Stith Aquatics

23/04/2020

Tour operators in Australia are giving back to the Great Barrier Reef by repurposing their idle vessels and staff for coral restoration missions.

10/07/2019

https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/how-to-make-sure-your-aquarium-fish-are-ethical-commentary/?fbclid=IwAR0q5WvwOT-0K4wml_QJciZX3-HNQLLVDxqUr9A3dK-DIRoM12VFC6-hX7A

Fishkeeping has been around for centuries, and the amount of people who want to start keeping fish grows year after year. However, many newcomers to the hobby don’t carry out research to ensure the fish they’re buying have been sourced ethically.The disturbing truth is that a large portion of ma...

07/08/2018

Annual killifish are known to live their lives at one of two speeds: "pause" or "fast-forward." For most of the year, the tiny freshwater fish persist as diapausing embryos buried in sediments across the African savannah, much like plant seeds. When rainwater fills small depressions across the lands...

16/05/2018

09/05/2018

A Welsh biologist once criticised for stealing eggs from the nests of the rarest bird in the world has been awarded the ‘Nobel prize’ of conservation after his controversial methods saved nine species from extinction.

07/04/2017

A recent research paper in The Journal of Crustacean Biology reveals a new genus and new species of tree crab in Kerala, southern India. Known scientifically as the "Kani maranjandu," it is substantially different from other congeners. Its distinguishing characters include: the structure of its hard...

24/02/2017

The Congo River’s torrential currents divide fish populations long term

14/09/2016

Infographic on how Aquarists CAN Promote Conservation

26/08/2016

There was a single mated pair in the entire mix species tank. But that pair produced an egg that produced a larva that turned into this fish. This fish is the first of its kind to be reared in captivity. It has significant implications for conservation Pictured here at 91 days post hatch, the juvenile had exhibited the narrow mouth, pointed head, and bright colors characteristic of this cleaner species. The multi-colored stripe had changed to resemble the distinctive purple coloration found on the adults, and the dark colored body was now jet black.

www.risingtideconservation.org

Oceanic Institute of Hawaii Pacific University

25/08/2016

But wait, there's more.....The week of Avier's adventure continues:
The first breakthrough with the milletseeds resulted in one juvenile. But egg collections continue. The latest larval culture efforts have resulted in 100 juveniles. The Oceanic Institute of Hawaii Pacific University folks have done a great job proving that Milletseed butterflies can be reared and they can be reared in numbers.

This is an important step forward!

The family Chaetodontidae includes many marine butterflyfish. Now, we can consider moving from this species to many others. The possibilities are endless!

Here's the happy and successful Avier and some of his latest milletseeds

24/08/2016

This is cool!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncHYrueAm4M

In this episode of BlacktipH, Josh hooks a gigantic sawfish that measured over 17ft in length and had an estimated weight of over 700lbs. This is the rarest ...

17/08/2016

http://www.reef2rainforest.com/2016/08/11/tapajos-river-dam-denied-license/

Brazilian environmental agency rejects Tapajós River mega-dam, citing likely major impacts on Amazon’s indigenous people and the environment.

13/08/2016

This makes me sad...

http://www.nyasatimes.com/minister-msaka-rejects-warning-malawi-oil-exploration-anxiety-unfounded/

Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining, Bright Msaka vowed Tuesday to press on with oil and gas exploration on Lake Malawi, dismissing World Heritage Centre warning, especially the bloc that has the Lake Malawi...

30/07/2016

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/06/leopard-shark-virgin-birth-aquarium-australia/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fbex20160705news-leopardshark&utm_campaign=Content&sf30286305=1

A leopard shark in an aquarium in Australia surprises its keepers with the rare phenomenon.

21/07/2016

We asked Craig Watson, Director of the UF Tropical Aquaculture Lab to tell us the story of the Pacific Blue Tang success. Here it is:

"Pacific Blue Tangs are an iconic marine aquarium fish, collected from the reefs of the Indo Pacific. While plentiful and widespread throughout the region, there is an obvious opportunity for fish farmers to start raising this fish because of the high volume and price. One is hard pressed to find a public aquarium or a marine fish dealer that doesn’t have Pacific Blue Tangs. There also is an ongoing concern over collecting fish from the wild, and this fish has a lot of collection associated with it. However, like many marine fish, no one had ever produced one in captivity.

A little over 6 years ago, I was approached by Dr. Judy St. Leger from SeaWorld about working with the Rising Tide Conservation program. This program was part of the SeaWorld-Busch Gardens Conservation Fund and had a primary goal of developing production technologies for key marine ornamental species, and Pacific Blue Tangs were high on the list. After agreeing, the University of Florida’s Tropical Aquaculture Laboratory brought in the first group of potential broodstock from a local wholesaler in the summer of 2012 and started conditioning them in a greenhouse for spawning. Spawning turned out to be easier than first thought, with the fish regularly releasing thousands of tiny floating eggs at dusk, which were skimmed off the surface overnight and collected from nets in the morning. Hatching also seemed to be easy, and happened the next evening. From there it got really hard!

Newly hatched Pacific Blue Tangs are just under two millimeters long, have no eyes or mouth, and are left to drift around in the water for the next two days while they absorb their yolk. During that time they develop eyes and a mouth. If the parents nutrition isn’t just right, the yolk won’t be enough, or of the right quality to carry the larvae through. Water quality, including temperature, is critical, and if anything goes wrong they can be gone in hours. But the team worked that out, and survival rates to day 4 got as high as 80% or better.

