Reef Ramblings

Italian pump manufacturer, SICCE, is pleased to announce that the marine aquarium specialist, Midland Reefs, has been appointed UK distributor for its product range in the UK.

Established for more than 35 years, SICCE designs and manufactures a broad range of water pumps for all areas of aquatics, from small water fountains pumps up to pond and drainage pumps.

The aquarium range includes extremely quiet recirculation pumps with low power consumption, stream pumps, internal and external filters, power head pumps, high-precision heaters, air pumps, CO2 systems, and aquarium lines for both beginners and the demanding aquarium enthusiast.

For fountains, there are extremely quiet pumps for both indoor and outdoor applications, along with submersible lamps.

The garden range includes internal filters for ponds, pressure filters, fountains, submersible lights, and flexible folding pond kits complete with pump.

Of particular interest to reef keepers are the extremely quiet Synchra Silent return pumps, the high output, high head Multi return pumps, and the stream style Voyager range.

The new range of SICCE products will be on display for the first time in the UK on the Midland Reefs - SICCE stand at the AQUA2010 trade show in Telford, 6^th - 7^th October.

For more details on SICCE products, please contact Midland Reefs.

Telephone: 01543 685599. Email: tim@midlandreefs.co.uk

Websites:

www.sicce.com

www.midlandreefs.co.uk

SAIA, the Sustainable Aquarium Industry Association, the European organisation for everybody interested in an ethical and sustainable Marine Aquarium Trade and Industry, has published a list of unsuitable and unsustainable fish species.

This document can be freely downloaded from the SAIA website.

This is a consultation document and SAIA welcomes feedback and discussion from all aquarists regarding the listed species.

The primary objective of the list is to raise awareness for a responsible, ethical, and sustainable hobby and trade by considering the difficulties in keeping certain organisms alive in captivity. The list identifies species where there in no justification for their being traded in volume.

In the first instance, the aim is to raise awareness in the average hobbyists who bear the disappointment and cost of choosing an unsuitable species.

For the industry the list should serve as guideline on what to avoid when placing an order, with the exception of where the listed species is requested by a buyer with either proven record of being capable to keep such specimens or for the purpose of breeding or research. Such buyers are not the average hobbyists.

SAIA would like to point out that the number of species listed as unsuitable or unsustainable is represents a small proportion of what is traded, so no significant loss to business and economy would result from adhering to this list, nor does it restrict the hobby significantly in the variety of species on offer.

The majority of the species concerned are available only from the wild, and it has to be questioned why such species, which do not survive for long in captivity or are threatened with extinction, should be traded. The intent of the list of unsuitable & unsustainable species is not to totally ban the listed species from trade, but rather to raise awareness and hence decrease the demand for such species.

Before reading the list I would suggest first reading the criteria for inclusion, reproduced below from the SAIA website, to enable the reason for listing to be put into perspective.

Note: where a family or genus is listed, the criteria in question relates to all members of that family or genus.

Criteria for unsuitability:

• Diet: Require a specialized diet that is difficult to duplicate in captivity e.g. coral polyps, sponges, tunicates, etc.
• Habitat: Require a specialized habitat which is very difficult to simulate (e.g. deep sand bed, depths of more than 10 meters)
• Aggressive: Extremely aggressive, have large territories in the wild, and are unsuitable for community aquariums. Note: aggression in fish is not anger but is due to territorial behaviour.
• Size: Grow too large for home aquariums, may require 4000 litres or more. It is not enough to merely provide a tank where the organism is well covered with water, an adequate habitat appropriate to the species requirements should also be provided.
• Stress: Those species that are sensitive and stress easily, do not transport well, and are susceptible to parasites and disease. This classification also includes species that only seem to survive in an aquarium when kept in large shoals and those that are collected from deep water, often improperly.
• Potentially harmful: information on venomous/harmful species will be provided shortly.

