Broodstock Room

The broodstock room within the Joe Brown Aquatic Research Building has the capability to house many species of cold water finfish including yellowtail flounder, rainbow trout, Atlantic hailbut and Atlantic salmon, but currently is focused on housing Atlantic cod.

Eight fibreglass tanks equipped with numerous environmental controls and ranging in size from 21 m³ to 47 m³ are housed within this facility. All incoming seawater is conditioned (filtered, degassed and UV) and can be supplied through multiple headers with various temperature and oxygenation controls.

All broodstock tanks are equipped with side skimming collectors to collect fertilized cod eggs. In addition backup oxygeon is available to all tanks via individual diffusers.

All broodstock tanks are equipped with tarpaulins to allow programmable photoperiod and light intensity control. This allows researchers to control and manipulate the reproductive cycle of various finfish species. Atlantic cod held in these tanks have been induced to spawn six months in advance of their natural spawning cycle.

Three of the 3m deep tanks are equipped with temperature and oxygen monitoring using PT4 monitor by Point Four Systems Inc. This provides security by sounding an alarm when environmental conditions fall outside set parameters. In addition, all tanks are equipped with low water level warnings.