Fish breeding has come a long way in the past 50 years: What will the future of breeding saltwater fish look like?

[Peace River]

Fish breeding has come a long way in the past 50 years: What will the future of breeding saltwater fish look like?

From the time that Martin Moe, Frank Hoff, and others were breeding clownfish in the early 1970s through 2022 when Martin Moe published his latest book, Diadema Culture Manual, on breeding urchins, fish breeding has come a long, long way. Organizations like Rising Tide, UF Tropical Aquaculture Lab, University of Hawaii, Biota, Bali Aquarich, Poma Labs, ORA, and others are continually breaking new ground as they breed new species and figure out how to breed these species commercially. As we consider the future of breeding fish there are many secrets left to be uncovered. Please share what you think will be the next major breakthroughs in fish breeding?

Photo by Mike Jacobs taken over 50 years ago.

I have had the privilege of interacting with Martin Moe, Frank Hoff, Matt Wittenrich, and many others who have been at the forefront of fish breeding discoveries. The picture above was taken over 50 years ago by a friend, the late Mike Jacobs, who then shared this pair of fish with Martin Moe. What is your experience with the cutting edge of fish breeding of the past and the present? What do you think is the future of breeding fish? Where will the process be in 5 years? 10 years? 50 years into the future? Please join us in the discussion to share your thoughts about the future of breeding fish!

 

[Idoc]

My prediction -- Within 10 years, environmentalists will have shut down the wild caught industry and made import of wild fish illegal in the US.

 

[Dburr1014]

My prediction -- Within 10 years, environmentalists will have shut down the wild caught industry and made import of wild fish illegal in the US.

100%

 

[GARRIGA]

Started keeping fish 50 years ago. Salt 40 years ago. Reef 30 years ago. Didn’t know then what would happen five years forward. Just as clueless today but past 50 has given me hope that one day most if not all commonly kept will be captive bred. Although some will likely not be cost effective to produce. For example. If Yellow Tangs were still $9.99 then would anyone venture to produce that commercially assuming wild wasn’t stopped? Money is the root of all choices. At least to be commercially viable.

 

[MnFish1]

Fish breeding has come a long way in the past 50 years: What will the future of breeding saltwater fish look like?

From the time that Martin Moe, Frank Hoff, and others were breeding clownfish in the early 1970s through 2022 when Martin Moe published his latest book, Diadema Culture Manual, on breeding urchins, fish breeding has come a long, long way. Organizations like Rising Tide, UF Tropical Aquaculture Lab, University of Hawaii, Biota, Bali Aquarich, Poma Labs, ORA, and others are continually breaking new ground as they breed new species and figure out how to breed these species commercially. As we consider the future of breeding fish there are many secrets left to be uncovered. Please share what you think will be the next major breakthroughs in fish breeding?

Photo by Mike Jacobs taken over 50 years ago.

I have had the privilege of interacting with Martin Moe, Frank Hoff, Matt Wittenrich, and many others who have been at the forefront of fish breeding discoveries. The picture above was taken over 50 years ago by a friend, the late Mike Jacobs, who then shared this pair of fish with Martin Moe. What is your experience with the cutting edge of fish breeding of the past and the present? What do you think is the future of breeding fish? Where will the process be in 5 years? 10 years? 50 years into the future? Please join us in the discussion to share your thoughts about the future of breeding fish!

I chose 'other'. In 50 years, my total guess is that keeping fish in aquaria will be so frowned upon, that there will be many localities which will ban them. There are already groups which are recommending basically no aquarium keeping - whether wild-caught - or captive bred.

There is also the issue of endangered species. If let's say congress passes a law saying that coral are endangered species. This means that owning even frag keeping/trading, etc will may technically be 'illegal'. The same thing could happen to fish. EDIT - unless you have the proper permits.

BTW - I don't think these changes are going to happen tomorrow - but - never underestimate the silly policies a government agency can come up with - take for example the Hawaii ban - even though there was no real reason for it.

 

[FSP]

Put "Other." Many new fish will get bred, but many won't be commercially viable compared to wild counterparts (assuming wild remains an option).

I do get the crazies to an extent, in that the average aquarium owner is usually a serial animal abuser.

 

[Jwise]

I do think that within 25 years mostly everything available now wild caught will be captive bred (unless like previously discussed above with the government may put a damper on that idea by shutting down the whole saltwater aquarium hobby) which i hope doesn't happen but wouldn't surprise me sadly. I hope soon they get some really nice fish out like Magnificent Foxface, gem tang, peppermint angel, and Blonde Naso because i would love that.

 

[Stoney]

Not sure if this is off topic, but I think breeding dwarf versions of everything would be a game changer. Imagine tangs that only grow to 2-3" and can live comfortably in a nano tank. Would completely solve any of the ethical dilemmas.

 

[FSP]

"Dwarf" versions of freshwater fish are usually: a different species, carrying a spine defect, severely inbred or stunted. There are are many dilemmas with those fish, minus the different species, but they do have their fans.

 

[hart24601]

“Within 50 years fish breeding will be unnecessary because fish will be genetically reproduced.”​

Not sure what this means, breeding is genetic reproduction. Coral fragging would be an example of non genetic reproduction which technically probably isn’t reproduction but for our discussion it’s close enough.

there has been so many advances in marine fish breeding I think it will only increase in the next 10 years and am excited to see what is possible and what the hobby will support. It’s a tough balance as the demand for the species and price have to be economically viable for the breeder to develop.

realistically I doubt wild fish prices will decline or collection areas expand so while wild collected will remain viable a long time (as it should if done sustainably) captive will take a larger share of the market.

