Not one of these 3 organizations/persons have published their process on rearing angelfish. Previously Oceanic Institute had reference to Euterpina Acutifrons a copepod. Not sure if this is what they used or if some other copepod. Anyone with a clue?
are copepods the answer to angelfish larvae
- Thread starter Louis Z
- Start date
Hmm...good question.
I have been raising some clownfish and feeding them rotifers. From time to time I can see a copepod (herpacticoid sp??) in the rotifer culture, and it looks bigger than the rotifers by a substantial margin.
Perhaps Doug Robbins or Charles Delbeek can chime in here. I know JCD has raised seahorses before so he's probably been through this as well...
Cheers
James Wiseman
I have been raising some clownfish and feeding them rotifers. From time to time I can see a copepod (herpacticoid sp??) in the rotifer culture, and it looks bigger than the rotifers by a substantial margin.
Perhaps Doug Robbins or Charles Delbeek can chime in here. I know JCD has raised seahorses before so he's probably been through this as well...
Cheers
James Wiseman
Many aquaculture farms use copepods in rearing larvae- Ususally by non intensive methods where they put larvae in large outdoor ponds in which they previously had a microalgae bloom and then a copepod bloom. Wondering if the Hawaiians used this method or worked with small batches of copepods. Or they may have found an intensive way to specifically raise copepods. The Australians have found an intensive way to raise the copepod Gladioferens imparipes which is a calanoid. This particular one does not consume its young. Euterpina Acutifrons is a harpatcoid but I believe its classified as pelagic and thus stays in the water column where most fish larvae feed. I just dont know if I could import the G.Imparipes to the U.S. As for the E acutifrons I might be able to order from Shockleys in Hawaii and try to isolate it from their seawater. I am hoping C. Delbeek answers since he referred to Frank Baensch in the reef aquarist column in AFM. Sorry for this long page Louis Z.
I'm not JCD (eek...what a scary thought) <eg>...
but, I *do* know a bit about food cultures for seahorse fry.
It sounds as if you already have an extensive background on copepod species. I have used both pelagic (non-carnivorous) and sand dwellers, the latter raised from a small culture in a refugium-type shallow tank with an algae mat. This could be done on a much larger scale, and there are DIY projects including clever ways to separate out nauplii from juvies and adults. (I'm sorry I don't have the URLs for them available, but a search should provide results.) Absolutely, an enriched copepod diet, size suitable to the PL fish you're raising would be a good starter food, along with other live foods, such as (enriched) rotifers, with perhaps a few more options, as PL fish have less specific requirements than do seahorses.
Though I no longer recall the actual cope species I raised, the refugium set-up using copes collected from my reef tank substrate worked best.
With better equipment, I could have harvested the nauplii, which would have been an excellent food source for newborn fry, but rotifers were much simpler to culture in abundance when the fry were in need of a constant food supply (seahorses only have a rudimentary stomach and newborns need a reasonably high concentration of food every three hours for the critical first two weeks).
Since the food source at birth had to be ~60um for one of the species I raised, I waited until around the third week, when they were able to ingest foods the size of 7 day old artemia, to begin feeding juvenile (past first moulting) copepods enriched with Nannochloropsis, Isochrysis, and Tetraselmis (for their combined HUFA/DHA/EPA profiles). I had previously used only decapsulated, enriched (with the same phytoplankton) BBS, but had higher mortalities on this diet.
Since then, I've found many members on my site (www.seahorse.org) have cultured numerous species of arthropods and other crustacea nauplii with success.
So, although I have never raised PL fish, I would think the same set of rules apply. If Delbeek ever shows up, perhaps he can give you more specifics than I.
HTH,
Karen Etling
Seahorse.org
but, I *do* know a bit about food cultures for seahorse fry.
It sounds as if you already have an extensive background on copepod species. I have used both pelagic (non-carnivorous) and sand dwellers, the latter raised from a small culture in a refugium-type shallow tank with an algae mat. This could be done on a much larger scale, and there are DIY projects including clever ways to separate out nauplii from juvies and adults. (I'm sorry I don't have the URLs for them available, but a search should provide results.) Absolutely, an enriched copepod diet, size suitable to the PL fish you're raising would be a good starter food, along with other live foods, such as (enriched) rotifers, with perhaps a few more options, as PL fish have less specific requirements than do seahorses.
Though I no longer recall the actual cope species I raised, the refugium set-up using copes collected from my reef tank substrate worked best.
With better equipment, I could have harvested the nauplii, which would have been an excellent food source for newborn fry, but rotifers were much simpler to culture in abundance when the fry were in need of a constant food supply (seahorses only have a rudimentary stomach and newborns need a reasonably high concentration of food every three hours for the critical first two weeks).
