Quality traits in aquaculture

Aquaculture species are reared for particular traits such as growth rate, survival rate, meat quality, resistance to diseases, age at sexual maturation, fecundity, shell traits like shell size, shell colour, etc.

• Growth rate – growth rate is normally measured as either body weight or body length. This trait is of great economic importance for all aquaculture species as faster growth rate speeds up the turnover of production.^[19] Improved growth rates show that farmed animals utilize their feed more efficiently through a positive correlated response.^[18]
• Survival rate – survival rate may take into account the degrees of resistance to diseases.^[18] This may also see the stress response as fish under stress are highly vulnerable to diseases.^[19] The stress fish experience could be of biological, chemical or environmental influence.
• Meat quality – the quality of fish is of great economic importance in the market. Fish quality usually takes into account size, meatiness, and percentage of fat, colour of flesh, taste, shape of the body, ideal oil and omega-3 content.^[18][