Scientists in Italy have conducted research on the reproductive parameters and larval rearing of red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus), maintained in captivity for the first time in Europe.
The species is not indigenous to Europe — in the 1980s, it was introduced in captivity in Central America and the Caribbean, Ecuador, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
For this research, juveniles of red drum were taken from the United States in the late 1990s and in early 2013, 40 of them were held in a closed recirculating system at Lestina farm in Southern Italy.
