Development of aquaculture protocols and gonadal differentiation of red shiner

Developing detailed rearing methods and describing the onset of gonadal differentiation in Red Shiners Cyprinella lutrensis could facilitate the development of novel techniques to control or enhance populations, enable toxicology studies, and help construct bioassays. In this study, we develop and report aquaculture practices for Red Shiner that ensure consistent year-round production in laboratory settings and evaluate the timing of sexual differentiation via histological gonad examinations. Our methods resulted in a mean of 56.00% (SD = 8.98%) survival through the larval stages of development, and we obtained spawns from captive-reared Red Shiners 138 d posthatch. Red Shiners are gonochoristic, and both ovaries and testes differentiate directly from undifferentiated gonads. Ovaries begin to differentiate in females 45 d posthatch, while testes begin differentiating in males 105 d posthatch. This study provides in-depth protocols for the closed-cycle aquaculture of Red Shiners and describes the gonadal differentiation and development of both sexes.