# Captive-bred Mandarin Dragonets



## trukgirl

I saw this and thought I would share!!

ORA Announces Captive Bred Mandarins

"For many years marine aquarium hobbyists have been captivated by the exquisite beauty of Mandarin Gobies (actually Dragonettes). Their popularity, however, is tempered by the fact that they are difficult to feed in captivity and are subject to questionable collection practices in the wild. Unfortunately, most Mandarins succumb to starvation in home aquariums, even with the best intentions and attempts at feeding. Thankfully, all of that is about to change.
ORA biologists have succeeded in developing the methods needed to breed and raise commercial numbers of the two species of Mandarins, the Blue Mandarin (Synchiropus splendidus) and the Spotted Mandarin (Synchiropus picturatus). Building on the early success of breeders such as Julian Sprung, Wolfgang Mai, and more recently Matt Wittenrich, ORA is now poised to have commercially bred Mandarins available to everyone. The significance of this cannot be understated as it is a major advance in marine aquaculture and solves many of the problems associated with keeping these species.

Just as the first captive bred Seahorses were trained to eat frozen foods, ORA has already trained our baby Mandarins to eat commercially available frozen diets. This fact alone makes them easy to feed and care for, and the average aquarist will delight in not having to worry about sources of live food for their finicky eaters. Our goal is to have them soon weaned onto a pellet diet. We expect to have these fish eating pelletized foods before being released for sale.

ORA is the leader in bringing the marine aquarium industry new and exciting aquacultured species. With the addition of Mandarins to our ever-growing list, a major milestone in aquaculture has been achieved. We are sure that our retail customers and hobbyists alike will be elated that captive raised Mandarins are finally available and that a page has been turned in the tragic history of this beloved aquarium fish.

We expect to have significant numbers of Spotted Mandarins available this summer. Blue and Red Mandarins will be available in more limited quantities around the same time. "


----------



## Pasfur

Coral Magazine recently published these results, including the techniques used. Very exciting!


----------



## bearwithfish

i can not wait this is my favorite fish!!!!!!!! and by the time i am ready for one they should be well established in the market!!


----------



## onefish2fish

IMHO ORA is a joke. now im sure ill get flamed for that comment but i feel they started out with good intentions and then realized peoples want for rare and unique things ( including these colorful fish mentioned ) and it turned into just a greed for money. i guess their clown fish werent pulling in enough money. again this is ofcourse how i feel. one may ask what led me to these feelings, it was after they released their "platnum clowns" which ive seen go for $700+ per fish ( which ofcourse ive seen fish with a higher price tag ) however all they are, are constantly bred over and over again for their white color pattern. i guess all im saying is i'd love to see a wild "platnum clown"
ofcourse you wont. ( until a jack releases their aquarium down at the beach because it was just to much work ) normally fish in the wild survive because they are the fittest.. i guess now a days fish survive because they're the coolest.
sorry for my rant, dont even know why i waisted my time typing it - it wont put a dent into ORA, they still pump out clown fish and seahorses by the hundreds ( which is actually good to prevent people from buying wild caught fish ) but i just hate how they have these genetic bred fish that they claim to be "rare"


----------



## Mike

I think it's great that they've figured out how to breed mandarin fish and get them to eat frozen food. Hopefully this will mean that fewer will be caught in the wild and sentenced to die in somebody's aquarium. It's also great that more hobbyists will now get to enjoy these beautiful fish.

I hadn't heard of platinum clownfish before. So these fish were "achieved" by breeding fish with similar traits together repeatedly? Or was there explicit tampering with genes or something of that nature? Personally, I think this is ruining a good thing, but I guess enough people like the way they look if ORA is in business breeding and selling them.










I know what you mean about not liking the idea of people breeding creatures over and over for certain traits and basically steering the course of evolution, onefish2fish. People have been doing much the same with dogs and many other creatures for a long time, though, so I don't know if ORA ought to be held to a different standard. I would probably be more upset if I knew that this was the result of some kind of explicit genetic tampering rather than leaving similar looking fish to breed. One thing's for sure, I'm not a fan of the look of the platinum clownfish. :-?


----------



## onefish2fish

i believe they breed a fish, and from those fry select the fish with the most white in them, then breed them, then select the fish with the most white in them then breen them and so forth. im not 100% sure on that but common sense tells me thats how they do it. i know with dogs this is pretty common for shorter tails, fur colors, and esp. sizes like the teacup variations. honestly i dont think just ORA needs to be held to this standard but it should start somewhere. people, although some un-aware are who are responsible for what gets sold. its that simple. if people DONT buy it, it wont be getting sold. its a shame that like i said in nature things reproduce based on how they survive but now its all in a lab where we play dr. frankenstein.
as i mentioned im 100% all for the breeding of the clowns and seahorses to reduce the stress on the over harvesting that takes place. ( and if you dont think that happens just think of all the fishing nets that "overharvest" things that shouldnt be in their nets in the first place alone, not to mention actual harvesters ) i just dont support the changing of the animals natural beauty, even if it was through constant selective breeding it never would of came to that in the wild. the same concepts can go for glo-fish on the freshwater side.


----------



## trukgirl

Administrator said:


> I think it's great that they've figured out how to breed mandarin fish and get them to eat frozen food. Hopefully this will mean that fewer will be caught in the wild and sentenced to die in somebody's aquarium. It's also great that more hobbyists will now get to enjoy these beautiful fish.
> 
> I hadn't heard of platinum clownfish before. So these fish were "achieved" by breeding fish with similar traits together repeatedly? Or was there explicit tampering with genes or something of that nature? Personally, I think this is ruining a good thing, but I guess enough people like the way they look if ORA is in business breeding and selling them.
> 
> I know what you mean about not liking the idea of people breeding creatures over and over for certain traits and basically steering the course of evolution, onefish2fish. People have been doing much the same with dogs and many other creatures for a long time, though, so I don't know if ORA ought to be held to a different standard. I would probably be more upset if I knew that this was the result of some kind of explicit genetic tampering rather than leaving similar looking fish to breed. One thing's for sure, I'm not a fan of the look of the platinum clownfish. :-?


I COMPLETELY agree with everything said here. Especially the first paragraph. 

I don't like the look of those platinum clowns either. And $700+ for a clown?? INSANE. I do some lurking on other forums now and then, and it really seems like some of the people that have those expensive clowns really only have them to show them off and have bragging rights. Blah.


----------



## Pasfur

There is another Clownfish just catching the eyes of the commercial breeders, called a Lightening Clownfish. The white strip looks like a streak of lightening down the side of the fish. They have found 2 of these in the wild over the last several years and at this point aren't sure if they will be able to find more for breeding purposes or if they will have to use selective breeding.

If you ask me, Clownfish are meant to be ORANGE!


----------



## CollidedChaos

Pasfur said:


> There is another Clownfish just catching the eyes of the commercial breeders, called a Lightening Clownfish. The white strip looks like a streak of lightening down the side of the fish. They have found 2 of these in the wild over the last several years and at this point aren't sure if they will be able to find more for breeding purposes or if they will have to use selective breeding.
> 
> If you ask me, Clownfish are meant to be ORANGE!



I'm a member of a local salt water enthusiast club in my area. One of our members actually bought the rights to breed these. I'll see if I can post his blog here.


----------



## thatg33kgirl

My LFS ordered some of these captive bred mandarins this past week- they look about the same as wild caught, but hopefully will have nice long life spans as they won't be starving to death.

They are a little pricey for over 50, but worth it for now. I hope more people can breed them in captivity as well!


----------

