World leading aquaculture technology delivering sustainable premium products

The Company One is a private company that operates a state-of-the-art tropical finfish breeding facility in Cairns, Queensland, Australia.

The breeding facility is capable of commercially breeding a range of grouper species with a current focus on production of fingerlings of 3 species from the Grouper family: (i) Queensland Groper (Giant Grouper), (ii) Blue Speckled Grouper and (iii) Coral Trout.

The facility’s controlled environment contains unique systems and processes that allow the adult broodstock fish to spawn naturally, every month producing over 300 million fertilised eggs per annum. These are nurtured through a delicate hatchery process to produce healthy fingerlings (baby fish) that are free of common pathogens and diseases.

Our fingerlings are supplied to aquaculture facilities in Australia to on-grow the grouper to a market size. Fingerlings are also exported to our sister companies in Hong Kong (Aquaculture Technologies Asia) and Taiwan (Epic) and other facilities in SE Asia and beyond.

Our team

Dr Richard Knuckey

General Manager

In 1999 Dr Richard Knuckey joined an ambitious project to diversify aquaculture and protect the coral reefs. The unique proposal found favour within the Queensland Government who awarded funding and launched the tropical finfish project. Over the next 18 years, the team would go on to achieve their goal of pioneering innovative aquaculture techniques and create a world-class tropical finfish hatchery.

In 2016 The Company One purchased the Intellectual Property from Finfish Enterprise and is now the only breeder of Giant Grouper in Australia and one of only a handful in the world. With exclusive approval to collect a limited number of wild broodstock, The Company One holds Australia’s first and only aquaculture permit allowing commercial captive breeding and grow-out production of market-size Giant Grouper. In addition, The Company One raises two other species in the Grouper family: Speckled blue grouper and Coral Trout.

Ryan Rossi - Hatchery Manager

Ryan Rossi

Hatchery Manager

Adam Reynolds - Brookstock Manager

Adam Reynolds

Broodstock Manager

Lewis Caunce - Nursery Export Manager

Lewis Caunce

Nursery Export Manager

Tycarra Bianchin

Tycarra Bianchin

Live Feeds Manager

Aquaculture

Sustainability

Industry partners

Research

Research Partners

In the media

Resource: Cairns Post
A Cairns aquaculture firm has created history by breeding and raising coral trout to a market size for the first time in Australia — an achievement that should open entirely new markets and jobs for the Far North.

Frequently asked questions

The Company ONE’s Broodstock tanks are equipped with independently controlled temperature and lighting systems. We maintain multiple breeding populations for each species which enables us to cycle the fish throughout the seasons. This means we have broodstock populations spawning out of ‘normal’ season, providing year-round production, while giving the other populations a well-deserved rest.

Giant Groupers are protected in Australia. Years of overfishing throughout the world has reduced the breeding population forcing the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to list the species as vulnerable. Every few years, under a Queensland Fisheries Permit, The Company ONE collects a limited number of wild specimens from North Queensland waters and carefully transports them back to the breeding facility in Cairns where they are introduced as broodstock. The giant grouper fingerlings produced from these brood fish at The Company ONE are not listed as protected, therefore making them eligible for people to culture.

Currently our logistics team routinely transports our fingerlings to both domestic and international buyers. These places include China, Taiwan, Tokyo, Singapore, and Indonesia. Predominately our fingerlings are transported via air freight using Australian-certified packaging to ensure that our fingerlings arrive in optimal condition.

The Company ONE maintains the highest level of health using specialised nutrition throughout their growth cycle along with implementing high-level biosecurity procedures. These practices are transferred into our fingerlings with reports of faster growth rates, fish being more solid and robust with stronger colouration. Our strict biosecurity protocols result in Specific Pathogen Free fingerlings that are certified free of parasites and the devastating viral diseases of Nodavirus (VNN) and Iridovirus (GIV).

For orders or inquiries into our Giant grouper, Speckled Blue grouper or Coral Trout fingerlings, please go to our contact us page and enter a submission.