Moving, grading and counting fish in aquaculture facilities can be some of the most labor intensive and stressful operations for both employees and fish. Fortunately, recent advancements in fish moving, grading and counting equipment are proving to be valuable assets for employees. PR Aqua is an industry leader in fish handling equipment design, manufacture and supply and can provide you with the right tools for the job. We are also proud to be the North American distributor for Vaki Aquaculture Systems of Iceland. We carry their full line of counting, biomass estimating and grading equipment which complements are own brand of fish handling equipment. For over 20 years, the names PR Aqua and Vaki have been synonymous with quality, service and accuracy.
The Heathro™ Fish Pump is quickly becoming a favorite with hatchery operators around the world. Mounted on wheels with a built in priming system it can be moved around the hatchery with ease and doesn’t have to be lowered into the water like a submersible pump. The Heathro™ Cart Mounted Fish Pump has virtually eliminated the need for terraced hatcheries and, now that counting technology has caught up to pump capacity, is becoming a ‘must have’ piece of equipment to make hatchery operations more efficient. The Heathro™ Fish Pump can be used to simply move fish from tank to tank or deliver fish for grading, counting, vaccination, dewatering and transport functions.
Pescalators™ have proven to be a reliable method of moving fish and are available in different diameters to handle fish from 1 g up to 25 kg and can be configured to almost any length to suit specific site needs. Pescalators™ use a slowly rotating auger bonded within a cylinder to gently lift fish in individual pools of water to the top of the screw where fish are dewatered and gravity fed into the receiving tank. The Pescalator™ is ideally suited for loading live-haul trucks and for operations such as grading where a controlled supply of fish is required.
PR Aqua carries a full line of grading machines for a variety of sizes and species of fish. Our belt grader is available in three sizes and can simultaneously provide 3 grades of fish from 3g up to 7kg. The Vaki Rotary Grader is an excellent choice for hatchery applications where space is limited but high capacities of fish must be graded in a short period of time. Either style of grader, coupled with a Heathro™ Pump or Pescalator™ make an unbeatable combination.
Knowing how many fish you have in any particular tank or raceway is vital when determining feed requirements, medical dosages, biomass calculations, and mortality rates. That’s why Vaki Aquaculture Systems has developed a complete line of counting and biomass estimating equipment for almost every hatchery, harvest and conservation application. Vaki counting systems range from Infrared counters like the Bioscanner, the submersible Biomass counter, Pipeline counter and the high speed Macro and Micro counters that incorporate line scanning video cameras. For conservation applications, the Riverwatcher can be installed in a fish ladder or trap to count wild fish stocks in a river. It can be configured with digital underwater video cameras to make species identification possible. As the North American distributor for Vaki Aquaculture Systems, PR Aqua provides full sales and technical support for all Vaki products.
As increasing pressure is placed on site managers to help improve the company’s bottom line, operations efficiency and the maintenance of accurate inventory records are critical. PR Aqua has all the fish handling tools you need to help make the bottom line more attractive.
