The Ruby Red Dragonet is one of the newcomers to the aquarium world and yet, ORA has already managed to successfully breed this species. Building on their previous success with other species of dragonets and scooter blennies, Oceans Reefs & Aquariums has already reared a handful of captive bred Ruby Red Dragonets.
Despite being completely unknown and undescribed just a few short years ago, this species of dragonet managed to win over many aquarists around the world with its beautiful crimson body color and bright yellow fins. It sure didn’t hurt that the supply for the Ruby Red dragonet went from a handful of specimens per month, to hundreds per week and in the blink of an eye this fish went from uber rare to a global distribution in marine aquariums.
ORA has already raised about a dozen specimens of ruby red dragonets from their first fertilized spawn with females that were successfully matured at one inch long or less. The ruby red dragonet produces smaller spawns with a lower fertility rate than either Synchiropus ocellatus or S. stellatus.
The larvae of the ruby red dragonet are smaller and slower to develop than either the red or brown scooter
‘blennies’ and they undergo metamorphosis at around 20 to 25 days. Despite some of these captive breeding shortcomings, ORA is optimistic they can increase the production to something more commercially acceptable.
The first captive bred clutch of ruby red dragonets are still just a tad over 35 days at this point and just beginning to show their namesake red coloration. ORA is now in the process of training the captive bred ruby red dragonets to eat pellet food so we have great hope that this species will one day become regularly available from ORA’s catalog of captive bred fish.
