FYI, interesting article. Hybrid marine fishes, new Tridacnid sp., all white clowns    2/5/09 Hello WetWebMedia crew! <Hello Kai> I read this article today at my local forum, and thought it might be interesting to share with you guys. I am unsure if you guys have already read it, but no harm in sharing right? :) I am also unsure on how true this information is, and also how old this information it. Forgive me for the long e-mail. The link for the article was not provided so I will just copy and paste it here =)Scientists discover marine hybrid hotspot Scientists from Australia have discovered a hotspot in the eastern Indian Ocean where unusually high numbers of natural hybrid fishes occur. The team from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, at James Cook University's School of Tropical and Marine Biology in Queensland, found the hybridisation hotspot between the Christmas and Cocos Islands. Marine hybrid fishes are generally considered quite rare, but the area between the islands is home to a massive 11 reef fish hybrids spanning six different fish families - the highest number of hybrids ever recorded at a single location. In most cases, at least one of the parent species that form the hybrids is a rarity at the site, with less than three individuals found over an area spanning 3000 square metres. The scientists believe that the scarcity of potential mates mean that the fish are breeding with closely related species, rather than with their own kind. The authors said: "These islands also represent a marine suture zone where many of the hybrids have arisen through interbreeding between Indian and Pacific Ocean species. "For these species, it appears that past climate changes allowed species to diverge in allopatry, while recent conditions have facilitated contact and subsequent hybridization at this Indo-Pacific biogeographic border. "The discovery of the Christmas-Cocos hybrid zone refutes the notion that hybridization is lacking on coral reefs and provides a natural laboratory for testing the generality of terrestrially derived hybridization theory in the marine environment."The hybrids found at the site include: Acanthurus leucosternon x Acanthurus nigricans Naso elegans x Naso lituratus, Melichthys indicus x Melichthys vidua, Chaetodon guttatissimus x Chaetodon punctatofasciatus Chaetodon ornatissimus x Chaetodon punctatofasciatus Chaetodon ornatissimus x Chaetodon meyeri, Chaetodon lunulatus x Chaetodon trifasciatus, Thalassoma jansenii x Thalassoma quinquevittatum, Centropyge flavissima x Centropyge eibli, Centropyge eibli x Centropyge vrolikii Centropyge flavissima x Centropyge vrolikii For more information see the paper: Hobbs JP, Frisch AJ, Allen GR, Van Herwerden L (2008) - Marine hybrid hotspot at Indo-Pacific biogeographic border. Biol Lett. 2008 Dec 23.I really hope this long e-mail will not crash your system or anything....just wanted to share this with you, as you guys have helped me so much before, I feel i should let you read this for some relaxation and perhaps you might find it interesting :) Did you also know a recently discovered Tridacna species have been...well...discovered? Tridacna costata. I wiki-ed it and it says that it has been around for very long...but has now gotten extremely rare. Oh and yea....ORA is trying to breed the world's first pure white Clownfish....Well, they are almost there..Pure white with a little touch of orange left on the tips of the fins. Hope you enjoy the "recent" news. I am unsure how recent this is, maybe I have been under the rock all this time =) If your system crashes because of this loooong mail, I'm sorry hehe. Regards <Have not read, but interesting. Thank you for sharing. James (Salty Dog)> - Kai.

Re: SW captive breeding 7/4/08 good day >Rotimi< Aside from clown fish i would like to know 1 names of other marine fish that can be bred commercially in captivity. <See here: http://wetwebmedia.com/AqSciSubWebIndex/orncultart.htm and the linked files above> 2 books or other materials on how to breed them and <... You have Frank Hoff's books? Have seen the new one by Matt Wittenrich?> 3 good sources for obtaining such adult fish for breeding thank you <These are all over the world... best to buy juveniles, raise yourself. Bob Fenner>

Mullet culture, fingerlings source   3/19/07 Note: add family... Dear Sir:   I am Maryam Jorjani and am working Golestan Fisheries Research Center in Iran. we are researching about propagation and larviculture Mugil cephalus. now we do not  have this fish and we need to provide fry / fingerling. do you know person that help us?     Thanks a lot .and I  am  waiting for your reply   Maryam      Golestan Fisheries Research Center   Gorgan   Iran     Tel:+981712222601   Fax:+981712240290 <Pleased to meet you. I did work on this Mullet species' aquaculture years back... but I don't know where you can commercially purchase young. According to fishbase.org: http://fishbase.sinica.edu.tw/tools/aquamaps/receive.php M. cephalus range extends into the lower Persian Gulf... Could you collect it from there? (the young are easily seined in shallow water where found. Bob Fenner>