Criteria for being unsustainable:

• Rarity:  If it is difficult to find a species in the wild this may be an indicator of rarity. The minimum criterion is data deficiency on stock status. The industry does not want to stand accused of collecting a species to extinction.
• Destructive collection methods: collection of these species might lead to destruction of the habitat e.g. cyanide/drug use.
• Stock Status: the species is threatened in its population by other activities e.g. by catch of food fishery, habitat loss.
• Source: species being readily available from culture/breeding should not be taken and offered from the wild.

Some species might hit several categories and criteria, some only one. Nevertheless, species marked as unsuitable or unsustainable should not be demanded by or sold to the average hobbyist.

The list is not exhaustive, it is a work in progress, currently only covering fish species, which will be updated and extended, over time.

If you have any comments regarding this list please contact SAIA directly through the SAIA website. If you have any queries regarding SAIA in the UK, please feel free to contact me.

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2010

SAIA

©2010

The Indian government has effectively banned the reef aquarium hobby with the publication of a 72-page document entitled, Aquarium Fish Breeding and Marketing Rules.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests has drafted new rules pertaining to the breeding, selling and display of fish in aquariums in India. These rules appear to apply to all in the hobby and industry, retailers, aquarium keepers and anyone who keeps fish for public display (presumably meaning public aquariums). None of this applies to fish caught and sold for food.

The ministry stated ‘Breeding and selling of aquarium fish has become big business. In this process coral reefs have been damaged and many fish brought to near extinction. There is a tendency to regard fish as non-beings therefore they are sold as commodities, kept in unsuitable ways and in unsuitable places,’

Under the proposed rules, inspectors can visit anyone with an aquarium for regular checks with the aim of the rules being to ensure that people keeping or selling fish must have knowledge and a good understanding of the species-specific requirements of the animals.

I have no problem with the introduction of regulations aimed at improving the quality of life of the organisms kept in the industry and the hobby, hence my commitment to the Sustainable Aquatic Industry Association (SAIA), but the proposed Indian rules will effectively ban the reef aquarium hobby.

Item 9 states: No establishment may keep or sell corals. That, along with the list of prohibited species makes the outlook for reefkeeping in India very grim.

The regulations that have been suggested appear to be very mixed, some make perfect sense, some make no sense at all, while others may be difficult to comply with in India owing to the costs or technology involved. The prohibited species list is also mixed, many of the fishes listed I would also consider restricting in the EU to all but advanced aquarists, yet other species listed seem to be unnecessarily prohibited.

I would be interested to know the provenance of this list, are there local collection issues being addressed, are species included because they are venomous?

I find it particularly sad that that this is happening in India, a country where the hobby of reef keeping and marine aquariums is in its infancy.

This issues brought up by this document are exactly those that SAIA is trying to address in the EU. With SAIA we are endeavouring to produce a list of Best Practices put together by aquarists with hands on knowledge of the organisms, rather than see the hobby at the mercy of legislators and academics with no practical knowledge of aquatics.

I believe that it is in the best interests of marine aquarists throughout Europe to join in and support SAIA to prevent legislation of this sort being imposed on us by those outside of the industry and the hobby.

Click to see the full extent of the proposed Aquarium Fish Breeding and Marketing Rules.

Appendix A.

It is prohibited to keep or sell the following species:

(Note spelling is as per the draft document)

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2010

The 1^st of June saw the first annual conference of the new coral reef aquarium initiative, the Coral Aquarist Research Network (CARN) take place at the Royal Geographical Society in London.

CARN was formed in October 2009 as a network to foster the exchange of knowledge, expertise, and experience between coral reef researchers and those working in the various fields of aquarium related industries such as suppliers, public aquariums, coral growers, and hobbyists. It is hoped that the creation of this network will provide opportunities for the various coral industries to collaborate with the world class coral and reef biology research community in the UK.

This first conference included presentations that were both research and industry orientated, highlighting the status of knowledge, technology and importantly gaps in our understanding of coral physiology, ecology, transport, growth and sustainable harvesting.

A special issue of the JMBA, one of the UK’s leading marine biology centric journals, will be devoted to the proceedings of the conference.

