New ORA fish release!!!!!

[chilumba]

ORA is going to be selling manadarin dragonet and spotted dragonets this summer can't wait!!


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.

[TheKid]

Cheaters!!
Jk but this would have saved the lives of 2 mandarins for me if they had this earlier, but now I have a mandarin who eats like a pig( and weaned MYSELF).

But this is huge to the saltwater industry and I take my hat off to ORA!

[Myka]

Awesome!! I want to be first in line!

[Dyspnea]

wow, very nice. Can't wait to have another manadarin again once my tank ages a bit

[Sunee]

Great!! I am planning an upgrade and want a mandarin - this will make it much easier as long as we can get them here!

[StirCrazy]

this is probably the most exciting captive bread fish to come out. I would love to set up a smaller tank with just a male and female blue mandrins for fish and design the landscape around them. the part holding me back is the size of tank required to produce food for two of these. this definatly has me thinking of setting up a tank again.

Oh, what are the yeild rates of females to males in the captive breeding? if some one wanted one of each is it going to be hard like it is with wild cought fish?

Steve

[blacknife]

If you read the fine print on the release it says they are on frozen and they will not be released till they get them on pellets as well so you would not necessarily need a large amount of rock.

edit: bah i just reread your post and feel silly i think your agreeing with me. and thats why your rethinking..

[StirCrazy]

hmm, I went and looked at ORA's site and there is a few things that disturb me about them to the point I don't know if I want to buy any product of theres..

they are creating hybrids which is just the next step in the colored tetras. now I know people will say so what, but what happens if a hybrid gets released into the ocean by some dummy who thinks he is doing a good thing?

Steve

[Ian]

Just the fact that this will help limit the numbers of wild fish that need tobe caught to fill demand makes me smile. I actually have just got my spotted blenny to start eating frozzen consistantly in the last week.

[The Grizz]

I so want one or two of these for sure now!!