First Captive Breeding Achievements

Northwest_FIsh_Keeping

Northwest_FIsh_Keeping

Well-Known Member
Captive breeding achievements in recent years have exploded with numerous new species being bred successfully for the first time, both within the Zoo & Aquarium sphere, but also on the industry and trade side as well. I couldn't find anywhere else to put these posts, since it doesn't exactly deal with releasing animals back into the wild, so I thought I'd start a new thread on this that covers achievements for species bred for the first time in captivity.
This can include both Zoo & Aquarium and industry/trade successes since they do mix a lot (at least with Aquariums, a lot of industry breeders do supply the public aquarium side with their captive bred animals).

Rose Anthias (Odontanthias katayami) bred by Surge Marinelife for the first time |
This was the story that made me want to make this thread since no one really saw this coming. Rose Anthias are a very rare species from the deepwaters of Japan. There are only 2 places in the world that exhibit them (Okinawa-Churami Aquarium and Steinhart Aquarium) and only a handful in private hands. Often going for $20,000 USD. With this achievement, we may see more in public aquariums at least in the near future. Surge Marinelife is based in Florida and were also the first to produce the "Scopas x Purple" Tang hybrids last year.
VIDEO: Fluorescing Rose Anthias from Surge Marine Life, an Aquarium Breeding First - CORAL Magazine

Blue-spotted Jawfish (Opistognathus rosenblatti) bred by De Jong Aquaculture for the first time |
Earlier this year it was announced that De Jong Marinelife in the Netherlands successfully bred the Blue-spotted Jawfish for the first time in the world. They're a popular aquarium fish due to their patterns, but often come with illness and injury when collected from the wild (most likely due to the way they're collected since they hide in the sand). This means that healthy individuals will be available for Aquariums soon, both public and private.
De Jong Aquaculture Successfully Breeds Blue Spot Jawfish For The First Time | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

Predatory Tunicates (Megalodicopia hians) being cultured by the Monterey Bay Aquariums for the first time | MBARI just put out this piece that mentions the Monterey Bay Aquarium is currently culturing the larvae of Predatory Tunicates to study their life cycle and for exhibit. While it doesn't sound like they've completed the life cycle yet since they grow very slowly, it's still a huge achievement. While they probably won't be sent to other aquariums since they're Deep-Sea animals and no other Aquarium in the US has the technology (as of right now) to exhibit them, it's still really cool to see this species being cultured since they come from the Monterey Submarine Canyon and in order to be collected, have to be attached to the substrate otherwise they'll die, so they use a shovel to scoop them up. This should replace all the hassle of doing that.
Predatory tunicate • MBARI
 
Reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi) bred by the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.

World's First! Black Manta Born in an Aquarium Now on Display!

Porcupine ray (Urogymnus asperrimus) bred by the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.

For the first time in two years a rare baby porcupine ray was born!

Eiffinger's tree frog (Kurixalus eiffingeri) bred by the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.

Successful breeding of Eiffinger’s tree frogs, the only frogs in Japan that raise their young.

Giant carpet anemone (Stichodactyla gigantea) bred by the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.

Home of the clown anemonefish - The world’s first successful breeding of the gigantic sea anemone!

Japanese sawshark (Pristiophorus japonicus) bred by the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.

Born in the aquarium! Exhibiting two-year-old Japanese sawshark

Indian mackerel (Rastrelliger kanagurta) bred by the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.

The world’s first! Successful captive breeding of Indian mackerel

I'm sure he'll see this thread eventually, but @Local_Shark might be interested in many of these.
 
SeaOtterHQ said:
Reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi) bred by the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.

World's First! Black Manta Born in an Aquarium Now on Display!

Porcupine ray (Urogymnus asperrimus) bred by the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.

For the first time in two years a rare baby porcupine ray was born!

Eiffinger's tree frog (Kurixalus eiffingeri) bred by the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.

Successful breeding of Eiffinger’s tree frogs, the only frogs in Japan that raise their young.