The day started of with an introduction to the conference by Philippa Mansell from the University of Essex, project manager of CARN.

The conference was split into four sessions of talks, each session based around a theme. Although some of the talks were of a scientific nature the bulk of them were easily accessible to the keen hobbyist. Concluding each session there was a period set aside for questions and answers, enabling conference participants to further exchange information or ask questions clarifying aspects of the presentations.

For the purpose of this article, I’m just going to briefly list the presentations with a few comments on their relevance to the hobbyist.

The session on Coral Eco-physiology was fairly technical, looking at: Mechanisms of thermal induced coral bleaching and the implications for reef community structure ( Dr David Smith, University of Essex), effects of trace metals on reef anthozoan pigmentation (Edward Smith, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton) , and the influence of the light climate on colouration of reef corals (Dr Jörg Wiedenmann, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton). The research being carried out here will have a benefit to hobbyists enabling them to keep bright coloured corals and better maintain their colouration.

The second session, Coral Ecology and Biodiversity, included a fascinating talk on Mushroom corals (Fungiidae) and their associated fauna in the Coral Triangle (Dr Bert Hoeksema, Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity), looking at the various animals that live on or in these popular aquarium corals. The Importance of Symbiodinium diversity: implications for the aquarium trade (Patrick Brading, University of Essex), was about the various species of symbiotic dinoflagellates, the zooxanthellae that live within coral tissue. Environmental influences on coral growth – from Indonesia to the Caribbean (Professor James Crabbe, University of Bedfordshire), gave an insight into how the environment affects the way that corals grow in nature and how this might affect their growth in aquaria.

The session looking at the coral industry and conservation examined issues of conservation, sustainability, and management of resources with presentations on the trade in reef corals (Dr Elizabeth Wood, Marine Conservation Society), the UK trade in ornamental polychaetes or Fan-worms (Joanna Murray, University of Portsmouth), and whether the coral industries can play a role in the future conservation of coral reefs (Philippa Mansell, University of Essex). An important issue, greatly affecting the future of the hobby.

The conference finished of on the subject of aquarium based research and workshops and featured a talk on Coralzoo (Dr Ronald Osinga, Wageningen University), an initiative looking at four years of public aquarium research on stony corals, my own presentation discussing Coral Nutrition in the Captive Environment (Tim Hayes, Midland Reefs), and a report on the 5^th SECORE workshop, a program investigating sexual reproduction in stony corals (Jamie Craggs, Aquarium Curator, Horniman Museum).

CARN is an initiative that welcomes you, the hobbyist, to join in and share your experiences of keeping corals in your reef aquarium. You can do this by going to the CARN website, http://carnuk.org/getinvolved.aspx, there you can share information about the corals and other reef organisms that you’ve kept, with top reef scientists who are very interested in looking at how these fascinating animals fare in the captive environment in comparison to how they live in the wild. For advanced hobbyists it could also offer the opportunity to ask questions of reef scientists based on observations of your reef aquarium.

Together we can take the reef aquarium hobby forward through the exchange of information, perhaps in the process improving long term survivability of reef organisms and the sustainability of the hobby.

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2010

Reef Scientific Calanoid Copepods

The highest quality frozen natural marine zooplankton available anywhere!

High Nutritional Value!

High in protein, in omega3, Phospholipids, DHA & EPA, and Astaxanthin.

Although other companies market the calanoid copepod, Calanus finmarchicus, the nutritional quality of these is poor owing to the presence of autolytic enzymes that degrade fatty acids and proteins after freezing. With Reef Scientific Calanoid Copepods, these autolytic enzymes have been deactivated, consequently extending the storage time of the food from as little as one month to in excess of a year with no loss of nutritional value!

Non-polluting!

100% clean. Needs no pre-rinsing before use. The product is pasteurized for bio-security and sealed, using natural components from crustaceans, minimizing nutrient leakage in the reef aquarium. Can be thawed and kept in the refrigerator for up to 14 days.

