I Just Don't Get It...

Just a reminder that we have a 'no politics' rule here at 3reef. This is a very interesting thread. But some comments are skirting along this rule. Be mindful and this will remain open. Thanks

 

I was under the impression that many folks are trying to breed certain fish and they just won't live to adulthood in captivity. I think there was a breakthrough for Hippo tangs in the last couple of years.

With the designer clowns I think I read that even if you have two adult picassos you don't always get offspring that are picassos. Only a small percentage are picassos so the price stays high.

 

There is a lot of costs involved with captive breeding. It's hard to make money if your fish look identical as wild caught but cost twice as much.

If you have a profit from making designer clowns, it makes the risk of starting a breeding program for other species easier.

 

Great information found here regarding the Hippo tangs:
By Matt Pedersen on Dec 02, 2011

• 
  Paracanthrus hepatus prolarvae, approximately 52 hours post spawn - courtesy CaptCrash
  
  It seems that breeding news comes in spurts. While the vast majority of marine fish have never been spawned in captivity, with even a smaller fraction being reared, it is undeniable that the early 21st Century is proving to be the next rennaisance in tropical marine aquaculture. With news of Regal Tangs possibly being reared in Taiwan by a governmental organization, Frank Baensch’s success at Reef Culture Technologies breeding the Crosshatch Triggerfish, Todd Gardner’s Reef Basslet success at the Long Island Aquarium, and the collaborative efforts via Rising Tide producing a near win with breeding the Schooling Bannerfish immediately followed up by the successful first captive-bred Koran Angelfish, one might think that breeding breakthroughs are only happening on the commercial and institutional level this year.
  
  
  Read more: http://reefbuilders.com/2011/12/02/regal-blue-tang-spawn/#ixzz34kiUefxC

And this reminds me that Matt Pedersen could add some interesting perspective on the topic.

Just look at the images of the Tang larvae, what a challenge to rear them.


It's so easy to rear clowns once you get a recipe down, designer clowns are being reared by common hobbyist. It is true that some of the off spring are culled to remove them from the gene pool and realistically many do not meet the aesthetic purposes/goal of the average hobbyist.

It obvious that to successfully rear Tangs you need more resources than the average clown breeder has at their disposal.

 

Every coral in my tank is either aquacultured or maricultured and I would gladly pay the extra for captive-bred fish over wild-caught. The problem right now is that there is no incentive for captive breeders to venture into many fish that are more difficult to breed. They are effectively priced out of the market. Frankly, I'd support a tax on wild-caught marine life for the aquarium trade provided it is accompanied by legislation that protects the hobby as a whole. It would stimulate captive breeding programs and have a whole host of side effects that would be positive to the industry.

 

Research and development in breeding marine fish has actually been ongoing for quite a while, and yes, there have been some setbacks. The most recent that I'm aware of was ORA with the mandarin; they successfully bred them and reared the young on specially developed foods; however, once they matured, far too many stopped accepting prepared food and starved. This is not to say that we should accept failure and become complacent which seems to me to be the case. We put man on the moon and brought him back home safely in the 1960s, and we've been growing individual organs from stem cells for over a decade; there just doesn't seem to be any good reason why we can't successfully breed most any species of fish in captivity, IMO.

 

That's a very valid point.

Yes, if the majority of breeders were using some of the proceeds for R & D; unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case.

 

Absolutely, yes. That's a great idea.

 

I have to think that if there were tank breed fish, they would generally be more hearty due to being used to aquariums. Therefore in the long run, would be worth the extra cost. I'd gladly pay a premium for tank bred. By the way, what does ora stand for?

 

Ocean Reef Aquarium.
http://www.orafarm.com/products/hardcoral/


Captive breed clowns are more interactive with humans, less territorial right off the get go (within reason), a wild clown is already used to defending it's niche from other fish and clowns. Captive breed clowns are used to processed foods, and carry less disease and parasites in general. Brooklynella is really common with wild caught clowns. Then you add collection and shipping stress to wild clowns.