Recent advances in marine ornamental breeding and seed production at Vizhinjam Regional Centre of CMFRI India

Abstract

The marine ornamental fish trading industry is an ever-expanding one, as indicated by its bolstering statistics, which amount to about US$ 300 million. Although the trade is booming, the natural habitats that foster these fishes, such as coral reefs, are steadily declining. One of the reasons for this is the overdependency of the industry on wild-caught fishes. To surpass this, the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) has developed hatchery technology for breeding marine ornamental fishes such as seahorses, clownfishes, damsels, and serranids. It began with the breeding of Hippocampus kuda. This progressed to breeding clownfishes such as Amphiprion chrysogaster, A. ocellaris, A. nigripes, A. peridarion, and A. ephippium and Premnas biaculeatus. Damsel fishes that were bred successfully include Chrysiptera cyanea, C. hemicyanea Neopomacentrus cyanomos, N. nemurus, and Dascyllus carneus. The recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) designed in the Vizhinjam Regional Centre of CMFRI is being used for broodstock development of serranids, tangs, squirrel fishes, and soldier fishes. A standard method was developed for captive breeding and hatchery rearing of anthias Pseudanthias marcia and P. squamipinnis in an advanced indigenous RAS system. The present article provides a bird’s eye view of the important research work done in India concerning marine ornamental fish breeding and reviews important breeding work carried out at Vizhinjam Regional Centre of CMFRI.

The aggregation effect of offshore mussel farming on pelagic fishes

“…At TS2, the deployed headlines were exclusively used as spat ropes. ‘Spat’ is a term applied to the early juvenile stage of bivalve development (Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO], 2004) with an average shell size of 8–12 mm (Anil et al., 2017). However, at TS1, use changed from spat ropes to re‐seeded ropes early on due to spat settling more successfully at TS2.…”

Mechanistic insights into the early life stage microbiota of silver pompano (Trachinotus blochii)

“…The animals were raised in the national brood bank facility of silver pompano at the Vizhinjam Regional Centre of ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, India. The larvae were reared according to standard production practices ( Anil et al, 2021 ). The experiments were done as per the ARRIVE strategies ( Percie du Sert et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Aquaculture forms the world’s fastest-growing food production sector and the most promising option for achieving food and nutrition security. Although technologies for marine fish larviculture have been persistently improved, poor larval survival represents a significant bottleneck in any hatchery practices ( Anil et al, 2021 ). With growing evidence and appeal, sustainable microbial management approaches can potentially enhance larval quality and survival ( Borges et al, 2021 ).…”

First feeding of a marine ornamental fish, the White‐barred Goby Amblygobius phalaena: Investigating the optimal initial live feed organisms and optimal feeding density

“…2020; Anil et al. 2022). Moorhead and Zeng (2010) extensively discussed the difficulties associated with aquaculture and cultivation of marine ornamental fish, with a particular emphasis on larval rearing, which is identified as a major bottleneck and the most arduous aspect of commercialization (Chen et al.…”

“…To date, approximately 400 species of marine ornamental fish have been successfully bred in controlled environments. Despite these achievements, ensuring a sustainable supply of these species to the market remains a challenging task, with less than 10% of the bred species achieving consistent production levels (Callan et al 2018;Sweet and Pedersen 2019;Pouil et al 2020;Anil et al 2022). Moorhead and Zeng (2010) extensively discussed the difficulties associated with aquaculture and cultivation of marine ornamental fish, with a particular emphasis on larval rearing, which is identified as a major bottleneck and the most arduous aspect of commercialization (Chen et al 2020;Groover et al 2021).…”