Agriculture of Sparus aurata

Sparus aurata

The gilthead seabream, Sparus aurata, naturally occurs in the Eastern Atlantic, Black sea
(regions of North Atlantic Ocean) and Mediterranean Sea. It is a Mediterranean fish reaching
a maximum of 70 cm length and 6 kg in weight (Balart et al., 2009). It has an oval-shaped
body with 3 anal spines, 13-14 dorsal soft rays, 11-12 anal soft rays and 11 dorsal rays. There
are large black-coloured spots on the cover of its gills. It prefers to stay in warm-temperate
zones found in the surf zones, sandy bottoms and seagrass beds. It stays in warmer
temperatures and brackish waters during early life stages. It either occurs in small
aggregations or isolated. It is a protandrous (male reproductive organs mature before female
reproductive organs) hermaphrodite, i.e. it becomes female when reaches 30 cm in length (in
about 2 years) before which it lives as a functional male. The social and hormonal factors
condition the reversal of sex in the species.
History of Gilthead Seabream
The seabream is broadly consumed fresh and cooked and is one of the most commercially
important species which is cultures in the Mediterranean Sea. The two fish rearing systems
that are used for rearing seabream include the Egyptian ‘hosha’ and Italian ‘vallicoltura’. The
intensive rearing systems for gilthead seabream developed during 1980s before which the
species were cultured in the saltwater ponds and coastal lagoons. Artificial breeding was
successfully achieved in Italy in 1981-82 and large-scale production of gilthead seabream
juveniles was definitively achieved in 1988-1989 in Spain, Italy and Greece (FAO, 2016).
The low feeding habits, higher rate of survival and good market price makes the gilthead
seabream a suitable species for extensive aquaculture.
Natural Life Cycle

Figure 1: Natural Life Cycle of Gilthead seabream, Sparus aurata, n.d.
Being a protandric hermaphrodite, the gilthead seabream matures as a male first (during one or
two years of age) and then as a female (during the second or third year of age). This speacie is a
daily spawner, i.e. a female spawns (lays egg) around 20,000 to 80,000 eggs in a day. There are
two-three months during which the gilthead seabream spawns, i.e. usually from October to
February. There are multiple...