News

By choosing the right food, you can do a lot for your own health – and also contribute to more or less environmentally friendly consumption. This also applies to fish and their food. Researchers at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) are working on feed for aquaculture and aquaponics. Their aim is to optimise the nutrition of fish and at the same time protect the environment.  

Crustaceans such as shrimp are a popular food. Due to the high demand for crustaceans, the majority of those consumed no longer come from the wild, but are farmed on a large scale in aquaculture. However, there is potential for improvement in terms of sustainability and animal welfare. In an interview, Dr Sven Würtz explains why aquaculture practitioners should address this issue with urgency.

How does oxygen make fish larvae glow? How can hungry scavenger cells protect against diseases? And why does dirt in the water help fish grow better? Researchers utilize natural substances to breed sustainable and healthy food fish.

IGB has provided feedback on the government draft of the National Water Strategy, emphasising, among other things, the relevance of aquatic biodiversity and the large practical implementation deficit in water management.

Missing or vague definitions and standards make it difficult to plan and evaluate aquaponic systems properly. Researchers from IGB have now tightened up the definitions and created a calculation model for resource use.

The “Zeitschrift für Fischerei” (or “FischZeit” for short) is the first peer-reviewed, German-language journal for fisheries research that brings together knowledge on all aspects of commercial and recreational fisheries, aquaculture, stock management, and fish conservation in inland, coastal and marine ecosystems.

Only recently, colleagues managed to sequence the genome of the sturgeon. Our doctoral student Christin Höhne has now developed an extensive overview of the immune system of sturgeon.

Velvet disease is a dreaded ailment. This infection is caused by dinoflagellates of the genera Amyloodinium and Piscinoodinium, and affects freshwater and marine ornamental and food fish. In her PhD thesis, Thora Lieke combined the risks and benefits of current treatment options and new approaches.