Reproduction and Conservation of indigenous Marine Ornamental Fish in Oman: Oman Clownfish Amphiprion omanensis

The marine ornamental fish trade has been established as an up and coming industry over the last several decades. An estimated 14?30 million live marine fish with a net value of approximately USD 500 million are collected annually worldwide for ornamental trading purposes. However, currently more than 90% of marine ornamental species are collected from the wild especially coral reef regions. Out of the 1000 species of coral reef fishes traded only 51 have been cultured in captivity. Therefore, ornamental fish production is an important component of aquaculture industry and many studies have been conducted on the reproduction of species that are most commonly used in aquarium trade for the purpose of rearing them in captivity. The development of aquaculture technology for marine ornamental fish is one of the options to increase supply and reduce dependency on a wild caught population and will introduce long-term sustainability of the marine ornamental trade industry. However, many trials of research for the coral reef fishes have proven challenging, mainly due to the complex reproductive biology, the small size of newly hatched larvae, the lack of suitable-sized live feeds for first feeding, and some disease problems. Since the Sultanate possesses more than 1000 species of marine fishes, there are many candidate potential species for marine ornamental aquarium fishes. There are few known clownfish species in Oman including Clark?s clownfish, Amphiprion clarkia which is very widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific and one of the rarer species of clownfish, the Oman clownfish, Amphiprion omanensis, that is thought to be found only around Southern Oman (Dhofar region). Even though the Omani government has applied very strict regulations against the collection of this species, it is not difficult to find at local aquariums and oversea traders selling for very expensive prices. Illegal collection of coral reef fishes can have a significant impact on both population sustainability and the wider ecological system. Many fishes die during capture due to trauma, poor handling, stress, and in transportation. As a result, there is an urgent need to establish sustainable supply sources for the ornamental fish industry to protect indigenous species and their natural habitats and surrounding ecosystems. The proposed project, therefore, would like to develop techniques of reproduction protocols of Oman clownfish through; 1) observation of reproductive biology, 2) artificial maturation, 3) breeding and larval rearing, 4) determination of optimal water quality and 5) pathological examination.