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RobertK
11/15/2006, 10:03 AM
Hi,
A store I know of claims to have tank-raised bicolor blennies for sale. I haven't seen these anywhere before. Does anyone know if these have been successfully bred in captivity before? I want to make sure these are the real deal before I buy one.
Thanks,
Robert

MimicTang
11/15/2006, 05:33 PM
From LiveAquaria:
"The Bicolor Blenny is also known as the Two-colored Blenny. The Bicolor is so-named because the anterior half is blue to dull brown, and the posterior half is dull orange. Males are generally larger than females and experience a succession of color changes, including blue, when breeding . These Blennies exhibit great personality in the aquarium."

mwp
11/15/2006, 06:05 PM
I've had a breeding pair of Ecsenius graveri (The Red Sea Mimic Blenny, a close relative)....never got past egg laying though. Iris has a breeding pair of Tailspot Blennies, another closely related species. Don't know if she's raised any. And yet another one, the Goldentail Blenny, has been successfully reared by Proaquatix. So it's definitely "possible" that someone, somewhere, has breed and successfully raised Bicolor Blennies, but as of this time I've never seen any evidence or claims personally.

Matt

mwp
11/15/2006, 06:07 PM
One other thought, "tank-raised" doesn't always mean "captive bred"; it's possible that they weren't spawned in captivity, but were collected as eggs, larvae or juvies in the wild and then reared...not really even close to the same thing as truly "captive bred" fish. They do this type of things with a variety of fish now, collecting larvae/juvies and then rearing them up, at least so I've been told.

Matt

RobertK
11/15/2006, 06:51 PM
Thanks for the replies. I'll try to verify from the vendor whether they are truly captive bred or not. I won't buy one unless I can do so.
Robert

mwp
11/15/2006, 09:52 PM
Well don't get me wrong, it's not that "Tank Reared" fish aren't an improvement, it's just that they aren't truly "captive bred" :)

Matt

MimicTang
11/15/2006, 10:05 PM
technically it isnt as the fry where destinied for the ocean's ecosystem. But true better then taking adults

RobertK
11/15/2006, 10:40 PM
understood, agreed.
Thanks.

mwp
11/16/2006, 01:39 AM
MimicTang, wilkerson cites a survival figure of approximately 20 out of every 1 MILLION clownfish larvae make it. So, in theory, harvesting a few thousand larvae from the ocean does almost nothing percentage wise.

To be fair to those that do this (harvesting larvae, not juveniles), I *think* at least a portion of the "Captive Bred" is better than "Tank Reared" is an ego thing...we like to feel we've 100% mastered the species vs. simply found an ingenious way to "cheat" and skip the actual pairing and breeding part of aquaculture.

FWIW,

Matt