Since the food source at birth had to be ~60um for one of the species I raised, I waited until around the third week, when they were able to ingest foods the size of 7 day old artemia, to begin feeding juvenile (past first moulting) copepods enriched with Nannochloropsis, Isochrysis, and Tetraselmis (for their combined HUFA/DHA/EPA profiles). I had previously used only decapsulated, enriched (with the same phytoplankton) BBS, but had higher mortalities on this diet.
Since then, I've found many members on my site (www.seahorse.org) have cultured numerous species of arthropods and other crustacea nauplii with success.
So, although I have never raised PL fish, I would think the same set of rules apply. If Delbeek ever shows up, perhaps he can give you more specifics than I.
HTH,
Karen Etling
Seahorse.org
Thanks James and Karen for your response. JCD may just be busy researching next months article. I am just too impatient for such important research info- I know it takes a while for researchers to write and edit articles for publishing while still doing what they do. I know that if even JCD knew he couldnt let the cat out of the bag for fear of others publishing before Frank or the other groups. Frank Baensch wrote that he tried enriched rotifers, ciliates, and enriched BBS without success. I dont know the exact size of the angelfish larvae at hatching or their mouth size. But from the many reports in the literature no one has been able to get the larvae past nine days when they apparently use up the yolksac and starve. -I just hate to go to some of the LFS and see the WC angels and butterflys starve and perish. If small angels can be reared then most of the other fish larvae can also be reared thus diminishing the hobby's dependence on WC. In the big city close to me there exists good and bad LFS yet all are guilty of continuing to import/order difficult corals/fish with known high mortality rates. They are not going to police themselves. And the only way would be to increase market share of captive bred fish. So when you read about the approx. 100,000/yr. imported yellow tangs into the U.S.-one would tend to think that everyone with a SW tank should have at least 2. Too many deaths not enough time. Time to get off my soapbox Louis Z.
Hi all
As a possible lead on the feeding question, Karen Brittain, the Waikiki Aquarium scientist who is raising the Masked Angelfish is a coauthor of "Not-So-New Food for 'New' Species of Marine Ornamental Fish Larvae." The organism described is the harpacticoid copepod Euterpina acutifrons, a circumtropical species which was isolated from local waters more than 15 years ago by Syd Kraul, then of the Waikïkï Aquarium.
The report goes on to state, "E. acutifrons has some technical advantages over other commonly used food items...1) the early stages are smaller than most cultured feeds and freshly hatched brine shrimp; 2) they are more nutritionally dense (less watery, with more organic matter and calories per unit of fresh weight) than rotifers, similar to brine shrimp; 3) when grown under good conditions, they are at least as good as any other item in content of essential amino acids and fatty acids before enrichment; and 4) they move with the characteristic jerky motion of copepods and thus are more likely to be recognized as food by larvae." At the Marine Ornamentals '99 conference on the Big Island, as further indication of the importance of this food source, "the Aquarium reported on early feeding of masked angel fish on E. acutifrons. The copepod is also used to feed larval invertebrates, as well as later stages of seahorses, pipefish, black coral, wire coral, cup coral, anemones, mandarin fish, sea jellies, mysid shrimp, and wild caught plankton. This species stands as a ready resource for development of marine ornamental culture."
I, unfortunately, have lost track of the source of this article, but I have the full text.
As a possible lead on the feeding question, Karen Brittain, the Waikiki Aquarium scientist who is raising the Masked Angelfish is a coauthor of "Not-So-New Food for 'New' Species of Marine Ornamental Fish Larvae." The organism described is the harpacticoid copepod Euterpina acutifrons, a circumtropical species which was isolated from local waters more than 15 years ago by Syd Kraul, then of the Waikïkï Aquarium.
The report goes on to state, "E. acutifrons has some technical advantages over other commonly used food items...1) the early stages are smaller than most cultured feeds and freshly hatched brine shrimp; 2) they are more nutritionally dense (less watery, with more organic matter and calories per unit of fresh weight) than rotifers, similar to brine shrimp; 3) when grown under good conditions, they are at least as good as any other item in content of essential amino acids and fatty acids before enrichment; and 4) they move with the characteristic jerky motion of copepods and thus are more likely to be recognized as food by larvae." At the Marine Ornamentals '99 conference on the Big Island, as further indication of the importance of this food source, "the Aquarium reported on early feeding of masked angel fish on E. acutifrons. The copepod is also used to feed larval invertebrates, as well as later stages of seahorses, pipefish, black coral, wire coral, cup coral, anemones, mandarin fish, sea jellies, mysid shrimp, and wild caught plankton. This species stands as a ready resource for development of marine ornamental culture."
