The best of aquacultured fish

saltwaterjunkie12 · Mar 4, 2024

Aqua cultured fish are becoming more and more prominent nowadays. It started with clownfish and gobies and has made it to angels, tangs, and some wrasses, and I’m sure a few species I’m not even aware of. I have read several posts about regal angle babies not lasting long. I would like to hear great stories of getting their dream fish and how it’s going; and with pictures of course.

Reefing Madness · Mar 10, 2024

esquare · Mar 10, 2024

It's tough to get pics of this guy as he is very shy but this is my captive bred Marine Betta/Comet from Biota.

saltwaterjunkie12 · Mar 10, 2024

That's very cool. It's nice to see that fish in the hobby more. A very underrated fish! Beautiful specimen.

Mr Fishface · Mar 10, 2024

I currently have a captive bred buans sand goby, wonderful fish. I had a captive bred yellow and a hippo tang but I no longer have those two. Biota is great to order with IMO.

esquare · Mar 10, 2024

saltwaterjunkie12 said:
That's very cool. It's nice to see that fish in the hobby more. A very underrated fish! Beautiful specimen.

Thank you, I really like him and hope he comes out more as he settles in.

areefer01 · Mar 10, 2024

saltwaterjunkie12 said:
Aqua cultured fish are becoming more and more prominent nowadays. It started with clownfish and gobies and has made it to angels, tangs, and some wrasses, and I’m sure a few species I’m not even aware of. I have read several posts about regal angle babies not lasting long. I would like to hear great stories of getting their dream fish and how it’s going; and with pictures of course.

One of the biggest hurdles aquaculture businesses need to overcome is the ignorant hobbyist. I dislike being blunt but most of us have no idea what it takes to bring a captive bred or raised fish to market. Conception to reliable shipping to a hobbyist doorstep. Crazy when you think about it. Also with regards to Regal's not lasting long probably a mind story. Multibar's I have read a few and I'm sure there are a few Regal stories or others but none of us have numbers. My point it is hard to quantify yet gets spread around which before we know it it becomes truth or the norm.

Edit: Comment above was regarding one of the main complaints about monopoly and/or price.

With regards to stories mine would be the Milletseed Butterflyfish (Chaetodon miliaris). Endemic to the Hawaiian Islands now so captive bred/raised is our only option. So this makes them rare. Not as catch of a butterfly as others but due to the Hawaiian ban in place we won't see them as much. Having said that I'm partial to them for many reasons one of which is seeing them in their natural environments while scuba diving. Second reason is I'm a Biota fan. I have Pink Squares, Links Goby, Gold Lined Rabbit Fish, and a bunch of other fish that they produce and everyone is fun to watch mature from a baby.

Small video: Both it and the Copperband are picking over the macro algae that I feed the rabbitfish and tang for worms or aiptasia. The milletseed also eats that oddly enough.

Hopefully it is ok to link to a external site for a paper on the Milletseed. Rising Tide Conservation has a view papers on the Milletseed documenting their work on raising them. It is pretty interesting to read.