Growth of Florida fighting conch, Strombus alatus, in recirculating systems

With the increased interest in water conservation and the need to reduce the discharge of effluent from aquaculture production systems. there has been a from open, flow-through systems to recirculating aquaculture production systems. In 2001, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution developed the ftrst recirculating conch aquaculture program. Two important aspects of conch aquaculture are determining the stocking density and water quality parameters in growout systems that yield the fastest growth rate and the highest survival. An experiment was conducted from March 11 - June 3, 2003 at two Florida sites, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution and Mote Marine Laboratory, to compare survival and growth of juvenile conch in a recirculating growout system.