With my work, I tend to stay as close as possible to the farmers, which makes publishing often difficult. However, when scientifically published, our research often stays far from the application.
It made me wonder if this research is really needed or if we need better communication. In the recent few months, Mark (hatchery manager of Kaiserzander) made me realize that the latter is true. Although experienced with producing pikeperch for quite some time now, Mark faced a serious task on reproduction considering his new infrastructure. New infrastructure, new broodstock, and the task cannot be tougher. It takes a team, it takes communication, but it however takes extreme dedication.
Although there were some protocols earlier tested, Mark trusted our recent research and aimed to test it in commercial conditions. First, he was able to follow the oocyte development throughout photo-thermal induction and was confronted with the individuality within the group of breeders (Ljubobratovic et al., 2020). As result, he was modifying the thermal conditions according to the oocyte development of the fish. It enabled him to reach two reproduction batches in one climate chamber. Secondly, he aimed to test our very new thermal schedule that applies hormonal injection before taking the fish out of the winter into the spring (Ljubobratovic et al., 2021). He managed to produce enough larvae for a summer batch what I find indeed a success!
