Production of oyster seed in a hatchery system

Although oyster culture dates back to First century B.C., the development of hatchery techniques for the production of oyster seed on a year round basis is a recent innovation. Since early 1950s attempts for large scale production of oyster seed have been initiated. Loosanoff and Davis (1952), Dupuy et al. (1977) and AQUACOP (1977) have successfully produced seed of the oysters Ostrea edulis, Crassostrea virginica and Crassostrea gigas. Nayar et al. (1984) have successfully accomplished the production of seed of C. madrasensis oh a large scale at the molluscan hatchery laboratory of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute at Tuticorin. At this hatchery cultched as well as free or cultchless spat are produced. The production of oyster seed by hatchery techniques is accomplished in six phases of operations viz., (1) Conditioning adult oysters for maturation of gonads (2) Induced spawning (3) Larval rearing (4) Culture of algal food (5) Preparation of spat collectors and (6) Setting of spat. These six functions although interrelated are independent phases of operation and easy to follow and implement.