Captive reared blue regals

[Jenn]

I have been looking for tank raised blue regal tangs and found the term "CAPTIVE REARED" on this site called Inland Aquatics. Their definition is... Organisms are collected as larvae/post-larvae from the ocean with plankton collectors. These larvae are held past metamorphosis near the point of collection and then shipped to Puerto Rico or the US to be grown-out. Though they are removed from the wild, they are collected at at time when the have an EXTREMELY low survival rate; hence, there is virtually no impact on the environment. Captive Reared animals spend their "formative years" in captive care, so they share most of the benefits of their Tank Raised cousins. I am simply wondering if this gives them an edge over the wild caught ones. I have now lost 2 of these and every time it kills me. First time it was another fish who got to it, and now this time, my **** soon to be gone hermit killed it. I think it may have something to do with the fact that they seem to be scared and nervous fish.

[matt]

Jenn;

I've talked with Inland Aquatics about these fish; I'm sure they're much hardier than wild caught regal tangs. Juvenile regal tangs do have lousy survival rates in aquariums; I've lost a few and almost every time I see them in fish stores, they're either real nervous or covered with parasites or both. Captive rearing these fish is a great idea.

Inland Aquatics is a leader in captive breeding and rearing. I was going to order one from them, but they were out of stock at the time I was looking, then I moved...if you talk with them to order one, please ask about breeding pairs of berghia nudibranchs; I've been waiting almost a year for them. Supposedly there's a waiting list, but I never heard anything back from them.

[Jenn]

Matt, I just sent them an email asking about items in stock or if there is a type of waiting list. I will let you know what I find out. If anyone has any other info on this, please let me know. I am very interested in finding a pair of these.

Thanks,
Jenn

[DeletedAccount]

This is also the topic for one of our up-coming meetings... Wild-caught vs. captive-reared vs captive bred.....

[GaryP]

Jenn,

I know exactly where you are coming from. I'd never been able to keep one alive until recently. Now that I've had some success, I'd like to find another one to go with the small one I have in my 125. Let me know if you decide to place an order. My only concern is what is the loss rate of these guys when shipped. I think some LFS just accept the loss rate that goes with them and pass it along to their customers in the form of higher retail prices.

Gary

[Jenn]

Gary, I also have that concern. I did not ask that question in the email, but I am thinking about giving them a call this week and I will definitely address that. Most on-line companies have the "no guarantee" policy when it comes to these fish. I have been reading a lot about how these fish breed and we could make so much money and really make a difference in the industry if we were to breed these guys in captivity!

[GaryP]

Because some juvenile fish go through a "planktonic" stage it is difficult to captive raise them in a closed system. I'm far from being an expert on hippos, or captive rearing for that matter, but from what you posted earlier it sounds like this might be the case here.

Gary

[Jenn]

That exactly what I have read and it also has a lot to do with lunar phases since they only mate during the full moon. Interesting but crazy.

[GaryP]

Most corals are like that. I have seen some great documentary footage of mass coral spawning on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia of these kind of spawnings. Many fish time their spawns along with the coral spawns because their juveniles feed off the larvae and eggs from the coral spawns. I'm not sure if this is the case with Hippos or not.

Gary

[Jenn]

What a great business it would be - doing what you love as well as making $$$.

[Andrew]

I have banned all forms of crabs in my tanks:

IMO (in my opinion) crabs=eco terrorists.
Disclaimer: not everyone believes/has had bad experiences with hermits, and my case may not be the norm.

I've had a 1.5 inch hermit kill a 5 inch. tang,
(he caught the tang in the back of tank at night in a very narrow area; tang was still alive when I found him in the morning, when I set him loose; he went shortly therafter).
1/4 inch blue legs eat feather dusters (I've witnessed this, wish I took pics),
emeralds strip live rock clean (seen this in tanks other than mine as well)

no more crabs for me

a.k.

[Jenn]

Yup, fixing to be my motto too. So I guess I can't bring you these 2 guys :-D Thanks Andrew.

[Instar]

I just got 2 Hippos, wild caught from Aquarium Warehouse. They are doing great!! They are also eating planktonic foods just like the anthias as well as grazing all kinds of algaes.

I have 116 hermit crabs (104 mexican blue legs, 12 carribean scarlet reef) in my 125, an emerald crab and decorator that eats algae only. My rocks are covered with little dusters, tunicates, vairous polyps of all sizes, spontaneously generated tubastrea corals and sponges. I have some very small fish in there too and a tank raised seahorse. The exact crab species matters. They are clean up crews, not eco-terrorists as termed by some. They only eat fish if they are dead first. I have tons of stuff growing in my substrate as well, like hundreds of tiny brittle stars, worms, limpets, chitons, shrimp, crustaceans. Zoos, mini-zoos, shrooms, leathers, stars, sps, etc., etc. Those crabs don't touch a thing in there.
A 1.5 inch hermit is the wrong species.
I'll take all your blue legs and scarlets, just bring em to the meeting or I can come and get them. Just let me know.

[Jenn]

I disagree with the fact that hermits don't kill live fish, but the kind I have and are talking about is the wrong one, the big 1.5" kind. Maybe I just the extreme, but a fish will simply swim by, no matter what size, and the hermit will reach out to try and snatch it. Maybe the regal was sick or something, but she was eating and swimming fine 2 hrs. before we caught the crab eating her. I need to get some of those smaller ones when I take these 2 guys back.

[Instar]

Some of the big hermits will try to grab or pounce on anything, especially at night when they are most active. I've had some pretty large ones with blennies and ocellaris clowns without trouble. I knew a guy that brought one back from the beach at Corpus. Big mistake that was. Injury leads to trouble and the crab wins, even over a large puffer eventually. An eating fish is not necessarily ok unless its deficating correctly too. I have a club anemone in one tank. It lives within a hole or cave in the LR, only venturing out at night. Its sting is toxic and very deadly. If a fish gets stung, the fish is crab food after the anemone gets done with it. There can be all kinds of stuff in LR that rears its head just evry now and then, say on the full moon? Its really hard to buy a 1.5 inch tang killer hermit crab, even if it did really happen. Do you know what kind of crab it is Jenn? What LFS would sell you non-reef-safe crabs for your tank? If the LFS is picking them up in Corpus, those critters are bad dudes in some tanks.

[Jenn]

Instar, I honestly had no idea that the hermits were a threat, and did not even ask the lfs I got them from. I have 3 of them, one has red legs, the other looks like an evil skinny brown, and the other is an electric blue. I have had no probs w/ the elec. blue, he hides most of the time, day & night. I have definitely learned a valuable lesson the hard way.

[shellback]

If you want to get rid of the electric blue let me know I will be happy to give it a new house.

[Jenn]

You got it Shellback. He's really cool, but I'm unsure of any of them now.

[Instar]

Jenn, can you bring them to the meeting? If they are not reef safe one of us should be able to tell you. I'm sure someone there will take them if they aren't safe and put them in a predator tank.

[Jenn]

I think thats a great idea. Kind of odd thing happened last night...the red one popped himself out of his shell, and into this HUGE one. Looks pretty funny, he can't hardly drag it.