Cute 'Finding Nemo' clownfish could be rising star of Taiwan's aquaculture sector

Reef aquarium owners around the globe were suddenly desperate to add the bright orange saltwater fish with the white stripe to their collection, just as Nemo was added to a fish tank in a dentist's office in Australia.

Wild clownfish were overharvested to satisfy surging demand, sending their numbers plummeting.

Even captive breeding programs, which some hope could replenish enough clownfish to prevent their demise in the wild, have been woefully inadequate in curtailing the species' dwindling numbers and damage done to its natural habitat.

That may soon change, however, as a Taiwanese saltwater ornamental fish research team has unlocked some of the mysteries surrounding the breeding process and hopes that through the diffusion of the technology, the clownfish trade will emerge as another success story in Taiwan's aquaculture industry, following in the footsteps of the advances made in raising shrimp and grouper.

The research team estimates that by 2011, Taiwan could breed 2 million clownfish and generate NT$100 million in the lucrative ornamental fish market, while helping save the species in the wild.

The team is led by Ho Yuan-hsing, an associate researcher with Fisheries Research Institute of the Eastern Marine Biology Research Center in eastern Taiwan's Taitung County, who has been actively engaged in fish breeding programs for nearly two decades.

In 1997, Ho published the world's first report on the artificial breeding of the giant grouper (Epinephelus lanceolatus), but later turned to research on saltwater ornamental fish and edible fish like abalone because he wanted "to do something more important and that has greater influence on Taiwan."

His change in interest was largely motivated by pursuing an area that few had treaded because he has always wanted to be a "trailblazer."

The captive breeding of saltwater ornamental fishes has a high entry threshold because of technology barriers and the difficulty of obtaining sea water, which is why an overwhelming 98 percent of saltwater ornamental fishes are still caught in the sea rather than artificially bred.

Taiwan is ideally positioned, Ho says, to reverse the disturbing trend, especially for clownfish. The country's warm weather and waters provide a perfect habitat for the prized fish, and its large fish farming population (127,000 in 2007) has traditionally excelled in the field.

"Taiwan has artificially bred the most fish species in the world," Ho says.

The country has also broken considerable ground in the development of live bait as a food source for clownfish larvae, a critical advancement since finding suitable food and mass producing it is essential to the artificial breeding process.

Ho's center inaugurated a clownfish fry production farm in November 2008, which Ho estimated could produce 100,000 clownfish this year and potentially double that in 2010.

The center actually began researching clownfish in 2002, but the Fry Production Model Farm only became a reality because Ho's team was finally able to master several core technologies.

For one, pairing the clownfish is not easy. Though clownfish are strictly monogamous, that does not mean that "they will mate automatically if a male and female are put together," Ho says.

"We have to see to it that the two see eye to eye and will not attack each other, especially because the fish is very fierce and protective of its own territory and attacks any fish, even of its own species, that encroaches into its territory," he adds.

The farm now has 150 seed pairs, with half of them spawning.

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