Exotic Ornamental Aquaculture

[Pirate Captain]

Hi all

I am a graduate student at the Hawaiian Institute of Marine Biology and am finalizing a research proposal to investigate both the life cycle and possible aquaculture of various exotic Hawaiian fish of ornamental interest. I was a member of the boards here a few years back and thought this would be a good place to gather some info (couldn't find my old login id and password).

I am looking for either direct or anecdotal evidence of courtship behavior, spawning, or egg laying of any of the following fish in captive systems.

Cirrhilabrus jordani Flame Wrasse
Centropyge interrupta Japanese Angelfish
Genicanthus personatus Masked Angelfish
Liopropoma aurora Sunrise Basslet
Pseudanthias hawaiiensis Hawaiian Longfin Anthias
Chaetodon tinkeri Tinker's Butteflyfish
Bodianus sanguineus Sunrise Wrasse
Xanthichthys mento Crosshatch Triggerfish
Ostracion whitleyi Whitley's Boxfish
Ostracion melegris Spotted Boxfish
Gymnothorax meleagris Whitemouth Moray
Gymnothorax nudivomer Yellowmouth Moray
Enchelycore pardalis Hawaiian Dragon Moray

There is limited research on many of these genera and so in some cases the reproductive biology and behavior is unknown. So it would also be useful if anyone has evidence (even if it is anecdotal) of captive spawning in the above genera (excluding Centropyge which has been researched).

I am looking for the following specifics if available: courtship behavior seen in captivity, spawning or laying of eggs, egg sizes, egg numbers, time between spawns if there were multiple spawns, and haremic or not. All that would be a best case scenario, if all you have is that you heard some guy in Utah or Japan had some spawn, that is a start also.

If everything works out wonderfully we would like to see some of these fish make it to an aquaculture facility to be used in the ornamental trade. At the very least we would like to learn more about the life-cycle of one or more of the above fish. Successful aquaculture of these fish could help establish a facility that would help relieve collecting pressure from Hawaii's reefs as well as supply funding for the breeding of other more "bread-and-butter fish". All of the above fish currently retail for over $100 dollars with some hitting close to $1500, generally because of difficulty in collection such as depth. Many of the fish currently been reared for ornamental sales can still be undercut by wild collectors, we hope to reverse that as well as possibly funding breeding of fish that currently lose money in aquaculture (i.e. the yellow tang). We are currently focusing on Hawiian fish, but may branch out to other rare or deep-water ornamentals in the future depending on our success. You have to shoot for the stars, right

I double posted this topic in the advanced forum, as I wasn't sure which would be the best place. I apologize if I shouldn't have.

 

[David M]

Hi PC, a few years back I was very interested in Ostracion meleagris and attempted to keep a pair several times. I do believe that I read of captive spawning accounts but no confirmed hatches or larval rearings. I think the species has good potential due to it's sexual dimorphism, high market value and small size, however it is difficult to keep and I failed miserably. The problem seemed to be getting healthy stock to begin with. I'd select fish that appeared to be in perfect condition at a whloesalers only to find them at deaths door the very next morning, or at least within a few days of purchase.

 

[mwp]

Centropyge interrupta Japanese Angelfish
Genicanthus personatus Masked Angelfish

These two have been brought full circle already through settlement and into regular juvenile stage. RTC Hawaii did the Centropyge (and does lots of C. sp.); the Genicanthus was done by one of the Universities in Hawaii (there's an article about it in an issue of Seascope a while back)

FWIW,

MP

 

[Pirate Captain]

The problem seemed to be getting healthy stock to begin with.

Lucky for us we have Rich Pyle collecting specimens. We get them fresh out of the water by one of the best divers and fish taxonomists in the world

These two have been brought full circle already through settlement and into regular juvenile stage. RTC Hawaii did the Centropyge (and does lots of C. sp.); the Genicanthus was done by one of the Universities in Hawaii (there's an article about it in an issue of Seascope a while back)

Thanks for the heads up on the Seascope article. Karen Brittain, the one who worked on Genicanthus and many other Centropyge angels, is actualy helping us. I hadn't sent her my preliminary species list yet, but it's good to know that she worked on it.

