Clownfish study at UW

[breckie]

Hello PSAS,
This is Breckie McCollum the undergraduate from UW Fisheries with another study! This time my research partner Kenny Behen and I are looking at growth rates, mortality, and overall fitness levels in a comparisson study between tank raised and wild caught clown fish. We will be purchasing both wild caught and tank raised (both privately raised and from aquaculture facitlities) and I was wondering if you could recommend local shops with good selections of wild caught clown fish and suppliers of tank raised. This should be a fun study and we look forward to your suggestions.

 

[bradreef]

It will be hard to find a shop with wild caught. ORA supplies even petco. I would try true percs as they should be available in both way. I would ask a shop to order some for you because they probably can but dont regularly.

 

[bradreef]

O and elmo has clowns locally that he raises and he would be the real person to ask this. I think they would all need a 1 month qt period proir to studies.

 

[Eric Boerner]

Agree with Brad. I'm fairly certain that wild caught Ocellaris and True Percula clowns are very rarely seen in local stores anymore. Most are from ORA or bred locally. You might find some Percula from an online store as mated pairs however. But with all wild clowns, you have no idea how old they are already. Their age has a tremendous effect on their ability to adapt to aquarium life.

What is the species that you want to research? Theres 15+ species of clowns available to the hobby and all would produce a varied skew on your results.

 

[breckie]

We plan to see which species are most widely available wild caught, and purchase the youngest age of those we can find. (Calling local shops, online retailers etc...). The goal is to have several different 'samples' of each 'population' (wild caught from various sources and cultured from various sources). Thanks for the suggestion of special ordering wild caught, I wouldn't have thought of that. Anyone have any preferred local stores we should support with the University’s money? We are hoping to purchase as much locally as we can, but we also plan to buy some from the big names in aquaculture like ORA, as well as some of the generally frowned upon ‘discount’ companies online. Thanks for everyone’s help, getting started on a project like this is always the hardest part.

 

[james734]

As for some local retailers. Check out some of our local sponsers up here. I'm sure you should be able to find some to help out.

 

[Elmo18]

Hi Breckie.

Contact me if you are looking for some CaptiveBred/TR clownfishes.

Best,
ilham

 

[kevinpo]

We always carry wild caught juvenile Amphiprion percula clownfish.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[breckie]

Wonderful! I will get in contact with both of you soon once our budget proposal has been approved. In the meantime, can you give me ballpark prices on what we can expect to pay per individual, how many you have in stock, etc...? Thanks a lot!

Breckie

 

[Elmo18]

Breckie, I sent a PM

Best,
Ilham

 

[kevinpo]

I usually order a half dozen a week but I can order more if needed. They are $17.99 ea.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[Elmo18]

Curious whatever happened to this

Best,
Ilham

 

[breckie]

Still working things out, lots of hoops to jump through with the University. Should be at least anoth few weeks before we start purchasing livestock etc...But I am sure Kenny and I will have a few more questions for you all before then. Thanks for checking back!