Baby Tomato Clownfish Join South Pacific Gallery

Nine baby tomato clownfish are now on exhibit in the South Pacific Gallery at the ABQ BioPark Aquarium. The fish were hatched and raised behind the scenes in the Aquarium's Marine Aquaculture Rearing System (MARS) in October.

"This is the first time that we have reared and raised clownfish to have on display," said Holly Casman, Aquarium Manager. "Most of the saltwater fish you see in aquariums are still collected in the wild because breeding them in captivity is extremely difficult. We hope that soon we will be rearing marine fish on a large scale and can provide them to other aquariums. This would help reduce the numbers collected from the wild."

When they first hatched, the babies were the size of a pin head. Now about an inch long, these fish will grow to around four inches as adults, with the females larger than the males. They will also change color slightly and loose their rear white vertical stripe. Tiny fish require tiny food, and staff kept busy raising phytoplankton, rotifers and artemia while the fish grew in the MARS area. Now, the babies are beginning to eat more adult food, like krill and zooplankton.

Clownfish, made popular in the movie "Finding Nemo," have a symbiotic relationship with sea anemones. Clownfish find protection in the tentacles of sea anemones, which are poisonous to most fish. In return, the clownfish feeds bits of its own food to the anemones and wards off butterflyfish which like to eat sea anemones. Clownfish are very territorial and will chase off intruders. At the Aquarium, the nine siblings are thriving in their new home among the exhibit's sea anemones.