I have a friend named Matt Wittenrich. He is the author of The All-New & Complete Breeder's Guide to Marine Aquarium Fishes (TFH Publications 2007), a very important book in the evolution of the marine aquarium hobby. Matt is currently pursuing his doctorate at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida with research focusing on the development of feeding abilities in the larval stages of coral-reef fishes. Inspired to science by a love of marine aquaria since the age of 15, Matt successfully raised more than 56 species of marine fish and shrimp in his parent's basement in western New York.
He did that when he was still just a hobbyist.
Hobbyists are on the cutting edge of the marine aquarium industry, and the frontier before them is captive breeding. Today there is more information about breeding available to hobbyists than ever before. From online forums to print publications and local aquarium clubs, everyday hobbyists are engaged in dialogs with other hobbyists, marine biologists and commercial breeders. It is exciting, and it is important.
I do not subscribe to the view that a marine aquarium industry based solely on tank-raised fishes and inverts should be the goal. I believe that striking a balance between sustainable wild collection and captive breeding is essential. This is particularly the case when it comes to species that are threatened in the wild or ones whose survival record is dismal in the marine aquarium.
Mandarinfishes and filefishes have gotten a lot of airtime recently—these are both fishes that traditionally have not done well in aquaria. While new husbandry information has increased the chances of success with these animals, the reality is that the very great majority of the wild-caught individuals imported for the marine aquarium trade perish in the aquarium. So why give them the airtime in the hobby magazines? Won’t this only result in more people purchasing these fishes? And won’t that only result in higher mortality?
These are questions I know my friend Matt grapples with daily, as he has been one of the people who has “popularized” hard-to-keep species in the hobby magazines. And yet Matt sees a future where hardy captive-bred mandarinfishes are available to hobbyists—mandarins that readily accept a captive diet and mandarins who thrive in the home aquarium. Because of Matt's work, that future is now much closer than you may think.
There is an interview in the documentary “Hearts of Darkness” with filmmaker Frances Ford Coppola, where he talks about the next great filmmaker possibly being a kid in the Midwest with little more than a video camera and an idea. In the same way that technology has made making movies accessible to just about anyone with a camera phone, today almost any hobbyists can participate in the exciting and important work of breeding marine fishes. After all, Matt got his start as kid with a hobby in the basement of his parent’s home in western New York…
Go breed!
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