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Present Status of Research and Production of Japanese Flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus, in Japan

ABSTRACT Aquaculture of Japanese flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus, started in the middle 1970s in Japan, and the commercial production became extensive in the early 1980s, with development of seedling production and farming techniques. Annual production in 1996 was 7,692 metric tons, ranked fourth among marine cultured finfish after yellow-tail, red sea bream, and coho salmon. Marine finfish aquaculture in Japan is mostly conducted in floating net cages; however, land-based culture tanks are the prevalent culture system for Japanese flounder. The tanks are circular, square, or octagonal and constructed of various materials: concrete, plastic and/or a combination of the two. Culture tanks are generally inside or covered with shade cloths. Sand-filtered sea water is continually supplied to each tank, with 12 to 24 exchanges daily. Three-gram fish are stocked in the culture tank and raised for 1 to 2 years until they grow to 500-1,000 g. Survival ranges from 60 to 80%. Sardines and sand lance, fresh or frozen, are mainly fed; however, use of moist or dry pellets are increasing recently because of the decline in catch of these fishes. Fingerlings are obtained from commercial hatcheries virtually year-round. The fish utilize almost no dietary carbohydrate as an energy source, and an increase of lipid in the diet did not improve the growth, although it did seem to produce a slight increase in protein efficiency ratio. Therefore, diet for Japanese flounder should contain high percentages of protein (fish meal). Finding alternative protein sources for fish meal in the diet has been researched, and the potential of defatted soybean, corn gluten, feather, meat, and meat bone meals have been examined. The optimum temperature for the growth is 20-25°C. Salinity range of 4.4 to 34.0 ppt did not affect the growth of Japanese flounder at 8 g initial body weight.