Application of Marine Foodfish Techniques in Marine Ornamental Aquaculture: Reproduction and Larval First Feeding

The long-term sustainability of the marine ornamental industry is being threatened by environmental pressures that are severely degrading the health of coral reef ecosystems. There is now a compelling need to practice resource conservation through the development of 'reef friendly' aquaculture technologies as an alternative to wild collection practices and to restore degraded wild populations. The commercial culture of marine ornamental finfish is very much in its infancy, but advances can be made more rapidly using insights from years of research and development with marine foodfish species. Many of the bottlenecks and constraints to developing marine ornamental fish culture are those now being addressed with the more challenging species of foodfish being attempted. The two key bottlenecks that currently limit expansion of the marine ornamental industry are the control of captive maturation and spawning and the identification of appropriate first-feed items for marine ornamental fish larvae. This paper highlights basic principles and recent achievements in marine foodfish culture that might be applicable to rapid development of controlled reproduction and propagation techniques for marine ornamental finfish.