Production of Southern Flounder Paralichthys lethostigma Juveniles in an Outdoor Nursery Pond

In the present study, spawning of southern flounder (Paralichthys lethostigma) was delayed until March by holding brood stock at a constant photoperiod (12 L : 12 D) and temperature (mean = 17 C) throughout the winter in indoor tanks at the Waddell Mariculture Center (WMC) in Bluffton, South Carolina, USA. Fish were spawned using techniques developed by Berlinsky et al. (1996), egg batches were incubated in 34-ppt, 16-20 C water until hatching ( similar to 40 h), and fry were held in tanks until their eyes were pigmented and mouth parts fully formed (age, 5 d). Five days after hatching (22 and 23 March 1995), a total of 28,476 larvae (mean TL = 2.0 plus or minus 0.1 mm) from two spawns were stocked in a 0.1-ha pond at the WMC.