Use of hydrogen peroxide during incubation of landlocked fall Chinook salmon eggs in vertical-flow incubators

Six different hydrogen peroxide treatment regimes were evaluated in a series of three trials with landlocked fall Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha eggs incubated in vertical-flow incubators. Six daily 15-min hydrogen peroxide treatment regimes (1,000 mg/L; 1,000 mg/L with a decrease to 500 mg/L during estimated blastopore formation; 2,000 mg/L; 2,000 mg/L with a decrease to 500 mg/L during estimated blastopore formation; 2,500 mg/L; and 2,500 mg/L with a decrease to 500 mg/L during estimated blastopore formation) were compared with daily 15-min treatments of 1,667 mg/L of formalin. Mortality at egg eye-up and fry hatch and from eye-up to hatch was significantly greater in eggs receiving the 2,500-mg/L hydrogen peroxide treatments throughout incubation and in those receiving 2,500 mg/L hydrogen peroxide with a decrease to 500 mg/L during blastopore formation than in either of the 1,000-mg/L hydrogen peroxide treatment regimes or the formalin-treated eggs in the first trial. No significant differences in mortality were observed among any of the treatments in the subsequent two trials with maximum hydrogen peroxide concentrations of 2,000 mg/L. Fungal infestations were observed primarily in the incubation trays treated at either of the 1,000-mg/L hydrogen peroxide regimens, as well as in those trays whose treatment concentrations were dropped to 500 mg/L during blastopore formation. Infestations were not observed in any of the formalin-treated trays. If minor fungal infestation is acceptable, then daily hydrogen peroxide treatments of 1,000 mg/L for 15 min would probably provide adequate fungal control compared with formalin usage.