Giant carpet anemone (Stichodactyla gigantea) bred by the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.

Home of the clown anemonefish - The world’s first successful breeding of the gigantic sea anemone!

Japanese sawshark (Pristiophorus japonicus) bred by the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.

Born in the aquarium! Exhibiting two-year-old Japanese sawshark

Indian mackerel (Rastrelliger kanagurta) bred by the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.

The world’s first! Successful captive breeding of Indian mackerel

I'm sure he'll see this thread eventually, but @Local_Shark might be interested in many of these.
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You had better believe I am, thank you for alerting me!! All of this is so amazing...I do hope someday these programs will gain steam in the US and we'll see some advancements here too.
 
Local_Shark said:
You had better believe I am, thank you for alerting me!! All of this is so amazing...I do hope someday these programs will gain steam in the US and we'll see some advancements here too.
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What do you make of Okinawa's success at breeding reef manta? I think there are many potential upsides from a scientific, conservation, and zoological perspective, and I'm curious if any Western researchers or facilities have shown interest yet.

From the perspective of Joe Public, a reef manta is almost indistinguishable from a giant manta, so a captive breeding program for reef mantas would give aquaria another large charismatic species to draw casual visitors. I also suspect reef mantas pose fewer challenges in captivity than giant mantas do. It would likewise give scientists a chance to study Mobula much more in depth than previously possible, and since all the Mobula species are vulnerable/endangered, the conservation value is obvious. I believe that Okinawa Churaumi is currently researching the devil fish (Mobula mobular) as well, which is not held anywhere outside of Okinawa and Osaka Kaiyukan.
 
SeaOtterHQ said:
What do you make of Okinawa's success at breeding reef manta? I think there are many potential upsides from a scientific, conservation, and zoological perspective, and I'm curious if any Western researchers or facilities have shown interest yet.

From the perspective of Joe Public, a reef manta is indistinguishable from a giant manta, so a captive breeding program for reef mantas would give aquaria another large charismatic species to draw casual visitors. I also suspect reef mantas pose fewer challenges in captivity than giant mantas do. It would likewise give scientists a chance to study Mobula much more in depth than previously possible, and since all the Mobula species are vulnerable/endangered, the conservation value is obvious. I believe that Okinawa Churaumi is currently researching the devil fish (Mobula mobular) as well, which is not held anywhere outside of Okinawa and Osaka Kaiyukan.
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Personally I am fascinated by it for all the reasons you describe. I hope that as Georgia grows more established in their manta care, they consider bringing in a male to try to reproduce with Nandi. I will say, Blue (their only current male, a giant oceanic/M. birostris) seems quite keen on the idea of mating with their other giant oceanic Talulah, which I documented pretty extensively on one of my visits...lol. No idea if that will ever happen, especially given that she doesn't seem particularly enthusiastic about the idea herself.
 
Local_Shark said:
Personally I am fascinated by it for all the reasons you describe. I hope that as Georgia grows more established in their manta care, they consider bringing in a male to try to reproduce with Nandi. I will say, Blue (their only current male, a giant oceanic/M. birostris) seems quite keen on the idea of mating with their other giant oceanic Talulah, which I documented pretty extensively on one of my visits...lol. No idea if that will ever happen, especially given that she doesn't seem particularly enthusiastic about the idea herself.
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Both Blue and Nandi are the newly described species Mobula yarae which may be easier to breed then birostris if it ever happens. Completely agree and would love to see Georgia breed them down the line.

Okinawa has been raising all of their offspring in sea pens though and breeding them in there as well so that could have an effect as well?

Also side note for the thread they first bred reef manta back in 2008 and rather the black color morph is the recent one born.
 
Jonathan Petersson said:
Both Blue and Nandi are the newly described species Mobula yarae which may be easier to breed then birostris if it ever happens. Completely agree and would love to see Georgia breed them down the line.

Okinawa has been raising all of their offspring in sea pens though and breeding them in there as well so that could have an effect as well?

