General Information

At Aquablue we breed and grow a vast range of marine species. Commercial crops of Snapper, Bream and Whiting are the main species under culture but a vast range of other species are also currently being trialed or will be shortly in the future. Some of these other species include mud crabs, pearl oysters, prawns, yellowtail kingfish, mulloway and mullet. As well as aquarium species such as oyster blennys, bullrouts, gudgeons and even pacific blue eyes.

Our snapper (Pagrus auratus) (above right) are bred in a 10,000 litre marine hatchery tank. This tank is heat and light controlled to induce spawning.

Our Silver bream (Acanthopagrus australis) (left) and our sand whiting (Sillago ciliate) (below) are bred in 2 different tanks. Either the large 10,000 litre tanks or a smaller 1,400 litre tank when only a few fish are being used.

Mulloway will not be bred on site in the foreseeable future. Eggs, larvae or fry will be sourced from NSW DPI Fisheries or other hatcheries for ongrowing in our systems. NSW DPI has a very modern marine hatchery staffed with some of the most knowledgeable people in Australia who have the expertise and facilities to produce these species. Fortunately for us they make available to industry the offspring of their breeding programs each year and we will happily utilize this valuable resource with much thanks to NSW DPI. Yellow Tail Kingfish we are looking at breeding on site, stay tuned.

Sea mullet (Mugil cephalus) (right) is another species that we are moving towards breeding. We have not bred any as yet but we are accumulating good breeding stock ready for use in the 2007 breeding season. Sea mullet or bull mullet will live in both marine and fresh water and are in demand because they eat weeds, algae and other waste products. They can clean up ponds, dams and tanks in an environmentally friendly way. Stay turned for further updates on our mullet breeding program.

Aquarium species such as oyster blennies, bullrouts, gudgeons and pacific blue eyes (left) we are also moving towards full scale breeding programs. At the moment we are just building breeding systems and collection broodstock ready for the future and doing some small fish tank breeding trials. Water for all our marine systems is sourced from Bundabah Creek which offers pristine marine water, generally between 28 and 36 parts per thousand salt. We have strong tidal movements in the creek system and few tributaries that add freshwater to the marine system. This water is ideal for all our species and they all thrive requiring little intervention on our behalf with the quality of the water extracted.