Reef Culture Technologies recently announced the successful rearing of several species of marine fish which were not spawned in aquaria, but whose eggs were collected from the Ocean. Since RCT is based in Hawaii they have good access to lots of pelagic plankton and oceanic eggs. With the right size collection nets Frank Baensch & Co. were able to dabble in raising some unusual species, without having to make space for large broodstock pairs of groupers, boxfish, porcupine puffers and the like. Most of the species recently reared by RCT have been bred and raised in captivity before but this marine fish rearing effort was mostly for the sake of research and experience – not to mention it yielded a treasure trove of the cutest baby reef fish pictures ever.
The news of Reef Culture Technologies rearing these new species from wild harvested eggs comes after a busy year of progress from RCT, raising popular aquarium fish species such as the crosshatch triggerfish, African flameback angelfish, Caribbean pygmy angelfish and the first ever cross of Centropyge argi and Centropyge resplendens called the Resplendent Cherubfish.
This latest crop of captive reared boxfish, cowfish, dragonets, groupers and snappers will not necessarily become available to any aquarists, at least not in any commercial numbers, but it will serve to help RCT refine techniques to breed related reef fish species that could be good candidates for captive breeding. If a pair of Meyer’s bigeyes or West Australian dragonets or Neptune Groupers ever became available and ended up at RCT, it’s nice to know that they already have the chops to raise the larvae following a successful spawning. [RCT Hawaii]
