[youtube width=”640″ height=”385″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZEGItO4zZU[/youtube]
We cannot get enough of these new releases from ORA. This amazing video, shared by Dustin Dorton of ORA, provides a rare glimpse into ORA’s culture setup.
The video demonstrates the feeding response of captive bred Synchiropus picturatus to Nutramar Ova, although as Dorton reported in an earlier Reefbuilders Comment thread, “Ova is by far their favorite, followed by bloodworms then daphnia. If you gave them the opportunity they would eat artemia until they exploded. They also eat small pellet foods. Each fish is individual and its likely that they will prefer to eat some of the foods listed more than others, we can’t say that every single one eats each type of food, we have many thousands of these guys and they are in big group tanks. Remember, these fish have been eating ONLY the foods that we listed since March. The biggest and most robust 10% were pulled out for sale in July.”
As these fish continue to get released in the coming days/weeks/months, again, vote with your wallets to take some pressure off wild populations and support the ongoing development of new species in captive culture. Companies like ORA can only continue to bring innovative additions to the marketplace when you support them through your purchases.
To paraphrase one local club member who worked with wild caught mandarins, the “investment of time and money, combined with the losses incurred, to obtain 3 wild mandarins eating prepared foods far exceeds the highest retail prices being asked for ORA’s Mandarins”. In other words, buying the “cheap fish” may end up costing you a lot more in the long run!
And yes, THEY DO eat prepared foods!