 

[cjvolitan]

sounds really interesting lets us know how it turn out.

 

[oama]

Trolling and found this...

Not "Troll"ing.. LOL

Anywho, did 6 years on "The Nut" doing Marine Ornamentals w/ Prof. Chris Brown. Rich & Lisa are good friends. Cara was born w/in two weeks of my son.

Say Howzit to Rich for me and ask him if he's still planning an expedition to the Marshals. He can use our facillities there as a base of operations.

 

[aomont]

I was just thinking on this thread and wondering which one was chosen !
How is it going Pirate Captain ?

 

[Pirate Captain]

I havn't chosen any fish yet for sure. We are just going to see what Rich can get for us and start with them. We will probably try to focus on the flame wrasse, masked angelfish and Japanese angelfish at first though.

 

[aomont]

Flame wrasse !!!!!! Go for it ! Though dragon moray would be THE project....
Anderson.

 

[Pirate Captain]

The eels would be fun, but are not very viable for aquaculture. All the eel larvae that I know of don't settle out for 6 months to 2+ years. They would just be targets for learning more about the lifecycle.

But it would be tremendously fun to have a breeding pair of dragon morays.

 

[kmainzer]

Hi, there-

First, AWESOME!!! that you are going to attempt to aquaculture some of Hawaii's fish. I've recently returned from a dive trip to the Big Island, and I was disappointed to see how few fish there were relative to 10+ years ago when I first started to go. I remember seeing huge schools of hundreds of Yellow Tangs; they looked like yellow clouds. The most I saw on this trip were groups of a few dozen. Apparently HI allows the export of ~1 million fish/year for the aquarium trade, which is just ridiculously high. Australia acknowledges that the fish are much more valuable in their homes on the reef where tourists can see them, and they only allow 200,000 fish/year to be exported. Hawaii's much smaller than Australia, and they allow 5x more to be taken. As a result of seeing the depletion in Hawaii and other places, I only buy aquacultured livestock.

You might get in touch with Carol at Ocean Rider on the Big Island - we took their tour while we were there, and she mentioned something about starting to culture Hawaiian fish.

There are lots of folks now who will only deal in aquacultured livestock. We're there, and we will buy 'em if you can figure out how to grow 'em!

 

[monicaswizzle]

PC--Yesterday I added two Whitley's boxfish (male and female) to my tank. The female immediately begin "display" behavior and the male responded by performing what I have read to be the pre-cursor to spawning (nudging her on the back with his "nose"). The two circled and rose in the water column repeatedly over the next hour or so, but as near as I could tell they never actually spawned.

Obviously, I hope that they continue the courtship. I would LOVE it if they actually spawned, but from what I have read that is pretty unlikely unless I can scrape together funds for a tank 5 feet or more in depth.

Let me know if you would like more detailed descriptions of their courtship behavior and/or any additional observation notes that may come up in the weeks ahead.

Great project. Good luck!

 

[GreshamH]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7723141#post7723141 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kmainzer
Apparently HI allows the export of ~1 million fish/year for the aquarium trade, which is just ridiculously high. Australia acknowledges that the fish are much more valuable in their homes on the reef where tourists can see them, and they only allow 200,000 fish/year to be exported. Hawaii's much smaller than Australia, and they allow 5x more to be taken. As a result of seeing the depletion in Hawaii and other places, I only buy aquacultured livestock.

And here after over a decade of dealing in the MO trade I thought the Yellow Tang was endemic to HI. Guess not if Australia is allowing for 200K of them to be exported

 

[aomont]

Is pirate captain around ?
Would like to know how the project is going !!!
Anderson.