World’s First Successful Artificial Breeding: Seven Colorful Reef Fish Species Unveiled at National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium

▲ The common clown surgeonfish, also known as the “blue tang angelfish.” (Photo / Provided by NMMBA)

Travel Center / Comprehensive Report

After ten years of research, the team at the National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium in Pingtung has recently succeeded in artificially breeding seven high-value ornamental reef fish species. The museum stated that this is the world’s first successful case of artificial breeding of reef fish. The survival rate from hatching to juvenile and finally to adult fish is less than one in a thousand. These reef fish are not only vibrantly colored but also extremely rare, with market prices reaching up to tens of thousands of New Taiwan dollars.

▲ The striped pigfish (left) and the cleaner wrasse, commonly known as the “fish doctor” (right). (Photo / Provided by NMMBA)

The seven successfully bred reef fish species include the blue tang angelfish, common clown surgeonfish, striped pigfish, blackspot snapper, five-lined snapper, cleaner wrasse, and Naso tang. They will be on display in the museum’s special exhibition on fish breeding technology before the end of September. The training and breeding group at the NMMBA explained that in the past, only clownfish and damselfish had been successfully bred artificially. After a decade of effort, the museum’s coral reef organism breeding and cultivation research team has finally achieved successful propagation.

▲ The blue tang angelfish, commonly known as the “gold butterfly,” with international market prices exceeding tens of thousands of dollars. (Photo / Provided by NMMBA)

Taiwan is home to an estimated 2,000+ species of coral reef fish, accounting for more than two-thirds of the country’s marine fish species. However, due to environmental destruction caused by human activities such as blast fishing and poison fishing