When they first start feeding, like most fish, the food that Pacific Blue Tangs can eat is limited to how wide they can open their mouths. Based on their small mouths (the “gape”) the food must be only about 40-50 microns. That’s smaller than a period on this page. No one knew for sure just what a tiny tang eats, so the next step was what to feed them? Still just over 2mm in size, a slight mistake in getting the right nutrition into the larvae can mean death in a matter of a few days or even hours. Many researchers have shown that copepods are a main part of the diet of many ocean spawning fish, and that the tiny larvae will target the newly hatched baby copepods, called nauplii. So another aspect of the research became critical – how to raise millions of the tiny, newly hatched copepod nauplii.

Over the next four years a team of scientists at the Tropical Aquaculture Laboratory, the UF Indian River Research and Education Center, and the Oceanic Institute of Hawaii Pacific University started collaborating on Pacific Blue, Yellow tangs and other species, all under the banner of the Rising Tide Conservation program. Despite some promising results, the best the team ever did was get a single Pacific Blue Tang out to 24 days post hatch. Each time the team thought they had discovered something, the same wall was hit, or another one appeared.

Then in late 2015, Dr. Chad Callan and his team in Hawaii successfully reared the first Yellow Tangs. Given the closeness of the two species, UF sent one of our biologists, Kevin Barden, out to see first-hand how they were doing it. After that visit, UF’s Drs. Matthew DiMaggio and Cortney Ohs got the whole team together and a strategy was developed to attempt to replicate the procedures with Pacific Blue Tangs at both facilities.

Oh yeah…In the midst of all this, Disney and Pixar had announced that a sequel to Finding Nemo was to be released in the summer of 2016, and that the main character was Dory, a Pacific Blue Tang. Like the first movie, it was expected that the movie would be a major boost to marine fish sales, especially for the title character. The race was on!

Like many research successes, it took a team of two UF biologists who really started working on this together – Eric Cassiano and Kevin Barden – to make it happen. They weren’t alone, working with faculty, graduate students, and other staff, but in late May, just weeks before Finding Dory hit the screens around the nation, they started a run at raising the first ever captive-bred Pacific Blue Tangs. Giving up holidays and weekends, the two produced massive amounts of copepods and other live food, managed water quality, feeding, lighting and other things to closely mimic what had worked in Hawaii. As the days and weeks ticked by, the fish started behaving and growing like nothing seen before. At day 40 post hatch, the fish had started to settle on the bottom, and looked like small replicates of their parents, without the brilliant color. On day 51 the first baby “Dory” was photographed, not on an Indo Pacific reef, but in a greenhouse in Ruskin, Florida.

The work with Pacific Blue Tangs is still not done; success is dependent on a number of steps still to go. We need to show that this process can be repeated – this is a first, but not a “one and done”. We need commercial producers to be able to replicate the UF success. We need consumers to choose aquacultured Pacific Blue Tang because they want to speak with their wallets. In spite of this, the frustration and challenge today is smaller, just knowing that it is indeed possible. Eric and Kevin are smiling and exuberant, and our industry partners are ready to gear up. What we learned from this success gives everyone hope that it can be repeated when the parents spawn again, and that we will do better the next time. As I write, Dr. Ohs and his team at the Indian River Research and Education Center have a group that is two weeks in and still going. It can be done!" -Craig Watson

15/06/2016

Most of us know that many reef fish like clownfish, anthias, and wrasses are hermaphrodites, able to change s*x throughout their life. But did you know the chalk bass can change genders at least 20 times each day? And they're faithfully monogamous too.

08/06/2016

Researchers found archerfish can tell a familiar human face from dozens of new faces with surprising accuracy. It's the first time fish have shown this ability.

30/05/2016

The Congo River has the second highest diversity in fish species after the Amazon, and the DR Congo has the second largest rainforest in the world. The Inga 3 Dam would seriously impact both the river and the forest - the rich fisheries of the Lower Congo would be destroyed, and large areas of forest would be cleared for energy transmission lines.

Yet in spite of the plans to speed up project construction, the DRC government is still not moving forward with the social and environmental impact assessments.

With a new eruption of violent political unrest sweeping the country this week, the Inga 3 dam is a hallmark of a corrupt political system that seeks to line its pockets at the expense of the environment and its marginalized citizens.

http://intlrv.rs/1XVD3N1

16/05/2016

http://www.businessinsider.com/tiny-red-crabs-orange-county-beaches-2016-5

Thousands of tiny red crabs are carpeting...

02/04/2016

The value of the Lake to the Malawi population is: (i) a source of water for drinking and domestic use; (ii) a source of food (fish); (iii) a source of income for fishermen and fish-vendors; (iii) it is the biggest tourist attraction in the country.

21/03/2016

A reminder of our impact on the lake...

Sad to say we did not see any Duboise during dive at Halembe the other day.. sp. "kasumbe"

16/03/2016

They say opposites attract, but it seems when they do, they don't stay opposites for long. At least, that is, if convict cichlids (Amatitlania siquia) are anything to go by. These monogamous fish prefer to pair up with others of similar personality, but if that doesn't happen, they adapt to find com…

01/03/2016

Way to go Li!

Monster, the energy-drink conglomerate, fought a small business over the word “monster.” These college students fought back

24/02/2016

20/02/2016

Look for our ad in the upcoming issue of Amazonas Magazine. A HUGE thanks to the folks at Reef to Rainforest Media for their help promoting the convention! Also many thanks to PVAS member Jeff Frederick for designing the ad.

29/01/2016

The achievement marks the first time that a salamander was produced using frozen s***m.

20/01/2016

"When people paddle canoes down a river, most have no idea what's right below them."

09/01/2016

More than three dozen scientists say projects’ true costs are being inadequately assessed