Suitable for all saltwater and freshwater fish, corals, and crustaceans.

Originally developed in Norway as an initial feed for larval and juvenile stages of marine aquaculture species, it has since proven valuable for ornamental aquarium species. Trials have shown them to be particularly useful in larvaculture since almost all larvae of fish or crustaceans have high nutritional demands during their early stages of development,

This range of marine zooplankton is produced in land-locked bays in Northern Norway and, characteristically of high latitude calanoid copepods, are rich in phospholipids, essential fatty acids and proteins along with the caratanoid Astaxanthin. The fatty acid, DHA, is only produced in marine algae and is accumulated in zooplankton as they graze in a process of natural enrichment.

Although it’s not widely known, there is a problem associated with the preservation of zooplankton through freezing without the degradation of fatty acids and proteins. Zooplankton contains large amounts of autolytic enzymes that continue to degrade their fatty acids and proteins post mortem. These enzymes remain active when zooplankton is frozen; consequently, the maximum storage life is one month before valuable Phospholipids in the zooplankton become degraded.

Our Norwegian partners have succeeded in deactivating the autolytic enzymes present in the zooplankton; consequently, the storage time of the food has been extended to more than one year without loss of nutrients.

Furthermore, they have developed a method of coating the zooplankton with an ultra thin membrane derived from natural components of crustaceans that prohibits nutrient leakage from the food particles. This results in a frozen food of very high nutritional quality that will not pollute the aquarium by leaching nutrients into the water.

Size Range.

The food ranges in particle size from 2mm down to 0.1 mm. Currently only the 2mm size is generally available, although if you are a breeder please talk to us about the smaller size fractions. With the exception of the 2 mm zooplankton, C. finmarchicus, a number of different species are present in each sizing, providing a rich variety of different nutritional profiles. The smaller size fractions of our feed can be used to substitute the use of live feed such as rotifers and artemia. These are available, in small volumes, in the following size fractions 65-80, 80-150, and 150-200 µm, covering the size range of rotifers.

Although other companies market calanoid copepods, specifically Calanus finmarchicus, the nutritional quality of these is poor, as the autolytic enzymes have not been deactivated.

Aquarium

Aquarium shops in Norway trialing the product have been unambiguously positive. After 2-4 weeks feeding, all fish species responded with stronger and more intense coloration. Wild caught fish, fed with this food when first received, had a higher survival rate.

Clownfishes

The smaller-size food particles have a documented positive effect on fish and crustacean larvae.

In co-feeding experiments, clownfish have shown 100% higher growth compared to a diet solely with enriched rotifers and artemia. Survival has increased by 50%.

Norwegian ornamental fish breeder, Thomas Engels, has done extensive testing of the product and has substituted the artemia feeding period of clownfishes by 2-3 weeks using this product, finding it be the best food he’s ever used.

Dr. Ike Olivotto at the university of Ancona, Italy, is shortly to publish a paper showing this food to be superior to live feeds such as rotifers and artemia. His research involved comparing two groups of clownfish larvae, one group fed a standard rotifer/Artemia nauplii, diet, the other fed a combination of rotifers/copepod nauplii and Artemia nauplii/copepodites-copepods.

Analysing gene expression in clownfishes, growth promoting factors increased by 2.5 times, whilst growth-inhibiting factors (myostatin) decreased by 5 times. His research showed 100% higher weight along with 30% length increase in clownfishes 10 days post hatching, compared to fish given a diet consisting of enriched rotifers and Artemia. 15 days post hatching, larvae fed with the copepod enhanced diet had a 62% survival rate compared to larvae fed a conventional rotifer/Artemia nauplii diet with a 41% survival rate.

Aquaculture

A Norwegian lobster hatchery, Norsk Hummer AS, trialing the 500-700µm frozen food, found that the survival rate of lobster larvae during the three weeks prior to settlement, increased to approximately 15% from less than 1%! This increased survival rate was evident even when the lobster eggs were of poor quality.

In the UK, after an initial trial, the National Lobster Hatchery are now using the 2.0mm Calanus finmarchicus as part of their raising protocol.

