo Biology, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1002/zoo.21684