A week or so ago I promised to offer more information on this program and at the urging of some private email, I'll post it now.

There have been some recent reports about blue tang (P. hepatus) larval fish rearing at C-Quest and the forthcoming availability of such from them and others like Sea Critters. This turns out to be not quite accurate, but it did prompt me to investigate and learn about an exciting new possibility for tank raised fish that is on the horizon. Joyce Wilkerson reported at the MARS Conference that a collection operation in Tahiti was shipping these larvae to C-Quest for them to raise to salable size, but as it turns out the fish C-Quest is getting are simply wild collected tiny specimens collected in the Solomons which are too small for the trade. They ship these to Bill Addison for grow out before being made available to sale in the trade. Both Dave Palmer and Walt Smith have been raising these tiny specimens at their collection stations for years before shipping them out, but both are at capacity at this time, so rather than toss back or destroy the collected animals brought in by the native collectors, they are now shipping to C-Quest as an additional outlet Also, blue tangs are neither collected nor exported from Tahiti at this time.

There is actually a European company operating out of Tahiti that is collecting fish larvae, over 110 species BTW, but they only do enough to support the existing clientele in Europe None of these animals end up in the States at this time and of the 110+ species, only about a dozen would be of interest to the Aquarium trade. Much of what they presently collect in the operation is shipped to Public Aquariums and the like in Europe. It was suggested that some of the animals may be finding their way into the Aquarium trade over there, but these animals are typically small by U.S. standards(quarter size or so) and the marketability of them here is also a reason why we don't see them now and may not for some time.

The process of collection is specialized and they are able to collect anywhere from a few hundred up to about a million larvae at a time, depending on the species. The operation has been running for some time now and the viability is such that they are now offering the technology and training, at a price, to commercial operations in the South Pacific. A couple of companies are looking at it presently, and we may see some of these animals available through new channels in the future.

With operations like C-Quest and ORA having been around for years, we are aware of the "tough sell" that can be associated with captive bred animals. The "environmentally conscious" hobbyists are still a minority and I feel that as long as species selection is limited for tank raised, it's never going to be something that really hits the mainstream. That is where this program may hold some promise. First, they have overcome some of the breeding obstacles and collection/maintenace of same. This puts them into the second tier where providing a proper food source is the main obstacle and clearly they have had some success there as well. I was not able to get many details on this area(yet), but it appears they are using the same methods as other facilities like C-Quest in addition to some of their own.

Where it gets interesting is some of these species include what would normally be obligatory corallavores(ie. butterfly fish), including some of the ornate butterflies! These fish have been black listed in the trade for years, because even though they are quite beautiful, their required diet means almost certain death in a captive environment usually. BUT, because they are collected as larvae, raised on a different diet than they would in the wild, these fish take prepared food, and are being fed fish pellets at about the time they are shipped to market. Unscientific experiments have shown that when the animals are later introduced to captive aquaria, including aquaria with live coral, they showed no interest in feeding on the coral as their wild counterparts would normally do. Further, they have examined the gut of these animals and found that they develop differently than their wild cousins, so it would appear they are quite able to adapt to a different diet if they are collected at this larval stage. Bottom line We could, in the next couple of years, start seeing some beautiful specimens in the trade that we now consider unsuitable for captivity and especially inappropriate for reef tanks. Neat stuff!

And for all you aspiring fish raising types out there, keep in mind that these animals will be requiring several months of care and grow out before they reach salable size. For freight reasons, it's been suggested that shortly after collection, the animals will need to be shipped to farms closer to the states for rearing. There will almost certainly be large operations like C-Quest involved, but as with coral propagating that goes on today, there will be room for many garage type operations as well.

Anyhow, just thought I'd provide a couple tidbits for thought of what might be on the horizon. I hope to be learning more about this as the months go by and we're even discussing the possibility of visiting the operation during some of the collecting process in November.

Important note (26th July): the project is on hold for the time being due to the civil unrest going on down there. Until the natives stop shooting at one another the warehouse intended to be used for this program is shut down. I'm hopeful things will settle down. The technology involved can be used anywhere and if the Solomons eventually has to shut down completely(remote possibility), they will simply move to another island group and start up again. We will see this program to fruition one way or another.