Also side note for the thread they first bred reef manta back in 2008 and rather the black color morph is the recent one born.
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Not sure where you are getting the info that Nandi is a M. yarae - she’s a reef manta per all the information that I have from both GA sources (a few different staff members there that I’ve spoken with) and the web. She’s from South Africa, having been rescued after she was caught in shark nets there; Atlantic mantas are thus far exclusively found in the Western Atlantic, whereas reef mantas are known from the tropical East Atlantic and Indo-Pacific. Per Georgia’s press release, only Blue and Talulah participated in the M. yarae descriptive study’s genetic testing, and neither are stated there to have been identified as such. Their website also still has their holdings as only M. birostris and M. alfredi.
 
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Local_Shark said:
Not sure where you are getting the info that Nandi is a M. yarae - she’s a reef manta per all the information that I have from both GA sources (a few different staff members there that I’ve spoken with) and the web. She’s from South Africa, having been rescued after she was caught in shark nets there; Atlantic mantas are thus far exclusively found in the Western Atlantic, whereas reef mantas are known from the tropical East Atlantic and Indo-Pacific. Per Georgia’s press release, only Blue and Talulah participated in the M. yarae descriptive study’s genetic testing, and neither are stated there to have been identified as such. Their website also still has their holdings as only M. birostris and M. alfredi.
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Oops mistype by me there I meant to say Blue and Talulah not Blue and Nandi! On a recent visit I did the behind the scenes tour and they said that both of them were of the new yarae species.
 
Jonathan Petersson said:
Oops mistype by me there I meant to say Blue and Talulah not Blue and Nandi! On a recent visit I did the behind the scenes tour and they said that both of them were of the new yarae species.
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Wow, that’s very interesting that their tours would be saying so but their website isn’t updated and the press release didn’t indicate it. I’ll see if I can find any further information about it from the people I know working out that way. If that’s the case then maybe Blue will eventually succeed in getting what he wants someday…lol
 
Local_Shark said:
Follow up to this, I actually did some poking around and was able to acquire the study that described the new species. They did not reference either of the GA rays in the genetic testing that they ultimately utilized as type specimens, though they did think the aquarium in their acknowledgments. Additionally, I looked through all of the morphological characteristics of M. yarae that were outlined in the study and compared them to every single picture that I have of the two, as well as any photos or videos I could find online; none of the characteristics really lined up. All of this is pretty consistent with the notion that they are not the new species, but were utilized in the study to help determine the differences between them and the giant oceanic. I think it’s possible that your BTS tour guide was mistaken. At this point, I would need to be told about their genetic results by someone who took them to be convinced they’re anything other than M. birostris lol.

But hey, for what it’s worth, as long as they’re both the same species the possibility of them breeding is not at all off the table. So that’s something to potentially look forward to.
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According to Georgia Aquarium’s own press release, they explicitly describe themselves as being “home to several individual animals now identified as this species.” So it sounds like they do consider their animals to be Mobula yarae:
A New Manta Ray Species Discovered with Help from Georgia Aquarium
 
Veno said:
According to Georgia Aquarium’s own press release, they explicitly describe themselves as being “home to several individual animals now identified as this species.” So it sounds like they do consider their animals to be Mobula yarae:
A New Manta Ray Species Discovered with Help from Georgia Aquarium
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My goodness that’s embarrassing. I completely missed that particular line (though I’d say they buried the lede pretty bad!). If so, then they probably did get that confirmation from the genetics and for whatever reason the rest of their website isn’t updated. My apologies, good catch!
 
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Local_Shark said:
My goodness that’s embarrassing. I completely missed that particular line (though I’d say they buried the lede pretty bad!). If so, then they probably did get that confirmation from the genetics and for whatever reason the rest of their website isn’t updated. My apologies, good catch!
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No worries at all. Honestly, I wish Georgia Aquarium had just said right at the start of their press release that they were actually Atlantic manta rays. I think they’re probably the only aquarium in the world that could be the first to breed Atlantic mantas, so hopefully they succeed! Maybe Abu Dhabi too, but I’m not too familiar with them. Also, it’s pretty interesting that the male at Churaumi is apparently the only true giant manta in captivity. Hopefully they can get a female, though giant mantas are much more oceanic than Alfred mantas, so they rarely show up around Okinawa.
 
