Biota AMA

[adittam]

The biggest challenge we had was increasing the numbers with the sudden increase in demand for yellow tang. We're always looking to refine our methodology and increase our success rates but never as rapidly as we have with the yellow tang. It took around 4 months, tons of new equipment, new employees, and much more space but we're very confident in the numbers we've got coming in from July to the new year.

I do think this methodology can be used for similar tang in the zebrasoma genus but it seems like it might be pretty different for acanthurus but I think it might just be a matter of time before us or some of the other companies crack that. We've also had quite a bit of success with successfully breeding hippo tangs but we're just making tweaks to the process to make sure the coloration is right.

Our Hawaii facility is working with and has success with Cleaner wrasse, melanarus, red coris, and yellow coris. But we do still have a bit of work to do on that. Many of the Cirrhilabrus species the people want to see captive-bred can be pretty hard because of their ability to fluctuate between sexes and their different life stages so it might be quite a bit before some of those are successfully bred. We're incredibly happy with how the pink square anthias production is progressing and I don't see why that methodology couldn't be used for other anthias. We have a few we think are incredibly important to the trade that we've set our sights on and hope to have more success in the future with this genus.

Awesome news! I would love to be able to stock my entire new 80g build with captive bred fish, and a Melanarus wrasse is near the top of my list along with a yellow tang. Any idea what kind of timeline you’re looking at for availability of the Melanarus?

 

[Maxcmo]

So we are still breeding Hawaiian cleaner wrasse but I don't have a specific date of their availability at the moment. With the significant increase in demand for the yellow tang we used virtually all of our resources and space to increase the amount of yellow tangs we can produce. But while we had that going we did introduce a few new harems to our Hawaii facility which should be about done with their QT period and should be up spawning very soon. This means when we do get batches of them they'll be in much higher quantities.

I think the best thing hobbyists can do is to educate new hobbyists on the benefits of buying aquacultured animals or at least to start out with. One of the first things Biota did as a company was create our Marine Kit which was 100% aquacultured fish, corals, and rock in a package. Out of the hundreds we've sent out the vast majority had incredible success and either upgraded the tank size or the tanks are still going today.

Another great thing hobbyists can do is to request our livestock from their LFS or let them know about us. The companies that have done the best with our livestock have had designated captive-bred systems which really should be the future of the industry so hobbyists can make the choice and it isn't eliminating much of the work we do keeping our facilities biosecure.

Waiting for my YT to arrive tomorrow!

 

[Vyper]

By buying BIOTA fish directly from you, does it eliminate the need to quarantine and treat with copper and other meds? I am assuming the major diseases would never hit your systems but wanted to make sure.

 

[Karen00]

Please start a facility in Canada. Please, pretty please.

 

[adittam]

By buying BIOTA fish directly from you, does it eliminate the need to quarantine and treat with copper and other meds? I am assuming the major diseases would never hit your systems but wanted to make sure.

FAQs

What is Biota's Livestock Guarantee Policy? Biota Aquariums is committed to providing the highest quality, sustainably cultured animals that have been thoroughly conditioned for their upcoming journey to you. Even if the fish appears to be deceased, it's very important to properly acclimate and...

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Do I need to quarantine your fish?

Although our distribution facility is biosecure and we only receive shipments from our breeders, we do suggest all hobbyists quarantine livestock regardless of vendor. It is good practice to ensure you're only adding the healthiest and most ready livestock to your display aquarium. We do suggest not prophylactically treating with harsh treatments as some of our livestock is sensitive to specific treatments. If you have questions about quarantining our livestock please do not hesitate to reach out.

 

[Maxcmo]

Waiting for my YT to arrive tomorrow!

Fish made it safe and sound, eating 5 minutes into being let out of his bag!

 

[jaganshi066]

We hope to have our first Potter's angelfish available later this month. They will be in very small quantities but it's sounding like consistent production going forward!

We also do get in both venustus and multibar angelfish every few months but they are in small quantities as well so it's best to have notifications on for those species.

Do you happen to have the multibar or potters angel available?

 

[atomos]

Fish made it safe and sound, eating 5 minutes into being let out of his bag!

Agreed---except in my case, I should've been home to inspect the delivery instead of having my son and wife open and acclimate the fishes....Biota gave my son the wrong damselfish species....lessons learned. Too bad Biota didn't follow up

 

[zuri]

I'm curious about Starry Eyed Blennies both my LFS have not been able to source for months I have even tried 4-5 different petco's olny lawnmowers. Is there a shortage ? have you guys ever tried breeding ? thanks

 

[tonya0926]

Jake,

People may have seen or heard about Biota because of captive bred yellow tangs, but Biota also sells an assortment of clams and corals.

I’ve previously purchased several healthy, captive bred fish, clams, and invertebrates from Biota. However, I don’t ever recall seeing a WYSIWG clam in stock. Are there plans on updating the WYSIWG section or are those there as examples of what someone might receive when he/she buys a non-WYSIWG clam?

Hey y'all,

Tom and I want to start to incorporate more customer feedback and questions onto our social media. I get tons of emails and messages about our animals, process, and ideas across all of our platforms and I was hoping to open up a discussion. We also want to do some short form videos on our Facebook and Instagram answering some of your questions you may have for us. Let some questions fly and I'll answer as many as best as I can and we're hoping to choose a few every week to give a bit more in depth answers on our Facebook and Instagram.

