Which fish are captive bred?

Afrashz

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So which fish are captive bred? Can all fish be captive bred? Why aren’t more fish captive bred?

I would like to get strictly captive bred fish. Can any fish be captive bred or is there reasons why it’s mostly clowns, cardinals, other damsels and the occasional yellow tang. Am I just looking in the wrong places? I’m talking powder blues, purple tangs, angels, wrasses, etc.
 

Obsessed Reefer

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My assumption is difficulty of getting fish to breed in captivity is what limits it. I’m sure it also takes a lot of monetary input to try and get a new breed captive bred, vs. just keeping the current breeds going. @Biota_Marine has a few other options available.
 

JoshH

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Probably the two largest captive breeders out there right now....


Both of these Aquaculture facilities work tirelessly to breed new fish in there tanks. It can be a long and expensive process to successfully breed a new type of fish which does limit there abilities a bit. Also some fish just won't breed in an aquarium and there's not much that can be done about that unfortunately..
 

JPM San Diego

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I don't believe getting fish to spawn in captivity is the main issue. Marine species often disperse very tiny eggs which undergo a very long larval phase. Mimicking the open ocean planktonic environment and providing the right planktonic food is very difficult. There is a reason clownfish are mass produced in captivity. They are demersal spawners - laying their relatively large eggs on the substrate. Their larval phase is shorter and the babies can eat larger food items right away. (still really small stuff)
 

Jib

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There is a thread from Biota recently where they ask what fish we’d be interested in. They noted a few reasons fish aren’t captive bred. One of the ones that was challenging was some fish only breed seasonally. Find the thread. It’s a good read and with provide answers to all of your questions.
 

Biokabe

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Yeah, saltwater fish breeding is a completely different beast when compared to freshwater fish. It can't be stated enough how alien the ocean really is to most of us land-dwelling creatures. The larval stages of many ocean-going fish are not really conducive to captive breeding. Not that it's impossible to replicate, but there comes a point of diminishing return where your resources would be better spent protecting wild populations than attempting to breed them in captivity. Take moray eels, for example. Their larval stage is simply wild. It lasts for almost a year, in some cases, and larval eels are basically unrecognizable. They look like swimming sheets of cellophane, when you can see them at all.
 

Biota_Marine

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Hey Y'all thank you for the tag.

The incredibly vast amount of species available in the trade are not captive-bred. I would suggest well over 95%+ of fish in the marine aquarium trade are wild-caught. There's a list from Coral Magazine that details a ton of the successes but you'll notice most of these are not available (https://www.reef2rainforest.com/cor...d-marine-aquarium-fish-list-project-homepage/)

There's also been an increased usage in our industry of terms like captive-raised or tank-raised vs captive-bred. I find this to be extremely misleading because it's basically wild collecting fish of all ages and growing them in tanks for an indeterminant amount of time and suggesting it's the same as years of research and months of sensitive larval grow-out.

The species that are successfully bred are in the middle of this Venn diagram where cost, availability, spawning knowledge, larval duration, hobby need, and luck all combine. But is increasing everyday. We recently shared a new success with red toothed triggerfish yesterday so anything is possible as we continue to research and learn.
 

Biota_Marine

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Hey Y'all thank you for the tag.

The incredibly vast amount of species available in the trade are not captive-bred. I would suggest well over 95%+ of fish in the marine aquarium trade are wild-caught. There's a list from Coral Magazine that details a ton of the successes but you'll notice most of these are not available (https://www.reef2rainforest.com/cor...d-marine-aquarium-fish-list-project-homepage/)

There's also been an increased usage in our industry of terms like captive-raised or tank-raised vs captive-bred. I find this to be extremely misleading because it's basically wild collecting fish of all ages and growing them in tanks for an indeterminant amount of time and suggesting it's the same as years of research and months of sensitive larval grow-out.

The species that are successfully bred are in the middle of this Venn diagram where cost, availability, spawning knowledge, larval duration, hobby need, and luck all combine. But is increasing everyday. We recently shared a new success with red toothed triggerfish yesterday so anything is possible as we continue to research and learn.
I also want to add we're very transparent on the few species in which we utilize wild collected eggs from our collection areas. These are species like our clown triggers where we can regularly visit nests to collect eggs where spawning in captivity isn't really conducive. There are also spawning events that Tom takes advantage of for fish that cannot spawn in captivity due to giant spawning events or aggregates which he calls the Bowling Method (we do this for Blue lined Sea Bream for public aquariums). But in both cases we're hatching an egg in captivity so it is a bit of a grey area between captive-bred and captive-raised.
 

shred5

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Hey Y'all thank you for the tag.