I, unfortunately, have lost track of the source of this article, but I have the full text.
Thanks Doug I had known about that article yet I was just wanting confirmation. Further I wanted to know details of culturing E.acutifrons and which microalgae they used to get successfull results. I was wondering if they tried to target microalgae high in carotenes to help in development and coloration of the angelfish larvae. They also refer to H.pluvialis in an article from the Makai Journal as Cyanotechs source for carotenes in their NatuRose product.. Yet I had asked a copepod researcher and her response was that H.pluvialis is a freshwater microalgae. I am uncertain as to what mix and eagerly await the published reports. I am just afraid that they will delay- the funding for marine ornamental breeding efforts must be a source of revenue. It would be like shooting yourself in the foot to let all breeding info out so that others can compete for the funding. I may just have it all wrong and am allowing my mind to wander. Thanks Louis Z.
Hi
I found the article while doing follow-up research for my Media column this issue. I believe, as do many other aquarists, that it is critically important to move to aquacultured organisms, for conservation as well as ethics, as soon as possible.
Here are the rearing instructions for E. acutifrons contained in the article: "The generation time of this fast-growing animal is a week or less at the optimal temperature of 26o C. At the Waikïkï Aquarium, they are cultured in 450 l square tanks, stirred and aerated with large (not air stone) bubbles, and fed the cultured microalgae Chaetoceros, Tetraselmis, and sometimes Nannochloropsis. Chaetoceros alone can do well, as may the others used singly. It is possible that E. acutifrons could be grown on cheaply-obtained particles and later enriched. Several of our creative growers of freshwater ornamentals produce live feeds on a mixture of yeast and blender-ground flake feed."
Doug Robbins
I found the article while doing follow-up research for my Media column this issue. I believe, as do many other aquarists, that it is critically important to move to aquacultured organisms, for conservation as well as ethics, as soon as possible.
Here are the rearing instructions for E. acutifrons contained in the article: "The generation time of this fast-growing animal is a week or less at the optimal temperature of 26o C. At the Waikïkï Aquarium, they are cultured in 450 l square tanks, stirred and aerated with large (not air stone) bubbles, and fed the cultured microalgae Chaetoceros, Tetraselmis, and sometimes Nannochloropsis. Chaetoceros alone can do well, as may the others used singly. It is possible that E. acutifrons could be grown on cheaply-obtained particles and later enriched. Several of our creative growers of freshwater ornamentals produce live feeds on a mixture of yeast and blender-ground flake feed."
Doug Robbins
Just to add to the discussion here: we have copepod cultures and yes, the masked angels did eat them, yet we could only get them through to about 15 days or so. It was not until we came across another food source to start the fish on and worked on enriching this that we started getting further. We have only done one trial and gotten two fish through, it won't be until we can replicate the process and success, that we will know if this food source is the breakthough we hope it may be.
The Oceanic Institute got their copepod cultures from us, and although we do not know for sure, they may also have done plankton tows to help get them over the hump. Frank used something similar to OI but he also tweaked other factors (which only he knows) I guess we will all have to wait to see what what exactly the other places did and how.
I would just like to caution everyone who has been making the leap from this small start to fullblown replacement of wild caught fish by aquacultured to remember that economics play a significant role. There have been SEVERAL ornamental fish hatcheries go belly up due to the financial problems and these were working with clownfish which are pretty easy to rear. Going from getting a few fish through a rearing trial to fullblown aquaculture production takes a LONG time and is not always economically viable depending on a lot of factors. Please keep this fact in mind.
So to those who feel people are holding back info and harming the environment I can only say you need to be patient, when the information comes out it will still take years, perhaps a decade before this pans out at the commercial level, if ever. Now that a few places have made some breakthroughs, it is only a matter of time before others do too.
JCD
The Oceanic Institute got their copepod cultures from us, and although we do not know for sure, they may also have done plankton tows to help get them over the hump. Frank used something similar to OI but he also tweaked other factors (which only he knows) I guess we will all have to wait to see what what exactly the other places did and how.
I would just like to caution everyone who has been making the leap from this small start to fullblown replacement of wild caught fish by aquacultured to remember that economics play a significant role. There have been SEVERAL ornamental fish hatcheries go belly up due to the financial problems and these were working with clownfish which are pretty easy to rear. Going from getting a few fish through a rearing trial to fullblown aquaculture production takes a LONG time and is not always economically viable depending on a lot of factors. Please keep this fact in mind.
So to those who feel people are holding back info and harming the environment I can only say you need to be patient, when the information comes out it will still take years, perhaps a decade before this pans out at the commercial level, if ever. Now that a few places have made some breakthroughs, it is only a matter of time before others do too.
JCD
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