I appreciate all the questions and responses.

 

[tonya0926]

Agreed---except in my case, I should've been home to inspect the delivery instead of having my son and wife open and acclimate the fishes....Biota gave my son the wrong damselfish species....lessons learned. Too bad Biota didn't follow up

I'm curious about the live rock. I've had mine for almost 2 weeks. I've seen snails and some Astoria starfish that hide lol. Has anyone had experience seeing something a month to months later they didn't know they had? I was hoping to see more life come.outnof the rock. I'm not sure what to expect with the biota live rock. All answers are welcome.

 

[tautog83]

What live rock ?

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

Maybe this will revive the thread but I was wondering what the possibility of Biota Hawaii culturing and introducing the Hawaiian Wire Coral (cirrhipathes anguina) to the hobby? From what I've heard, Cirrhipathes spiralis is barred from collection in Indonesia / export to the US which is why we haven't seen them in the hobby for quite a long time.
I'm not sure what the legality behind collection is for the species, but when I was in Maui, the Maui Ocean Center had them in almost all of their tanks and they were MASSIVE. It would be really cool to see a species of Wire Coral back in the US hobby.

 

[Biota_Marine]

Maybe this will revive the thread but I was wondering what the possibility of Biota Hawaii culturing and introducing the Hawaiian Wire Coral (cirrhipathes anguina) to the hobby? From what I've heard, Cirrhipathes spiralis is barred from collection in Indonesia / export to the US which is why we haven't seen them in the hobby for quite a long time.
I'm not sure what the legality behind collection is for the species, but when I was in Maui, the Maui Ocean Center had them in almost all of their tanks and they were MASSIVE. It would be really cool to see a species of Wire Coral back in the US hobby.

Hey Northwest_scapes_, Unfortunately our Hawaii facility doesn't currently work with any corals. It may be something either they or one of our other colleagues works with in the future. I know Coral Morphologic works with a few different species of gorgs but they're mostly Caribbean species. Currently the only Gorgonian we culture is a pink Hicksomella sp. and in the past we've cultured a species of non-photosynthetic Diodogorgia sp.

Corkscrew gorgs tend to be on the harder side to keep for many hobbyists so it might be good to have a limited option available for the future.

 

[Macdaddynick1]

Just checked your site, and looks like you guys are out of Squamosa clams atm. Is there an ETA on those coming back in stock?

 

[Biota_Marine]

Looks like I missed a few of these questions after I posted a while ago, below are some answers to some of these if those guys are still interested. I've got some extra time tonight between website updates and emails if anyone wants to drop some more questions.

I'm curious about Starry Eyed Blennies both my LFS have not been able to source for months I have even tried 4-5 different petco's olny lawnmowers. Is there a shortage ? have you guys ever tried breeding ? thanks

We haven't bred starry blennies yet but recently had some batch success with lawnmower blennies. We also have been working with a few other blenny species because there seems to be a lapse in new research there after many fang blennies were bred. Our NC facility is now consistently producing Molly Miller Blennies, one of our breeders is currently working on a hybrid Fang Blenny, and we had some minimal success with bicolor blennies at our Palau facility.

Link to Lawnmower and Molly miller blennies below :

Lawnmower Algae Blenny

Gramma loreto Feeding on C1, PE Pellet, Hikari Mysis shrimp

shop.thebiotagroup.com

Jake,

People may have seen or heard about Biota because of captive bred yellow tangs, but Biota also sells an assortment of clams and corals.

I’ve previously purchased several healthy, captive bred fish, clams, and invertebrates from Biota. However, I don’t ever recall seeing a WYSIWG clam in stock. Are there plans on updating the WYSIWG section or are those there as examples of what someone might receive when he/she buys a non-WYSIWG clam?

We have been working on adding more WYSIWYG items to our site. Most popular have been the mariculture acro colonies but we're hoping on some batches of crocea and maxima to be available mid to late July which we usually upload WYSIWYG derasa and gigas.

 

[Biota_Marine]

Just checked your site, and looks like you guys are out of Squamosa clams atm. Is there an ETA on those coming back in stock?

We are out of squamosa, we've been out for a little bit just because the length of time it takes to get to a marketable size. Even some of the other farms we work with have been out. Unfortunately, I don't have an estimated time table for the return of this species but I am hopeful it'll be this year.

 

[IKD]

Any updates on the Hawaiian cleaner wrasse availability? I joined the notification but that was a year or so ago.

 

[Biota_Marine]

Any updates on the Hawaiian cleaner wrasse availability? I joined the notification but that was a year or so ago.

A very small update: we did get 4 through on this latest batch and we had them go out to some of our customers that have been waiting a few years for them. But that means we hope to see more soon, I'm expecting another small batch during this month but they will be very limited.

 

[IKD]

A very small update: we did get 4 through on this latest batch and we had them go out to some of our customers that have been waiting a few years for them. But that means we hope to see more soon, I'm expecting another small batch during this month but they will be very limited

Thanks! Is there a way to see where I may be in the waiting list?