The incredibly vast amount of species available in the trade are not captive-bred. I would suggest well over 95%+ of fish in the marine aquarium trade are wild-caught. There's a list from Coral Magazine that details a ton of the successes but you'll notice most of these are not available (https://www.reef2rainforest.com/cor...d-marine-aquarium-fish-list-project-homepage/)

There's also been an increased usage in our industry of terms like captive-raised or tank-raised vs captive-bred. I find this to be extremely misleading because it's basically wild collecting fish of all ages and growing them in tanks for an indeterminant amount of time and suggesting it's the same as years of research and months of sensitive larval grow-out.

The species that are successfully bred are in the middle of this Venn diagram where cost, availability, spawning knowledge, larval duration, hobby need, and luck all combine. But is increasing everyday. We recently shared a new success with red toothed triggerfish yesterday so anything is possible as we continue to research and learn.


Hey Jake. I used to breed Fish for a while and am thinking of it again and maybe inverts. Food is the hardest thing for us land locked people. Now with a wider range of copepods available we can raise a few more of the sensitive varieties.

I have read pretty much what is available on breeding saltwater well as much as I can. Martin Moe breeding the orchid dottyback which is a older book and Martin was partly successful because he could collect food from the ocean.
You guys are in Palau and now in Hawaii now correct? Are you raising your own food or collecting it?
 

Biota_Marine

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Hey Jake. I used to breed Fish for a while and am thinking of it again and maybe inverts. Food is the hardest thing for us land locked people. Now with a wider range of copepods available we can raise a few more of the sensitive varieties.

I have read pretty much what is available on breeding saltwater well as much as I can. Martin Moe breeding the orchid dottyback which is a older book and Martin was partly successful because he could collect food from the ocean.
You guys are in Palau and now in Hawaii now correct? Are you raising your own food or collecting it?
Hey Shred5, we're in Palau, Hawaii, North Carolina, and Florida right now. We create all of our own live feeds at our breeding facilities. Reed Mariculture/Reef Nutrition has been integral in a ton of our live feed production. It is a bit harder to get clean live feeds out in Palau but the staff there is amazing at identifying, secluding, and producing what they're available to collect.
 

shred5

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It is a bit harder to get clean live feeds out in Palau but the staff there is amazing at identifying, secluding, and producing what they're available to collect.

Does this mean you are collecting some of it from the ocean?

I saw something once that the Ocean around Palau is loaded with copepods because of all the green water. Produced by the high populations of bats and nutrients from their droppings end up in the ocean providing massive nutrients for green water. Runs right through the limestone and all the caves.
 

Biota_Marine

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Does this mean you are collecting some of it from the ocean?

I saw something once that the Ocean around Palau is loaded with copepods because of all the green water. Produced by the high populations of bats and nutrients from their droppings end up in the ocean providing massive nutrients for green water. Runs right through the limestone and all the caves.
It's initial collection to move into production. Getting sterile starter cultures out to Palau is difficult so they have to make their own from what's available in the Palauan waters.
 

shred5

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It's initial collection to move into production. Getting sterile starter cultures out to Palau is difficult so they have to make their own from what's available in the Palauan waters.

It is great there are places like you guys doing what you do..
 

CanuckReefer

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I have heard of luck recently with Coral Beauties, which is nice to hear, still it is mostly corals it seems, and a few inverts. Ocean much different animal than freshwater as another poster mentioned. I'd love to have mine 100% captive bred and actively look for it, but not there yet...
 

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I purchased a Coral Beauty from @Biota_Marine and it is an amazing fish. Love the fact that they give back to the ocean and the high standards they hold for their livestock. Although I don’t have a ton of livestock in my tank and have only been in the hobby for a year or so I have to say the CB I got from them was the healthiest fish I have purchased so far and acclimated to the tank like a champ. Can’t wait to add another species from the Biota collection.
 

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