Expertise and Skills

Use of an automatic feed distributor

Monitoring the feeding behaviour of fish requires specific equipment and skills. PEIMA has automatic feed distributors managed by the fish themselves via a system of tactile shafts linked to a datalogger. This system, supplied by IMETRONIC and installed on 58 tanks, allows us to perform detailed studies on feeding behaviour.

Cryopreservation

PEIMA has the skill and equipment necessary to cryopreserve trout sperm in the context of conserving aquacultural genetic resources. It can also, with the cryopreserved sperm, perform routine reproduction to optimise the management of breeding fish. The cryopreservation techniques were developed by the Fish Physiology and Genomic Laboratory in Rennes (LPGP).

Skills in large-scale freezing developed at PEIMA a few years ago have allowed INRA to begin freezing initiatives performedspecifically for the National Cryobank. In 2012, the CryoAqua bank received the first frozen sperm from rainbow trout and brown trout from INRA resources. The genetic heritage thus preserved, in a perennial and secure way, concerns animals selected for their reproduction period, growth, fat content, and ability to convert plant-based feed, and the golden genotype.

Control of salmonid reproduction

PEIMA has the techniques and skills necessary to create populations of diploid or triploid monosex females and to maintain and generate strains via mitotic or meiotic gynogenesis. These techniques were developed by the GénAqua team of the UMR GABI and adapted by PEIMA.

Skills in fileting and processing fish

Understanding the mechanisms of muscular growth and assessing its effects on the quality of farmed fish is based mainly on analysing the impact of production factors. The orientation of French trout production over the past 15-20 years toward producing large trout for smoked filet requires performing experiments until the commercial stage. Our tools allow both production of large trout and analysis of flesh quality at different stages (portion, filet, large trout, smoked filet).