Dr. Matthew L. Wittenrich is moving on from University of Florida

Dr. Matthew L. Wittenrich is moving on.  After spending nearly 2 years with us at the Tropical Aquaculture Laboratory, Matt, his wife Sarah, and their two children are moving back to the East coast of Florida.  While here, Matt was instrumental in developing culture methods for several new species of fish, designed and managed this blog site, and assisted us in building the infrastructure and team we have for marine ornamental work.  We will miss our daily interactions with him, but hope we can continue to pick his brain once he settles in. We know he will go far, and we’re glad to have had the time with him here.  If you would like to contact Matt, send him an email at [email protected] The Rising Tide Conservation Team

Milletseed Butterflyfish update

Working with Milletseed Butterfly’s (Chaetodon miliaris) has presented some unique challenges. After experiencing some issues during shipping and quarantine, we made some changes, and have a batch of 23 healthy, vibrant fish from Disney’s Rainbow reef, in Hawaii. The fish are eating very well and spawned twice during quarantine. However, due to the chemicals in the water during quarantine, the eggs were not viable. This gives us hope that we will soon have viable eggs to start working with since the fish are out of quarantine and the water free from chemicals. Eggs are approximately 710 microns in diameter, with a central oil globule. Fertilized eggs will float on the waters surface and are skimmed off the surface with egg collectors in the tank. Non viable eggs of milletseed butterfly's collected in the quarantine tank.We canulated the broodstock in an effort to determine what sex ratio and stage of maturity was present in our population. The results were quite shocking. Out of 19 fish that were cannulated only 1 was male. Shouldn’t he be in heaven! Having already spawned we do not think that this will be a major issue, however it may limit fecundity of the group. Our goal is to gather several more males and introduce them to the population. Oocyte samples taken by canulation of female milletseed butterfly's. Left shows primary growth oocyts. Right shows mature oocytes.Jon-Michael DegidioTropical Aquaculture LaboratoryUniversity of Florida