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Aquarium Aquaculturist Becomes First to Breed Rare Fish in Captivity

Aquarist Todd Gardner successfully raised the "reef basslet" through its larval period this week, previously thought to be impossible in captivity.

For 15 years, aquaculturist Todd Gardner has studied, researched and experimented with fish eggs, trying to do what had long been seen as "impossible." He worked seven days a week on his project since July, knowing that he was nearing a breakthrough. This week, the impossible became reality.

Gardner, an employee at the , became the first person to successfully raise reef basslets, a rare and expensive fish, in captivity on Monday.

The Liopropoma reef basslet, a colorful fish that grows to be just 2 1/2 inches in size, is a prized addition to aquariums because of the difficulty in catching it. The fish tend to live in ocean waters as much as 200 feet deep, hiding in the small crevices of reefs, making them difficult and dangerous to catch.

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"People have lost their lives trying to catch these fish," Gardner said. Since basslets had never been raised in captivity before, the only way to own the fish was to catch them in their natural habitat.

A single basslet can be worth up to $1,000 if sold on the retail market, Gardner said.

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Using a system of tanks and specially designed filtering mechanisms, Gardner has managed to raise 12 fish, the oldest being just over 70 days old, from a batch of about 100 fish eggs. These fish reached the "settlement" phase of their life cycle, signifying when they would drift from the open ocean onto a reef and begin life as an adult fish, Gardner said. Even though they are now adults, the surviving fish are still mostly transparent and are about one inch long.

He added that the basslet, like all other fish, needed very specific steps to raise them successfully.

"There's not just one technique you can use to raise all these different species," Garnder said, pointing to massive tanks filled with clownfish, crabs and other marine life in the back rooms at the aquarium.

Gardner, who teaches biology at Suffolk County Community College, said the basslet was particularly difficult to raise due to its small size. Normal techniques to feed the fish didn't work, he said, because the fish larvae are microscopic and as small as the food used to feed them. Gardner had to raise copepods, a species of tiny crustacean, and filter out only the smallest ones to feed to the tiny basslets. Gardner also faced the challenge of cleaning the tank's water without flushing out the microscopic eggs, which are barely visible to the naked eye.

The breakthrough is not yet economically viable, Gardner said, but he hopes to refine the process to make it easier for fish wholesalers and aquarists to raise basslets, meaning fewer fish would need to be captured from their natural habitat. He also believes that by breeding the fish that survived the process, he can encourage strong genes in the next batch of fish.

"It's kind of like natural selection," he said, "More like artificial selection."

Gardner said he has gotten an outpouring of support from the marine biology community, including researchers from the Smithsonian who were fascinated by the basslets "filaments," long stringy trails of balloon-like structures that grows out of the larval fish that are thought to improve the fish's buoyancy. Until now, the filaments had never been seen before on a live fish.

Garder said he is now looking forward to taking a break from the aquarium, having passed up on vacations and family events to raise his basslets.

"I ruffled a few feathers," he joked. "I'm looking forward to getting my life back a bit."

But Gardner's work isn't done yet.

"I'm not stopping until I get stripes on these fish," he said. "Then I'll take a few days off."


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