3 Local Fish Stores and their fish today.

[Instar]

I visited 3 local fish stores (LFS), the ones that are supposed to be the better ones. 2 in San Antonio yesterday and one outside the city today. I saw quite a few gold stripped maroons; all but one is headed for the morgue. Saw a really ugly percula clown with head to toe black worm disease that they were getting ready to sell, a purple tang with HLE (hole in the head disease) and a Koran Angel, a little one, with the top of its head so pinched that I can tell its not long for this world. All were for sale and they were bagging some of them. The fish over all - If people have trouble with marine fish, its because there are so few healthy ones. I saw emaciated tangs and underfed fish. If you buy anywhere around here, you need to know your marine biology/icthyology. Be very cautious and by all means, use a quarentine tank.

[matt]

I think this sort of thing reinforces my conviction that ultimately, our hobby MUST move to primarily captive breeding/rearing of reef fishes. Ray, aka Triggerman, is a responsible fish merchant who has expressed a strong interest at developing a captive breeding set up right here in San Antonio. For this reason, I suggest that we encourage him in this direction!

Inland aquatics, in Indiana, has succeeded in captive raising regal (hippo) tangs. These are particularly popular fish with particularly bad survival rates when taken from the ocean.

[Instar]

Perhaps Ray and I should get together then. I have been doing shrimp, seahorses and gold stripped maroon clowns, not to mention a few corals to learn what the real problems are as well as what it takes to breed and rear a few of them. I've done neon gobies and dominos in the past. That was tons of fun. The dominos turn a powder blue when its time to spawn and they are about 5 inches around. I have a pair of six lined wrasses in my reef now. The courtship display of the male is so incredible. You've never seen colors like that! It is a full open water display through the middle of the reef. Handling fish like they get handled here is illegal in some states now. Its a matter of time til this comes to a halt. The department of the interior has been working on putting an end to the marine fish import dealers in the states for some time. We should do whatever we can to make certification requirements and licenses mandatory. It would be sad to see it end, and great to see them stop killing so many fish and corals. Its not really all that hard to do it right either. I've caught them, put them in a tank and transported them across the country. Never had a problem like these guys do when doing it myself. But then I don't drop them, spill the lot across the deck, slam them, starve em, put them in some crappy water and blast with lights, then over medicate and starve some more. Its not that I always get it right, but, there has to be a better way than what is going on here.

[Triggerman]

i would have to agree with matt on this one the long term vision and success of the hobby should lead to captive breeding and rearing programs of a good percentage of the species available today. slowy but surely it's getting there with the knowledge of todays public aquariums and research. as everyone already knows clowns & dottybacks are readily bred commericial and at all times possible should be bought rather then cheaper wild caught ones. pygmy angels in the next few yrs. are on the right path because flame angels are already available CB. we as a group just need to continue to educate alot of the newcomers to the hobby because majority of them really don't know the difference between CB or wild caught much less a sick fish from a healthy fish. as instar said it helps to know your marine biology which also can be a little overwhelming to newcomers. there are so many factors that affect the overall health of a fish from the region and method a fish was captured, wholesale facilities, shipping, and finally the LFS. Too many people assume cheaper is better and in this hobby especially when it comes to fish it usually means drug caught fish which are doomed, bad wholesale practices, and poor water quality at the LFS. i'd much rather pay alittle more for a speciemen that i know where it came from, that is from a reputable company, and quarantined properly. alright i'll get off my soap box.

ray

[Instar]

There are a lot of things being captive bred around the world today. From panther groupers to snails, shrimp to all kinds of angels. Add to this the game fish - speckled trout, there are many that can be captive bred. Then again, there are the clams too. They are all farmed. Locally, clowns, blood red shrimp, seahorses and peppermint shrimp have been reared. There was a coral farm, but, they stopped doing it. I think the locally bred stuff in more extensive than that, but, I don't have the complete list.

[Triggerman]

i was thinking more on the commercial level and what people can get readily and what LFS should be stocking regularly. it's true on the local level though there is more and more success happening everyday like yourself. sounds like you've had some pretty good success with a few things, just curious on what sp. of shrimp. i've had banded corals; skunk cleaners carrying eggs but never messed with trying to raise them. i've always been very interested in trying my hand at breeding and propagating different things. i've had pretty good luck with dward seahorses and the yellow florida sp. (forgot the species name) and going to try my hand at some clowns, and it's pretty easy now to become a gardener in your own reef tank and do some trading for new things.

ray

[Instar]

I've done the peppermint, Lysmata Wurdmani. They are so cool. I really need a camera to photograph things like that. The most colorful larval stages you can imagine. Looks like a little kid colored them. I had a couple rounds with the skunk cleaners too. They are both lysmata. someone should tell the shrimp that. The difference is night and day. Only got the cleaners to about a week old, more or less. They would take really extensive culture lab setups. There is a beachfront hatchery in Hawaii trying to do the skunk cleaners. Don't know that they have been successful yet. Some, like the banded coral shrimp and cleaners have very long larval cycles. I really think I could do it but need a set of buildings out back for it. I did grass shrimp when I was a kid. That was fun. I only got a few grown up, but, that was something back then. I did the black brazilians. Had 680 babies at a time! And the Brazilian golds. I got them from someone after seaworld turned them down because they are too hard. I have one female in my 125 reef. She eats frozens foods, what else? And most of the time can negotiate the incredible currents in there too. Its amazing.

[matt]

Hey Larry;

I totally applaud your efforts at developing this extremely important aspect of our hobby. Maybe sometime at a club meeting you and Ray could talk about captive breeding/tank rearing. I've heard that inland aquatics is now tank rearing hippo tangs, an extremely popular fish for the aquarium trade with a poor survival rate when taken from the ocean. I tried to buy one from them, but they were out of stock for months. Are you currently able to breed the 6 line wrasses? That would be a GREAT addition to reefkeeping in our area.

[Instar]

My six lined wrasses are still young. Time will tell, but, I think at this point I can get them to spawn eventually.
I also wanted a pair of copperbands in there. They were a pair, but then it turned into the 'war of the roses' one day so they are separated now. Thats funny - too much like people, right? I would be happy to share my breeding experiences with ray at a meeting. I am afraid my pictures are not so great, or non-existant. There is no way with my current stuff that I will be able to photograph the display of the six lined wrasses.