Breeding and Larval Rearing Techniques for Protandric Tropical Clownfish Amphiprion Percula under Captive Condition

Abstract

Captive breeding and larval rearing of tropical clown anemonefish Amphiprion percula was accomplished for the first time in India. Broodstocks were developed through pair formation in which 5 fishes of different age group 30 to 50 mm (presumptive male) and 55 to 80 mm total length (presumptive female) collected from the coral reef ecosystem of Andaman and Nicobar islands were reared in 500 l FRP tank fitted with biological filters along with single host sea anemone Heteractis magnifica for a period of 3 to 4 months. One pair grew ahead of others in each tank, and the newly formed pairs were transferred to 250 l perspex breeding tanks. The fishes were fed four times per day in split doses at the rate of 20% of their body weight with wet feeds: meat of shrimp, green mussel, fish egg mass and clam. In addition to these, live feed : L type rotifer Brachionus plicatilis (500 to 750 numbers ml-l day-l ) and artemia nauplii (10 to 25 numbers ml-lday-1) were also provided after 6 hours of bioencapsulation with Poly Unsaturated Fatty acids (PUFA) and Highly Unsaturated Fatty acids (HUFA) using cod liver oil.