The food is currently being trialed on newly hatched cod larvae with further testing on growth and survival planned for other species such as halibut, turbot and cleaner fish.

Midland Reefs, Unit 10 Mount Rd. Trading Estate,

Burntwood. Staffordshire, WS7 0AJ. UK.

Tel: +44 (0) 1543 685599

Zooplankton Technical Data.

Table 1. Size and Species

Table 2.

Fatty acid profile (mg/g dry weight and % of total fatty acids) of the 2 mm size fraction of copepods.

Fatty acid profile may vary depending on season, locality, and plankton species grazed.

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2010

The Coral Aquarist Research Network (CARN) is holding its 1^st Annual Conference on the 1^st June 2010 at the Royal Geographical Society, London.

CARN, formed in October of last year, was created to facilitate and initiate the exchange of knowledge, expertise and experience between coral reef researchers, coral growers, national and public aquaria, and reef hobbyists. This network is in place to structure opportunities for coral industries such as suppliers and growers to engage with, utilise and collaborate with the world class coral and reef biology research community in the UK.

This first conference will include a number of presentations that are both research and industry orientated highlighting the current status of knowledge, technology and, importantly, gaps in our understanding of coral physiology, ecology, transport, growth and sustainable harvesting.

Indeed, I will be delivering a presentation looking coral nutrition in the captive environment.

This conference provides substantial networking opportunities and a chance to discuss ideas, address queries or simply take interest, and potentially become involved in, impact-led research initiatives from an economic and sustainability perspective as well as from an enhanced coral growth, coral diversity and improved conservation measures viewpoint.

If you think you might have something to contribute (many hobbyists are ahead of educational organizations and public aquaria when it comes to growing corals) or would just like to come along and learn, please get in touch with me ASAP so that I can communicate with the organizers to ensure that name badges are printed, ready for the event.

Oh, and just because it might sound a bit advanced or scientific, please don’t be afraid to come along. I can promise you that there will be accessible content and that it’ll be a great chance to talk with enthusiastic like-minded individuals.

CARN is a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded project, within the the University of Essex’s Coral Reef Research Unit (CRRU).

www.carnuk.org

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2010

Apologies for the lack of articles over the last few weeks. Recently nearly all our time has been taken up with preparation for exhibiting at the Interzoo pet trade show in Germany.

Interzoo is held every 2 years and is probably the largest pet and aquatics trade show in the world. This was Midland Reefs’ first time exhibiting at an international trade show, a lot of hard work but very rewarding.

We went to the show to introduce the Reef Scientific range to the international market at the same time as launching two new product ranges, MarinePure - filtration media, and Reef Scientific Calanoid Copepods - frozen food of the highest nutritional quality. Read more about these two new ranges in future posts.

A small part of the Reef Scientific range along with MarinePure.

Here’s a shot of the booth during a quiet period at the show with Jon talking to a couple of customers from Switzerland.

If you live outside of the UK and are interested in any of our products, please get in touch. We hope to now be able to direct you to a Reef Scientific retailer or distributor in your own country.

Now that we’ve returned from Germany after a successful show, normal service is once more resumed, there’s a backlog of articles waiting to be both written and published on Reef Ramblings, so get ready to read!

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2010

There’s unsettling news this week about a Canadian LFS that seems to have been a victim of sabotage.

The recently opened Indoor Jungle, located at 1285 Kennedy Road, Scarborough, Ontario, is Canada’s largest exotic fish and reptile store.

The storeowners suspect vandalism after hundreds of fish died after bleach or a bleach like substance was poured into the centralised water system. The first indication that something was wrong was when customers alerted store employees to a strong smell of bleach coming from the tanks but by the time they reached the wall of 70 tanks, hundreds of fish were dead or dying.

Fish including small Bamboo Sharks, Queen Angelfish, and Black Lionfish along with hundreds of rare shrimps were among the 700 animals killed, along with corals imported from Australia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Caribbean.

