SUCCESSFUL CAPTIVE SPAWNING AND CULTURE OF CUBAN HOGFISH Bodianus pulchellus

Cortney L. Ohs*, Jason S. Broach, Isaac S. Lee, Andrew T. Palau
University of Florida
Indian River Research and Education Center
Fort Pierce, FL 34945
cohs@ufl.edu
 

The Cuban hogfish (Bodianus pulchellus) is native to the Caribbean and is marketed to the marine ornamental trade. Captive culture and metamorphosis has not been previously documented and research regarding reproduction, larval culture, and production protocols does not yet exist. Twenty-four adult Cuban Hogfish were stocked into a 2700 L circular tank in January 2016. The first spawns were recorded in October of that year. Two successful culturing attempts were completed, one in November 2016 from a spawn of 3500 eggs and one in February 2017 from a spawn of 4500 eggs. Eggs from each of the two spawns were stocked into 104-L circular tanks with black sides and white bottoms. Larvae hatched within twenty-four hours at 27°C and were fed copepod nauplii (Parvocalanus crassirostris) twice daily and enriched rotifers (Brachionus plicatilis) once daily beginning at first feeding. Copepod nauplii were discontinued at 36 dph while rotifer feedings were discontinued at 24 dph. Newly hatched Artemia were added twice daily beginning at 15 dph. Average total densities fed daily throughout both culture attempts were 10-15, 10-20, and 0.2-1 per mL for copepod nauplii, rotifers, and Artemia, respectively. Flexion occurred by 15 dph and metamorphosis occurred by 80 dph. Two juveniles were obtained from the larval culture attempt with the first spawn and 25 juveniles from the second spawn.