Breeding Marine Livestock in aquarium. Rare?

J

juice04

I have numerous years in the hobby of of freshwater (African Cichlids). A major drive for me in the African Cichlid hobby is breeding select great quality fish. It involves setting up an ideal environment for the fish to act naturally as they would in the wild. Caring and growing up the fry are extremely rewarding as a hobbyist.

In the marine environment, how does this work? Are 100% of all livestock sold captured from the ocean? I can't say I've seen topics of marine livestock being bred, maybe some clownfish, but extremely rare. Are there hobbyist who consistently breed marine livestock successfully?
How involved is breeding marine, and caring for fry, in general.
 
Definitely most of the stuff in you see in the LFS is wild caught, but the numbers are coming up for captive bred...

We've got a few local members breeding fish:

http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=29965

Michelle has also bred and raised Bangaii Cardinals...

Many seahorses are captive bred in now, as well as some Gobies, Cardinalfish, Dottybacks...

Some are working on breeding some of the cleanup critters too:

http://www.projectdibs.com/

(In fact, the person who is driving Project DIBS will be speaking at our next meeting, in July!)

And, not to toot my own horn, it's not technically breeding, but I'm taking a knife to anemones and slicing them in half to make two from one (I'm still learning, so it hasn't been all successful):

http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=25142
 
clownfish are bred all the time, members are constantly posting here that their clowns have laid eggs, and we even have a member here who does it well, she has several month old fry, 20 or more...i bet you could easily do this, there is alot of information on raising clown fry
 
There are all kinds of clownfish being bred in captivity, as well as most gobies, some dottybacks, cardinals, and assessors. Other marine vertebrates are being bred in captivity- such as sea horses and pipefish.

The big problem with breeding many marine fishes is finding a viable source of live food for the fry. It involves keeping cultures of brine shrimp, rotifers, phyto to feed the rotifers..

And that only really applies to fishes who produce a clutch of eggs. Others are open water spawners, cued to moon and tidal cycles. Much more involved than many freshwater sources.
 
Thanks for the replies. It's good to know that it is possible to breed some species in our own home. How about Tangs or Angels?
 
Here is an interesting read that may give you more information on those fish, like mentioned, it shows angels as being dependant on lighting and temp conditions...

Breeding
 
ORA is probably the largest breeder of Marine Fish out there. You might check out their site. I have heard of people breading dwarf angels before but I don't know how successful or common that is. ORA does well with dottybacks, clownfish, and several other families, besides aquaculturing inverts and corals as well.

Here is a link to their site:

http://www.orafarm.com/
 
Time to hopefully be able to toot my own horn. Thanks to help from Michelle, appears I finally have approximately 10 false perc fry going into their 6th day. The mated pair, an all black and white stripe male (no orange nose or fins) and a Big Mama female have been laying eggs for about 2 months now, but problem in past has been hitting the correct night of the hatch. This time I just let them hatch in their 60g cube. I cut off all power to power heads and skimmer, and looked for a hatch starting from the 5th night. Night 6 was the charm. Unfortunately, I probably was not as careful as I should have been in colleting the fry, thus only about 10 surviving. From everything I've read, I should now be assured that they will hatch regularly on the 6th night. The mated pair are already doing their dance, so this time I will move entire hatch with their flower pot on night 6. Should hopefully improve survival rate.

Thank again, Michelle !!!!!
 
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