Co-owner Adam Gharavi said he’s certain it wasn’t an equipment malfunction and believes that a chemical was poured into the centralised system servicing 400 tanks holding more than 5,000 fish. He said the vandal, who attacked on Wednesday afternoon, went for the store’s most expensive fish and 200 pieces of rare coral.

“We know whoever did this had some knowledge of how fish tanks work and what the fish need to survive,” Gharavi said. The cost of the incident is estimated to be tens of thousands of dollars.

Inland Jungle is one of about a dozen fish stores along Kennedy Rd. between Steeles Ave. E. and Eglinton Ave. E. Stores have happily coexisted here for years in the knowledge that the more different stores you have in the area, the more people come, to everyone’s benefit.

A Toronto police detective has been assigned to investigate the scene, and on Thursday morning, yellow police tape was seen to close off the wall lined with tanks filled with dead fish.

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2010

It was reported today that the massive Dubai Aquarium had sprung a leak, resulting in the evacuation or partial evacuation of the surrounding shopping mall.

This aquarium features the world’s largest viewing panel at 32.8 meters wide and 8.3 meters high, and contains 33,000 fish including sharks and rays  in a volme of 10 million liters of water (just over 2 million UK gallons).

The extent of the damage is not clear at this time but the mall is reported to be cordoned off.

I’ve managed to locate a still image and a short video relating to this incident.

Video footage of the leak:

bcpid4267205001?bctid=68554000001

Still image courtesy of MozaAlKaabi:

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2010

The New England Aquarium in Boston, Massachusetts, joined up with Rogers Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island, in a project to raise the world’s first captive-bred Queen Triggerfish.

The New England Aquarium’s Bahamian coral reef exhibit features a pair of Queen Triggerfish, Balistes vertula, which have been seen to spawn since their early days in the aquarium. Although these fish regularly lay tens of thousands of eggs every 18 to 20 days, the resulting larvae need live food of a small size, making them difficult to feed and keep alive.

Most marine fish larvae are very small and need live food of a correspondingly smaller size. Whereas some species, such as clownfishes, can be successfully raised using rotifers, organisms that grow and reproduce at a fast rate and in high densities, these are too large for many other species or don’t have the correct nutritional profile needed.

In the wild larval marine fish eat copepods, micro-crustaceans found virtually everywhere in the oceans, but raising copepods in large enough quantities is currently difficult. This is one of the reasons why far fewer species of marine aquarium fish are captive bred than are wild caught.

Eggs were collected from the aquarium and taken to the university’s marine laboratory where, at the first attempt, there was a successful hatching.

Although thousands of larvae hatched, work was concentrated on a relatively small number, which were initially fed with a local species of copepod grown by the lab.

Although the majority of the larvae died, four were successfully raised to the point where they could eat dry food and now, at more than four months old, remain alive, three at the university and one at the aquarium, the first triggerfishes to have been successfully bred in captivity.

The success of this project was largely due to Dr. Rhyne’s research into copepods, the critical live food for marine fish larvae.

Dr Andy Rhyne, assistant professor of biology at Roger Williams and a research scientist at New England, was hired in August 2009 in a collaboration between the aquarium and the university to study larval fish production at the aquarium and to start a program in aquarium science and aquaculture at the university.

Today many species of fish are threatened by a combination of overfishing, climate change, and environmental degradation, indeed the Queen Triggerfish is listed on the IUCN red list as being vulnerable. The species is important both as a food fish and for public aquarium displays. It’s a large species; reaching up to 60 cms total length and its bright colours make them a favourite of public aquariums although too large for the majority of home aquaria.

This is an important step in the cultivation of marine species, as researchers such as Andy Rhyne develop new feeding strategies, it increase the chances of being able to raise further species of marine aquarium and food fish in captivity, rather than continuing to take them from the increasingly vulnerable and deteriorating oceans.

To find out more about this wonderful achievement go to MOFIB to see Andy Rhyne’s diary recording the day-by-day progress of the project.

Congratulations, Andy!

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2010