Evaluation of effluent waste water from salmonid culture as a potential food and water supply for culturing larval Pacific lamprey Entosphenus tridentatus

The Pacific lamprey is an iconic native fish of great importance to the ecosystem and indigenous cultures in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Pacific lamprey populations have declined in abundance from historic levels, and conservation aquaculture has been proposed as a technique to restore these populations. The present research focused on expanding the culture methods for larval lamprey. The larvae filter feed and cohabitate with juvenile salmonids in the wild, therefore the effluent water from rearing salmonids may be a viable source of water and food for culturing lamprey. This approach could be a sustainable method for raising lamprey at existing salmonid hatcheries. A nine week trial investigated the effects of rearing in effluent water from salmonid culture on the growth, survival, proximate composition, and fatty acid profile of larval lamprey. This trial also explored the potential of this rearing strategy to improve the water quality by removing nutrients from the effluent. The trial included three treatments testing the use of the effluent from steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), a conventional lamprey diet (control diet), or both combined as a means for rearing lamprey. A fourth treatment where lamprey were excluded served as a water quality control to test the effect of lamprey presence on effluent quality. Lamprey survival was not affected by treatment. Lamprey reared solely on the effluent waste matched the survival and growth of fish fed the conventional diet. Lamprey fed the combination treatment grew faster than the conventional diet fed fish. Whole body lipid levels were elevated in lamprey from the combination treatment relative to the conventional diet fed lamprey. Crude protein in the whole bodies of effluent fed lamprey was low compared to fish from either of the treatments where the conventional diet was fed. Lamprey offered the effluent nutrients were high in saturated fats relative to the control fed fish, which reflected the lipid profile of this diet. However, lamprey from the combination treatment were lower in long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids relative to the control or the effluent treatment lamprey. There was no measureable improvement in water quality due to the presence of lamprey, though lamprey were able to sequester approximately 1.3% of the effluent dry matter as lamprey biomass. Overall, it appears the larval stage of lamprey can be effectively reared on salmonid effluent, and this method provides superior growth when used in combination with a conventional lamprey diet.