Building a broodstock tank for Gem tangs (is it big enough?)

Twitchy · Aug 30, 2020

With all the recent success breeding pelagic spawners (Yellow tangs, hippo tangs, purple tangs, angel fish, etc) I am hoping to throw my hat in the ring over the next few years, stand on the backs (and research) of giants, and take a real swing at breeding the Gem tang... or at least growing a successful broodstock for others to hopefully take the next step. Maybe someday attract the attention of Rising Tide Conservation, or maybe even get interns! all the cool labs have interns.

Phase one of my crazy plan(code name money pit), is establishing, and growing out a healthy broodstock of about 8-10 tangs, and with that I am putting some serious thought into what that would look like.
After reading a few research papers, 7-8 ft ~4ft deep round livestock tanks seem popular, they are cheap, and make eventual egg collection easy. My issue with these tanks is they are not the most efficient use of our available space, and they are also hard to install windows into to allow viewing. I feel having such a large investment in such pretty fish, we need to be able to enjoy the growing broodstock along the way when in the workshop.
I am thinking about building a 5 x 8 x 48" deep plywood tank as my first broodstock tank. This size would allow me to minimize seams, and allow for a full acrylic front panel. Would such a setup be big enough? or should I stick with the tried and true circular setups? I wonder how much the tank shape plays into fish swimming/spawning habits? Anyone on the forum have any experience with Zebrasoma species spawning? any research folk browsing these parts? I hope to pick as many brains as I can.

Reef370 · Aug 30, 2020

Now this should be very interesting!!! Following for sure!

ichthyogeek · Aug 30, 2020

Well if you can pay me, I can come work for ya! I've either been outcompeted by other people at the cool labs for internships, or the hiring freeze from covid is killing off the internships. And also, paying interns helps get people to stay in science, since it's hard for low-income folx to reason out an unpaid internship unless they live close by.

Surface area wise, you're good, since those 7-8 foot livestock tanks essentially have around 40-50 square feet of space. I believe part of the reason why the tanks are round, has something to do with water flow patterns, as well as detritus accumulation. Additionally, funding is always a problem for research. Grants and such always help, but from what I understand, academia can be slightly bloody when it comes to who gets the big grants which help provide funding for purchasing of literally everything.

If it were me, I'd stick with what's tried and true first, and then once a protocol has been figured out, then start experimenting with tank shape. Get one of the giant drums, and then build another tank. Compare pricing, maintainability, etc. And then experiment with a (significantly cheaper) fish that you know can breed in the circular drums, in the rectangular tank (like yellow tangs).

If you're serious about this, Chad Callan and the folks at the Tropical Aquaculture Lab (in Florida) do have their emails wandering around the web. I'm hesitant to share them in a forum because, well, bots, but you can find the emails easily. There's also the January/February 2016 issue of Coral magazine as well as the Breeder's Guide by Wittenrich.