Breeding Marine Species in the Home Aquarium

By Ed Katuska
First published in Wet Pet Gazette, Norwalk Aquarium Society
Aquarticles

Unfortunately, in most cases, captive breeding of marine animals is not on the priority list of most breeders or aquarium society breeder programs. Why? Where would the aquarium hobby be today if it were not for captive breeding? There is more information than ever available on the bookshelves at your local pet shop or public library on propagation of marine life. Just taking a quick look on the World Wide Web offers an outstanding amount of literature on most species being tank raised in the hobby today. Not long ago, almost all marine fish being captive bred were in the large public aquariums. Thanks to the many years of research more and more hobbyist are successfully spawning salt water species.

Most marines are a challenge to even the most advanced hobbyist to successfully spawn and raise the young to adulthood. In most cases the first food for the fry must be cultured and raised as well. Not all fishes are large enough to accept newly hatched brine (artemia). Marine infusoria, copepod nauplii, and rotifers are some examples of foods for very small fish. These foods are easily available from other breeders around the globe. In most cases fellow hobbyists are more than happy to send you a starter culture (and hopefully offer some breeding tips as well). But don’t be discouraged by the difficulty rating. It’s definitely a challenge worth pursuing.

To make life a little easier for you many reputable aquarium shops have access to mated pairs of marine fish. In some cases tank raised mated pairs are also available. If possible that is the way to go. Sometimes you pay more for captive-bred tank raised species but the extra is money worth it. In my opinion your success rate would be much higher than with wild caught species. I have seen mated pairs of clownfish, mandarins and gobies in dealers' tanks for sale in my travels. This makes for a good start for anyone pursuing this breeding adventure.

Below is a list of some of the marine animals that fellow hobbyists have been known to breed successfully in the home aquarium:

Tomato Clown- A. frentus
Green Banded Goby- Gobiodon sp.
Maroon Clown- Premnas biaculeatus
Citron Goby- G. citrinnus
Clark’s Clown- A. clarkii
Okinawa Goby- G. okinawa
Cinnamon Clown- A. melanopus
Rainford’s Goby- Amblygobius rainfordi
Skunk Clown- A. akallopisos
Mandarin- Pterosynchiropus slendidus
Pink Skunk Clown- A. perideraion
Yellow-tail Damsel- Chrysiptera cyanea
Percula Clown- A. percula
Bangaii Cardinal- Pterapogon kauderni
Common Clown- A. ocellaris
Comet Groupers- Calloplesiops sp.
Red Saddleback Clown- A. ephippium
Royal Gramma- Gramma loreto
Red Sea Clown- A. bicinctus
Black-capped Basslet- G. melacara
Barrier Reef Clown- A. akindynos
Pearly-jawed Gobies- Opisthognathus aurifrons
Sebae Clown- A. Sebae
Dwarf Seahorse- Hippocampus zosterae
Dottybacks- Pseudochromis sp.
Peppermint Shrimp- Lysmata wurdemanni
Neon Gobies- Gobiasoma oceanops
Pygmy Angels- Centropyge species