Rearing Marine Fish

[Guest Larry-T]

I'm seriously considering getting into rearing marine fish and/or Lysmata shrimp. Has anyone here had any experience with those areas? I've been reading up on the subject and currently see four possible venues:

 

1. Clownfish. Dr. Mac is offering compatible pairs of tank-raised clowns at a fairly reasonable price. There's more literature (I have Frank Hoff's book) on rearing clownfish than any other marine fish.

 

2. Dottybacks. Recent literature on the Orchid Dottyback and similar fish provides excellent information on this family. The downsides to dottybacks as opposed to clownfish are that they are territorial and intolerant tolerant of their own species. This adds another level of difficulty in rearing and maintaining them. The second downside is that they are more expensive and likely to kill each other than clowns.

 

3. Neon gobies. This was the first captive-raised marine fish. It's on the small size, but still a nice, small community fish for the marine aquarium.

 

4. Lysmata shrimp. Peppermint shrimp have almost as much literature devoted to their rearing as clownfish. There are also prepared foods available for all of the stages of larval development. Fire shrimp and similar species are also good candidates for culture.

 

 

I'm a firm believer in captive culture of most aquarium stock - freshwater and marine. That's always been my primary activity in the hobby.

 

 

<<** Larry **>>

[HowardofNOVA]

Larry,

Being in sales for the last give or take 30 years, you need to look at your return in investment of what your looking to do.

#1 Will people BUY WHAT I'm Selling?

#2 Competition

#3 Profitable

#4 Start up capital?

 

Dottybacks to me is an item that I personally are not much interested in, but the Territorial Aspect makes this species a high end cost, with more tanks needed, vs. Peppermint or Fire Shrimp, where alot can be in one tank at a time. Thus lower capital cost vs investment.

 

Fire Shrimp is a high priced item vs. Peppermints which to me would be a good way to go if you can get them to multiply in numbers...IMO... A good start here?

 

Maria I know in Great Falls has been raising clowns, though I don't believe they are Perculas.

 

You might look at others that folks are JUST starting to get to reproduce or not as widely know to reproduce for the NOVELTY end of things?

 

Just food for thought.

Howard

[Guest Larry-T]

Larry,

Being in sales for the last give or take 30 years, you need to look at your return in investment of what your looking to do.

#1 Will people BUY WHAT I'm Selling?

#2 Competition

#3 Profitable

#4 Start up capital?

 

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I was avoiding the business aspects at this time, because I didn't want to mix that up with asking for personal experiences. Besides, I've presented a lot of business planning workshops, including one at the International Recirculating Aquaculture Conference. But let me address your points in order:

 

#1 There is a great demand for marine fish an inverts. The lower the cost and the more easily kept, the more you can sell. Clownfish and Neon Gobies beat out dottybacks while Peppermint shrimp beat out, say, fire shrimp, but if one could lower the cost of fire shrimp to be competitive with peppermint shrimp, you could destroy the market for peppermint shrimp. All in all, clownfish are probably the winner in this area.

 

#2 Right now, and for the next decade or so, my analysis is that the demand for cultured fish and inverts will exceed demand. As long as the price is somewhat competitive, the competition is not much of a problem.

 

#3 It depends on whether you want to start it up as a business or as a hobby. In my case, I am operating as a hobby for the next few years. I may convert to a business if I decide to put more into it. I have been in the business before (my last pet shop was in the 1970's) and done quite well. I'm looking at aquaculture more as a home-based business in ten years or so for retirement income.

 

#4 Not a problem. I have a fishroom with lots of tanks and centralized air. Converting some of the tanks for clownfish culture would not be difficult.

[fishface]

Hi Larry:

 

I have a had a Reef tank for about 15 months and consider myself new in the field. I'm also exploring the idea of breeding fish or inverts, but have not yet started.

 

I selected Gold Bar Maroon Clowns for breeding because they are a fish that I like - and needed to remove from my display tank. Unfortunately they may take quite a while to get settled in a tank and get down to business. While that happens, I'm exploring other options. It was recommended that I speak to Maria about clownfish, and did so briefly at a meeting a few months back. She had bred various Clownfish and just confirmed some points in the Wilkerson book for me and I found it very helpful.

 

I probably have read the same articles that you have showing that aquaculture has a lot of room to grow before it can replace wild collection, but I believe that certain battles can be won, and pressure taken off various fish. That, and to a lesser extent the business aspects or my primary motivations. I recently read about concern that Bangii Cardinals are being overharvested as well.

 

Whether it's Clownfish or other species, I see the most limiting factor is feeding fry on a large scale, and maintaining water quality during this early period.

 

I'm just starting to experiment with culturing food so that I can ultimately feed the larvae. Otherwise, watching eggs hatch would be pointless for me. I'd like to hear how things are coming along.

 

FF

[Guest Larry-T]

For those who are looking at large-scale rotifer production, talk to the folks at Aquatic Eco-Systems at MACNA. I'm planning on using DT's Phytoplankton for rotifer enrichment, because Martin Moe suggested certain algae species, and two of the three species in DT's are in the genera he recommended.

[xeon]

Larry,

FWIW I would think using DT's to feed your rotifer cultures would be a bit on the expensive side. You might explore culturing phyto at the same time to sustain your rotifers.

[Guest HVF21221]

Use Instant Algae. It may seem expensive but it is not in the long run. DT's is "watered down". Raising your own takes alot of time and you still need to buy salt. Trust me, if you start raising fish your time will be very precious, It takes alot.

Howard

[Guest Larry-T]

I've seen the instant algae. I think I'll stick with a product I know. I'm not going to using a large enough quantity to watch every penny.

 

 

 

 

 

Use Instant Algae. It may seem expensive but it is not in the long run. DT's is "watered down". Raising your own takes alot of time and you still need to buy salt. Trust me, if you start raising fish your time will be very precious, It takes alot.

Howard

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[Jon Lazar]

I'm fascinated with the idea of raising neon gobies and golden neon gobies. I'd love to have a couple in my tank, a couple in the sump, a couple in the refugium, etc. They're just a very cool fish, and fairly expensive when you can find them. I think I could sell enough of them locally now and then to other reefers to cover my expenses and keep myself in stock.