Shark Eggs

[Burbs]

The LFS I frequent has two Coral Banded Shark eggs in a tank they are selling for $26.00 each. I overheard today that they have nearly completed their gestation period and should soon be hatching. Now I have another excuse to drop by each day...

It's pretty amazing to me. The owner of said LFS has had great success breeding Banggais. I was looking at the last one today. At about 2 1/2 weeks old, it was no bigger than 3/8" and just the *cutest* dern thing ya'll ever did see.

Without starting a huge debate, I'd just like to say that it will be nice when we can stop taking fish from the wild and start taking them from our own breeding tanks. This way we can still enjoy the hobby without causing damage to the oceans that supply us with these beautiful fish.

BTW, I think it speaks well of any LFS that can breed their own fry. Despite the owner being a friend of a family member, it's skill and expertise like that that turns me into a loyal customer.

[Brooke]

Hey Burbs-

Debates are good for the hobby. As my sig line says, I'm very into buying captive bred critters and one of my hopes for our 100g that is going again is that it will contain at least 90% captive-bred critters. I would definately like to try my hand at raising banggai's or seahorses. We'll see. Even watching tiny little cleaner shrimp babies grow up in our reef was fascinating.

Brooke

[reefaddict]

Breeding Banggais is a wonderful thing. Your LFS should be appluaded for that.

I have a 100% tank raised reef myself. I wish more people would attemps this.

Do you know if the shark eggs are tank raised or caught?

Does your LFS have a 1000+ gallon tank to keep these sharks as they mature? Will he only sell the eggs to someone with a large enough system to support them?

[Alice]

Using captive-bred whenever possible is a goal everyone should work for. Propagating corals and trading among friends is a good way to break the wild collected chain, plus it's fun

Brooke; how big did your cleaner shrimp babies get?

~Alice

[Brooke]

Alice-
They got about the size of a big amphipod. Quite a few of them lived in our caulerpa jungle in the refugium. But, from what I hear no one has been successful in raising them to adulthood. At least they make good food for the corals and fish .

Brooke

[Burbs]

I don't know whether the shark eggs are tank-raised or wild caught. I would presume the former since I imagine it's not too easy to find these in the wild - but then again I'm just speculating.

I asked how big of a tank one would need to keep these. The person I spoke to said at 90G at a minimum. I know that they won't let them go to just any old tank, but honesty is a two-way street, and anyone could just as easily say that they have a 250G tank when in fact they have a 25G.

I'm confident that the people to whom these eggs are sold will be grilled, and I'm sure they will warranty the eggs only if they can verify the tank and its condition. I would expect no less from them.

Now I've got the itch to breed my own fish. I'm thinking of Gobies since these are my favorite fish. So, if anyone has any good information, links, or experience with breeding Gobies, please let me know. Any books I should know about? I find the breeding habits of Twinspot Gobies to be fascinating, but just aout any Goby (or Jawfish!) will do.

[Ol Studly]

Premium aquatics lists tank raised Regal (hippo) tangs. Anyone know about raising these?
I'm always surprised by how many tank bred species they list. You usually don't hear much about breeding anything but Banggais and Clown.


Studly

[Brooke]

the tank raised hippos are from wild-caught eggs or fry, if I'm not mistaken. Does that make sense? I dont think this is something you could reproduce in your tank at home.

Brooke

[Ol Studly]

Too bad. That's one of my favorite fish. It'd be neat to try and raise them.

Studly