Widebar Question

[T1KARMANN]

Thanks. We already have the correct hormones needed to induce egg and sperm developement, the right chemicals to keep the fertilized eggs seperated and the equipment needed to harvest the sperm and eggs and the rearing tanks, all we need now are some large STs.

The only critical info we need is size at maturity. If we inject the fish and they are not mature we can permanently damage their reproductive systems.

I have a 12" NTT that Im sure is mature based on max size so I may go ahead and inject the fish with the hormones and see how he/she reacts. Maybe if I can prove with photos that we can indeed get the eggs/sperm some one would like to help us out financially for a little kick back!

BTW, the fish will react to the injections as it is universal. It is commonly used on barramundi which is the closest related fish to dats (I think) that I can find information on inregards to breeding in this manner.


We have high hopes we will get fertilized eggs, its the survival rate that could be a problem. We have no idea what its like. generall though with perches it is good but we will see.

you make me

if you thought it was that easy dont you think someone who already had LOADS of ST at breeding size would have got hold of the hormones you are talking about and bred 1000000 of ST by now

 

[JD7.62]

Because there is NO MONEY IN IT ON A LARGE SCALE.

Get off the internet and out of your little fish world and understand how buisness/economics works. If we did this and had 10,000 one inch babies from just a couple females, do you think we would sell them all? Hell no! 10,000 STs would MORE then flood the market/demand for them in the U.S. and they would be worthless. My LFS would laugh in my face if I tried to sell them a 1" ST for 5 bucks. They wouldnt sell it in my town of over a million people.

Have you studied and practiced fish farming like the guy Im working with? Do you know ANYTHING about it? Are you in the lab daily working with fish? Or is it because you have been doing a water change once a week for the past ten years you think you know everything?

We are going into this with alot of unknowns and we just might not be able to do it. Like I said earlier we are very confident we can ge fertilized eggs, that is the easy part. From there...who knows and it is interesting to find out.

If it does work I will do my best to make the very few people in the U.S. that want small STs happy.

 

[TCZeli]

I would think there would still be a market. Don't they breed alot of fish the way you are talking? They still sell don't they? Yes the price would drop if ST's flooded the market, but other fish that get bred this way sell at low prices, yet people keep breeding them, so someone is still making money on it.

You can also argue that the demand will go up once this fish falls in the price range of more people.

I just think there is another reason these guys aren't being bred. And I think its because noone has been successful yet.

 

[JD7.62]

The vast vast vast majority of fishkeepers in the U.S. buy bread and butter fish. A very small percentage of people would want a fish as large and predatory as a tiger. Those people are called MFKers! There is a reason the big box stores carry what they do. Hell ask your LFS what fish are their money makers are and I bet you wont hear large predatory oddballs!

You are correct they do breed fish like this. Fish that are used for food and sporting purposes because that is were the money is at. Some fish are bred like this for the ornamental fish industry but not many places are doing it.

Most large fish are easy enough to harvest egg and sperm from, its just once fertilized, keeping the deveoping young alive is the hard part. From what Ive been told by some one I really trust on this forum, hormone breeding STs has been successful Thailand.

Also I can see why it would be kept such a secret. In a poorer country like Thailand that is in a part of the world with a larger demand for these fish, something like breeding STs could be a big deal and they would want to keep as tight of a lid on it as possible.

 

[TCZeli]

The vast vast vast majority of fishkeepers in the U.S. buy bread and butter fish. A very small percentage of people would want a fish as large and predatory as a tiger. Those people are called MFKers! There is a reason the big box stores carry what they do. Hell ask your LFS what fish are their money makers are and I bet you wont hear large predatory oddballs!


Also I can see why it would be kept such a secret. In a poorer country like Thailand that is in a part of the world with a larger demand for these fish, something like breeding STs could be a big deal and they would want to keep as tight of a lid on it as possible.

The "bread and butter fish" idea makes sense.

As far as the keeping it secret.... I thought there goal was to re-populate the wild community?

I can only think of 2 reasons people would breed these guys. Money, and to re-populate wild stocks.

I do not think they are doing anything about re-populating the wild population because noone can produce the name of a single orginization that is doing this. And, they would deff advertise their orginization and goals, because these types of programs do no normally get that much funding. So I would imagine someone would have seen a website asking for donations somewhere about this cause if one existed.

And I do not think they are doing it for the money, since if they are desperate enough to set up these secret programs, and keep there methods a secret so they can make as much money as possible then laws or no laws, they would be smuggling these guys out by now and some small ST's would be seen around. They wouldn't put in the effort to just sit on them because of export laws. They would have known the laws before starting

I just do not think anyone has done it. I hope you do, and if successful you will be the first as far as im concerned.

 

[T1KARMANN]

im sorry you are talking rubbish hear in your sig you say you are looking for a 10inch ST then you say you are very close to breeding and you already have the hormones but you dont have ANY st

as far as i know you cant breed any fish unless you have the adults to do so

when you can prove that ST are being bred then i think you can say look hears the proof until then well its just talk

good luck for your hunt FOR 1 10INCH ST you need 2 to breed them you know and it has to be male and female

 

[BushFishRox]

hook me up with some baby ST's!!!

 

[BushFishRox]

WTB: 10"+ STs

he isnt looking for one ST he is looking for many 10"+ STs, I guess for breeding purposes...

you negative Nancy

 

[EKen53]

Sounds a bit of a fairy tale to me, and I don't mean to be negative. JD you keep talking about USA, but do you know how much STs are in demand all over Asia, and particularly Japan ans Singapore. Don't you think that those Japanese and Singaporean scientists didn't study this ST breeding subject. I mean, Ornamental Fish is a huge market in Singapore and Japan, maybe ten times more than in the USA, and even they can't breed STs. And I believe that Singapore and Japan has a lot more specimens to work with than the USA...

And about mass production, look at Asian Arowanas, they are being mass produced and still demand high price. Hell even Greens and RTGs are selling well...

But anyways, I wish you the best of luck, and hope to hear news from you later. I hope this thread does not go forgetten after a few months, and people go "oh yeah that guy wanted to breed STs and we never heard of him again..."

 

[Loubard]

you make me

if you thought it was that easy dont you think someone who already had LOADS of ST at breeding size would have got hold of the hormones you are talking about and bred 1000000 of ST by now

It's that easy.

Just like told, it's just a matter of finding out the size/length/weight/whatever they are ready to breed (because you would really want to minimize the chance you make your breeding stock un breedable...) and how to raise the eggs, wich can take a long time to grow to a good size, seeing the grow rate's of small datnioids.

I believe some people are hard at work finding this out as we type....maybe also hoping a bit to get a tankload of small st's

Another thing, with all the sceptic about indo's being st like, even if you breed st's it would be very hard to convince some people here they are real st's