by AquaNerd | Feb 10, 2014 | Aquaculture, Corals, Fish, Industry
It would seem that the recent musings of Scott Fellman, longtime figurehead in the marine aquarium hobby and co-owner of Unique Corals, on captive bred fish have really struck a nerve. In a recent posting on his company’s Reef2Reef forum page, Scott shared a little of his frustrations about the virtual disappearance of captive-bred mandarin dragonets from Oceans Reefs and Aquariums (ORA). In a nutshell, he was told by an ORA rep that the dragonet breeding program had essentially been shelved due to the lack of support from aquarium hobbyists. This was due to the fact that wild-caught mandarins were far too cheap for the captive-bred variety to compete with. With regards to this news, Scott went on to say “that sucks”, and offered up a thorough virtual “spanking” of the aquarium hobby as a whole…and we completely agree with Scott one billion percent! To clarify, this is not in any way a reflection on ORA or any other organizations or individuals that breed marine ornamental species or support captive breeding efforts. Instead, this is a look at why aquarium keepers still continue to purchase low-quality wild-caught livestock. Scott’s article highlights the big reason why captive-bred fish still see so many hurdles…and it’s purely financial. After all of the initial excitement wore off, hobbyists by and large avoided buying them because they were $40 or more per fish. by AquaNerd | Feb 6, 2014 | Fish, Opinion, Science, Tanks
Yesterday, we broke news on the amazing aberrant moorish idol that popped up in the holding tanks of Segrest Farms. Unfortunately, the images in that post were not the best quality, but Segrest delivered the goods today with a fresh batch of high res photos showing the amazing moorish idol in all its splendor. They just uploaded them to their Facebook page moments ago, and the images confirm, at least in our humble opinions, that the fish is a moorish idol and not the proposed hybrid that many folks were chattering about on social media sites. That said, this is the most unique moorish idol we’ve ever laid eyes on. This aberrant form has significant yellow markings all over its body, with only slight hints of the black bars that are normally seen. It’s such an amazing fish and we’re grateful to Segrest Farms for keeping us in the loop in a big way. Continue below for a rather impressive gallery.
<!CDATA]> by AquaNerd | Jan 27, 2014 | Conservation, Science
Captive-bred yellow tangs (Zebrasoma flavescens) may be coming to an aquarium near you. That’s the reality thanks to the efforts of the Oceanic Institute of Hawai‘i Pacific University (OI-PHU), who announced Friday that their groundbreaking research to breed yellow tangs has gotten a much needed infusion of cash…$75,000 to be exact. The funding comes from multiple sources, with the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation and the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority making up the bulk of that with their $35,000 donation. The Sea World/Busch Gardens Conservation Fund contributed $8,000 and the Oceanic Institute provided $32,000 worth of in-kind support. It is said that the funding will support a year long project which has the goal to bring the current level of yellow tang breeding up to the point that the research team can have its first ever captive rearing of the species. As part of the announcement, the OI-HPU also highlighted the fact that research scientist Chatham K. Callan, Ph.D., has lead the way with yellow tang breakthroughs when he discovered “breeding techniques that allow them to culture viable eggs in significant quantities and successfully rear the resulting larvae through their critical first few weeks of life.” As part of this joyous announcement, Callan will be speaking to the Science Pub-Hawai‘i tomorrow, January 27th. If you would like to read more about this ambitious work, be sure to visit: “OI-HPU yellow tang research gets boost from multiple funders” Story via MARSHReef by AquaNerd | Jan 27, 2014 | Corals, Science
We have seen plenty of orange and yellow Euphyllid corals in our time, whether it’s the gold torch corals or the yellow hammers, but more often than not, those that are being labeled as with these colors are really nothing more than an unimpressive, brown looking corals. Thankfully, a coral like this one comes along every once in a while a restores our faith in the coral labeling process. Pacific East Aquaculture posted several images of their newest imports on Reef2Reef, and among them was this deep orange hammer. Truly a unique coral, this hammer doesn’t just have highlights of orange or yellow on the tips of its tentacles, which is usually the case. Instead, this orange beauty has a deep, rich, and complete color that starts in the deepest part of the coral head and permeates every square inch of tissue. It is one of the few corals that truly earns its name. by AquaNerd | Jan 7, 2014 | Corals, Science, Tanks
Because it’s a cold and dreary Friday (at least around here) and it seems like we haven’t posted about any corals lately, we present you with the Creeper Monti, a new offering from The Candy Shop. This encrusting montipora coral is beyond bright, sporting a neon pink base that is broken up with small patches of green and even some shdes of purple. And it doesn’t appear to be the green fluorescing protein (GFP) that infects various corals only to eventually go away completely. Instead, it might be the result of grafting two colors variants of the same species into one individual, a popular practice that also results in the coral reverting back to a single color in most situations. Regardless of whether this is the case or not, that pink is just too eye-catching to pass up, especially when our tanks are usually dominated with blues and greens. There are tons of variations of monti corals on the market, and this one will surely catch your eye.
