Loaches Online Forum

Hi all, I have just been to Aquarama which is a huge Fishtrade Expo held every two years in Singapore. I went in 2007 and although it was great there was not one loach there which was dissapointing but this time I was just blown-away to find a company that was breeding Clowns on a commercial basis for the first time ever. They had tanks with Clowns from 10 days old up to 4 months old. It is a parternership between a French Company called Institut De Recherche and BRKP wich is the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries. Patent applications were applied for on 2-4-2008 and they were seeking companys to sell licences for the process. The reasearchers were M.Legendre - L.Poudaud - S.Darti - S.Ketut and Jacques Slembrouk. I spoke with Jacques while there and have his Email for further contact. He told me they used 10cm fish from Sumatra and Kalimantan for eggs and sperm and injected combinations of the hormones Gonadoliberin and Dopamine Antagonists to stimulate final maturation of the Oocytes and ovulation in the female and trigger Spermiation in the males. Fertilization was done in the lab and achieve 70% success rate. They then had 60 to 90% survival rate of the hatched fry. I will be in Thialand for one week and will post photos when I get home. I just HAD to let you all know.
Cheers Graeme.

Hi. I just came back from Aquarama too!
There were loaches at the Saigon Aquarium booth! Too bad they were not for sale.

Some loaches they had were:

Sewellia lineolata
Sewellia sp.'spotted'
Yunnanilus cruciatus
Sewellia breviventralis

oh i am sorry for you avant, i know your after cruciatus as well, tough luck mate.

mick

i'm still not happy that they have to use hormones,

mick

Nonetheless, it made my day to see them right in front of me! It was just the glass wall of the tank dividing us.

mickthefish wrote:i'm still not happy that they have to use hormones,

mick

Hormones aren't great, but it is a step towards captive breeding which is encouraging. Anything to lessen the amount of fish taken from the wild is a plus in my eyes.

Given the opportunity, I would buy these captive bred clowns over wild caught ones for certain. I would rather put our dollars at risk than wild populations of species.

BotiaMaximus wrote:

mickthefish wrote:i'm still not happy that they have to use hormones,

mick

Hormones aren't great, but it is a step towards captive breeding which is encouraging. Anything to lessen the amount of fish taken from the wild is a plus in my eyes.

Given the opportunity, I would buy these captive bred clowns over wild caught ones for certain. I would rather put our dollars at risk than wild populations of species.

Second that.

i have to agree with you Botiamaximus. Jacques explained to me that the catches of wild Clowns have been diminishing rather rapidly due to over collecting especially in Sumatra and that is why the Indonesian Government sought this breeding program. We dont want Clowns to go the same way as Sid's do we???!!!!!.
Cheers Graeme.

Graeme McKellar wrote: We dont want Clowns to go the same way as Sid's do we???!!!!!.
Cheers Graeme.

Whats with the sid`s?

Sid's are thought to be extinct in the wild from over collecting. All available now are captive bred. I don't know if there's any plans to start re-introducing them to the wild, hopefully so.

Careful with absolutes- there are a number of programmes in South America where formal groups undertaking sustainable collection generate political backing to protect the entire watershed.
Similar economic incentives based on pets industry collecting are also being used for control/protection of reef-tracts in Indonesia, Micronesia and Philippines.
We looked into helping set something like this up in Cambodia last year. I've sort of dropped the ball on that one....
A

just to stick my oar in here, sid's are not extinct in the wild but they are carefully managed, i've seen two shipments in the last year of wild very young sids.

mick

It sounds like the Indonesian Government is off to the right start, this was a program they implemented. Not as if a venture capitalist in a far off place is trying to take away the Indonesian's market. It sounds like they are doing it to protect their resources. Hopefully it can employ some of the the same people who collected in the wild and increase their standard of living.

I wouldn't call hormone induced breeding ideal by any means, but it is encouraging to see an effort being made to protect wild populations.

I wouldn't look at this as an absolute, but a piece. Every angle needs to be examined to protect what's left of our unspoiled areas, eco-tourism, sustainable collecting, education and alternative means of income for the people who live in the areas that need protection.

mickthefish wrote:just to stick my oar in here, sid's are not extinct in the wild but they are carefully managed, i've seen two shipments in the last year of wild very young sids.

mick

Thanks for the correction - very pleased to be wrong on that one.

Hm. I just can not get rid of the feeling, that main motivation here is $$$$$$. There are no guaranties they will stop with catching wild fishes, and this will become a " create " them as many as possible industry. Money rules the world.