FRIDAY, 11 MARCH – The Borneo Marine Research Institute (IPMB) of Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) has successfully spawned naturally in captivity the Tiger Grouper x Giant Grouper (TGGG) brood stock (F1 Generation)  for the first time, yielding high quality eggs and larvae (F2 generation of hybrid).

This is a journey of 10 years of sustained efforts on brood stock management and intensive research to develop the closed cycle TGGG.

According to the Director of IPMB, Professor Dr. Rossita Shapawi, the institute has progressed from the first-in-the-world production of hybrid of TGGG in 2006.

“The approach and technology developed at our fish hatchery has since been adopted across many grouper industries in Southeast Asia and contributed to the sustainability of seed production and hence economic viability of this enterprise.

“The hybrid has many attributes including fast growth, higher resilience to environmental variations, better disease resistance and excellent organoleptic quality,” she said.

To date, 100 million eggs of F2 TGGG hybrid have been harvested from 5 batches of spawning at IPMB’s fish hatchery.  The hatching rate of F2 hybrid TGGG is remarkably high ranging from 95% to 98%, reflecting a strong possibility of resilience that heterosis could have imparted.

“The survival rate is as high as 40% and all larvae and early juvenile of the F2 generation are taken care of and remain under intensive investigations,” she added.

IPMB is also in partnership with Kinki University, a leader in Japan in the aquaculture industry that will help to strengthen the grouper research and its commercialisation.

“I am please to invite the corporate sector to be partner in our economically viable aquaculture programmes,” Professor Dr. Rossita concluded. – FL

Source: Flora Anne Asalin, Curator (IPMB)