Where is is already a game changer is hard to feed wild fish like mandrians and multi barred angels for example. Having them raised on pellets or other frozen is a huge boon. Sure many convert mandrians to frozen, but many, many more fail and they starve.

part of the breeding breakthroughs are finding and developing food that supports the fish, like coral feeders or sponge feeding fish. How cool would it be to have CB moorish idols that eat pellets that keep them healthy or orange spotted filefish that likewise are raised with pellets that contain all they need?

I think it will get there and will be fantastic

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Not sure if this is off topic, but I think breeding dwarf versions of everything would be a game changer. Imagine tangs that only grow to 2-3" and can live comfortably in a nano tank. Would completely solve any of the ethical dilemmas.

If done properly (avoiding the inbreeding and defects mentioned in another post) I agree that would be a major game changer, as - in addition to expanding the possible sales reach for people in the hobby who have smaller tanks - it would open up the hobby to a much wider potential audience (lots of people get into the hobby initially because of specific big fish that they can't afford a big tank for or that they don't have the space for a proper tank for). So, dwarf forms could actually be a big financial boon to the aquaculture industry if they could produce the dwarf forms fast enough while still maintaining good health (this is not an easy thing to do with most animals as I understand it, and that's a large part of why so many dwarf varieties of things have health concerns/genetic defects - breeding for dwarf-sized healthy specimens could take decades).

Personally, I would love to see some healthy dwarf specimens available in the hobby (particularly of the bigger fish like large angels, tangs, triggers, groupers, etc. - dwarf sharks and rays, while unrealistic for most species either because of their initial size or how long it takes to breed them, would probably make a lot of people's dreams come true), but I agree that making sure they are healthy despite their size is a big concern.

More on topic, however, I'd guess that the industry will see major advancements over the coming 5-10 years, and that the industry will have aquacultured most common species within the next 25 years - but, I don't know that they'll be producing all of them with any sort of regularity unless the harvest of wild specimens is greatly restricted/eliminated just due to the costs of aquaculture (it's usually a really bad financial decision to try and aquaculture cheap fish, as the costs of rearing one may well excess the costs of just buying a wild one - and not many people would be willing to drop $50 on an aquacultured fish that they could get for $10 wild caught).

 

[Jwise]

“Within 50 years fish breeding will be unnecessary because fish will be genetically reproduced.”​

Not sure what this means, breeding is genetic reproduction. Coral fragging would be an example of non genetic reproduction which technically probably isn’t reproduction but for our discussion it’s close enough.

there has been so many advances in marine fish breeding I think it will only increase in the next 10 years and am excited to see what is possible and what the hobby will support. It’s a tough balance as the demand for the species and price have to be economically viable for the breeder to develop.

They need to figure out a way to breed these fish for cheeper and/or to have more cb fry that hatch and survive so that they can flood the market with tons of Cb baby fish so cost can come down.

 

[Grootzilla]

I am very excited for the future of captive breeding.

Right now it seems like the biggest thing stopping a lot of people from getting 100% behind captive bred is pricing and availability which are very fair criticisms of it. Captive breeding is still basically in its infancy right now; in 10 years who knows how many more species the industry will have figured out how to breed.

 

[Stoney]

"Dwarf" versions of freshwater fish are usually: a different species, carrying a spine defect, severely inbred or stunted. There are are many dilemmas with those fish, minus the different species, but they do have their fans.

Doesn't have to be that way. As far as I'm aware that's a reflection of the economics, not the biology. No idea how long it would take but given enough time/money it could be done right. Would love to get ORA or biota's opinion on how practical it would be.

 

[hart24601]

They need to figure out a way to breed these fish for cheeper and/or to have more cb fry that hatch and survive so that they can flood the market with tons of Cb baby fish so cost can come down.

I agree with that but I think that particular answer is trying to say something like cloning instead of breeding but isn’t phrased correctly for that.

 

[Borat]

My prediction -- Within 10 years, environmentalists will have shut down the wild caught industry and made import of wild fish illegal in the US.

Then Kazakistan steps in - and starts a MASSIVE import of land-based fish into US&A...

 

[Jwise]

I agree with that but I think that particular answer is trying to say something like cloning instead of breeding but isn’t phrased correctly for that.

I could see where your going with that its actually crazy to think that people don't talk about cloning fish because its entirely possible to do and depending on how expensive it is to breed fish it may even be cheaper. You also wouldn't have to be guessing if a method works or not for difficult fish because you can bypass how hard it is to breed some species just by cloning.

 

[FSP]

Doesn't have to be that way. As far as I'm aware that's a reflection of the economics, not the biology. No idea how long it would take but given enough time/money it could be done right. Would love to get ORA or biota's opinion on how practical it would be.

It's fairly straightforward in some fish like poeciliids with short generation times and early maturation (small) genes in some males.

Given enough time, sure, but I think that is a looong time for fish like tangs.

 

[KrisReef]

My prediction -- Within 10 years, environmentalists will have shut down the wild caught industry and made import of wild fish illegal in the US.

Which is illegal first; fish keeping or Christmas?

Cloning as a step in mariculture processes might work but cloning live fish gets you old copies that have a much shorter lifespan.

I saw an advertisement for a green mystery meat (artificial product) hamburger.
I’m terrified that they will come up with artificial sushi and ban the real thing.

 

[hart24601]

Which is illegal first; fish keeping or Christmas?

Cloning as a step in mariculture processes might work but cloning live fish gets you old copies that have a much shorter lifespan.

I saw an advertisement for a green mystery meat (artificial product) hamburger.
I’m terrified that they will come up with artificial sushi and ban the real thing.

My bet is fishkeeping since about half the USA population is conservative give or take so no way Christmas will be outlawed except talking about it to get people angry but fishkeeping doesn’t have a lot of money behind it relatively speaking.