Date of Award

Fall 2012

Project Type

Thesis

Program or Major

Zoology

Degree Name

Master of Science

First Advisor

David Berlinsky

Abstract

The objective of this thesis was to improve the aquaculture practices for summer flounder Paralichthys dentatus. The experiments in this thesis examined male reproduction. First a practical method for summer flounder sperm cryopreservation was developed. These experiments examined the various parameters required to successfully freeze and store summer flounder spermatozoa. Success of cryopreservation was measured by examining post thaw viability and fertility.

One of the problems facing summer flounder aquaculture is sexually dimorphic growth rates, with females growing larger than males. To overcome this, meiogynogenetic summer flounder were developed, allowing the production of all female stocks. The second set of experiments examined the sperm characteristics and fertility of meiogynogenetic summer flounder sperm. Finally, to overcome small milt volumes in summer flounder the final set of experiments examined the used of exogenous hormones to increase summer flounder sperm production.

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