the Animals Scientific Procedures Act 1986 (UK Home Office Code of Practice. HMSO: London January 1997) in accordance with EU regula-tion (EC Directive 86/609/EEC) and approved by the Animal Ethics and Welfare Committee of the University of Stirling. The stock used was produced from two sea-winter broodstock fish with a full five-generation pedigree available from the Landcatch breeding programme (Landcatch Natural Selection Ltd., Stirling University Innovation Park, UK). Eyed Atlantic salmon ova (380 °days) were supplied in January 2012 and randomly distributed (2000 ova/tank) be-tween 9 square 1 × 1 m fibreglass hatching tanks (0.3 m3, 10.6 L min−1, O2 N 8 mg L−1) on flow-through supplied by spring water at ambient temperature (6.6 ± 0.7 °C) and maintained in complete darkness
under blackout covers until first feeding.