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Veno said:
No worries at all. Honestly, I wish Georgia Aquarium had just said right at the start of their press release that they were actually Atlantic manta rays.
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I wish that as well, yeah lol. Would have been so much easier to understand and saved me a whole bunch of digging through old photos, though I am glad that I did manage to get ahold of the actual study as it’s fascinating to read.
Veno said:
I think they’re probably the only aquarium that has the possibility to breed Atlantic mantas, so hopefully they succeed! Maybe Abu Dhabi too, but I’m not too familiar with them. Also, it’s pretty interesting that the male at Churaumi is apparently the only true giant manta in captivity. Hopefully they can get a female, though giant mantas are much more oceanic than Alfred mantas, so they rarely show up around Okinawa.
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I do believe so, yes! Barring individuals in any other Japanese or East Asian aquaria, it has to be, because Abu Dhabi’s are all collected by Dynasty Marine in Florida. That was done in very coastal waters from what I gather, which would be more in the range of the Atlantic manta (and also done very poorly, by recent accounts - frankly, due to all the stress of capture, I’d be surprised if the rays do that well, let alone breed). We shall see if perhaps Abu Dhabi finds any of theirs are oceanic, or if any other aquarium does have a confirmed one.
 
Local_Shark said:
I wish that as well, yeah lol. Would have been so much easier to understand and saved me a whole bunch of digging through old photos, though I am glad that I did manage to get ahold of the actual study as it’s fascinating to read.

I do believe so, yes! Barring individuals in any other Japanese or East Asian aquaria, it has to be, because Abu Dhabi’s are all collected by Dynasty Marine in Florida. That was done in very coastal waters from what I gather, which would be more in the range of the Atlantic manta (and also done very poorly, by recent accounts - frankly, due to all the stress of capture, I’d be surprised if the rays do that well, let alone breed). We shall see if perhaps Abu Dhabi finds any of theirs are oceanic, or if any other aquarium does have a confirmed one.
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The park just has a single male manta on show but I believe there is one waiting in holding in Florida to move to the UAE and maybe one behind the scenes at the park? Though it could have passed away
 
Jonathan Petersson said:
The park just has a single male manta on show but I believe there is one waiting in holding in Florida to move to the UAE and maybe one behind the scenes at the park? Though it could have passed away
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Interesting, yeah I did hear there was more than one on hand at the park and another had just been captured - but also that one they tried to bring in via Dynasty Marine already passed away. Fwiw I’m really not happy about how SW Abu Dhabi is handling any of this collecting, it all seems very poorly thought-out and dangerous to the animals. I’m certainly not trusting that they’ll ever be successful in breeding, I’d leave that much more to GA, obviously Okinawa as they’ve already succeeded, etc.
 
To return this thread back to its original intent, I think it would be helpful to use it to record various captive breeding milestones even if they're technically not "firsts." I'm a little surprised a thread like this didn't exist already (unless I missed it), because it makes much more sense than dispersing that information over dozens of separate zoo news threads. Hopefully some of the board's resident news trackers such as @Smaggledagle and @Haliaeetus will also contribute whenever there's captive breeding news.

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium breeds a third generation of hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata):

A world’s first! Successful captive breeding, producing a third generation of hawksbill sea turtles!

Fort Worth Zoo succeeds at captive breeding of gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) for three consecutive years:

Gharial Hatchings

Newport Aquarium has pioneered captive breeding of shark ray / bowmouth guitarfish (Rhina ancylostoma) over the last decade, with the first pregnancy in 2014 and a much more successful round in 2016:

Newport Aquarium Shark Ray Research Makes Lasting Impact Across Globe
 
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