Yolk absorption and growth of churn salmon, Oncorhynchus keta alevin

The process of yolk absorption and the growth pattern of churn salmon, Oncorhynchus keta alevin were studied. Matured males and females of chum salmon were sampled from the Namdaechun River in the east coast of Korea, and then an artificial fertilization was carried out using their eggs and sperms. Fertilized eggs were incubated in controlled water temperature of and samples of 40 alevins were randomly taken at just hatching and at every three days between 12 days alter hatching and yolk absorption. The means of total length and total weight of hatched alevins were respectively 1.97cm and 1.85g and the yolk absorption took about 33 days after hatching, based on the morphological measurement. Growth curves of total length, total weight and somatic weight were fitted well with the Gompertz growth model. However, the shrinking in yolk-sac length, yolk-sac weight, yolk-sac height and yolk-sac volume revealed a linear phenomenon until the absorption of yolk was completed. The relative growth of chum salmon alevin, such as the relationship between total length and total weight, or between total weight and yolk-sac weight, was also studied.