we're going to show you the top

five recommended captive bred marine fish

for your nano-reef aquarium.

A concern for many aquarists today is not

only where their fish came from, but how were

they collected.

Were they net caught?

Were they tank raised?

Or were they captive bred?

Choosing captive bred fish, especially for

your nano-reef aquarium is setting you up

for success and it helps take pressure off

wild populations.

Captive bred Clown Fish not only acclimate

better to aquariums, they've been around fish

their whole life, so they get along very well

with other fish and they're used to humans.

Humans come every day to feed them dry foods

and artificial foods, so they're well acclimated

to the foods you're going to be feeding them.

They're overall less stressful and they'll

live longer, giving you greater success in

your reef aquarium.

In today's video, we're going to show you

the top 5 captive bred marine fish for your

nano-reef aquarium.

And if you've already seen these fish, you

may want to stick around because at the end of the

video we're going to give you a sneak peek at some

of the new captive bred fish coming out to

our industry.

Clownfish, especially the Ocellaris Clownfish,

continue to be one of the most popular marine

fish for aquarists at all levels.

Most species of Clownfish are great for

nano-aquariums as they stay small in size, they occupy

a very small territory of your aquarium and

they remain peaceful.

Being captive bred, Clownfish are now available

in many designer colorations and many captive

bred species are readily available to hobbyists.

Clownfish are just a great personable fish to keep.

There is one species you need to be a little

careful with which is the Maroon Clowns.

The Maroon Clowns grow up to six inches long

which is a little too big for a nano-reef aquarium.

So if you're going to get one of the species

of Maroon, make sure you have a larger aquarium.

Cardinal Fish are another amazing captive

bred fish we highly recommend for larger sized

nano-reef aquariums.

They're a very slow moving, methodical fish

and they'll stay active in the middle to upper

top of your aquarium.

They do extremely well with other fish and

they're very peaceful.

The two most common captive bred species are

the Pajama Cardinal and the Bangai Cardinal.

Pajama Cardinals often do best in schools

and if you keep multiple fish, they will set

up a small hierarchy within your aquarium.

Bangai Cardinal fish are a fascinating success

story for our industry.

Threatened by over collection, it became the

perfect candidate for captive breeding and

are now being aquacultured successfully in Indonesia.

They can be a little more aggressive than

the Pajama Cardinal fish and males can be

especially aggressive towards one another,

so it's best to keep a mated pair or keep one of them.

They are also very easy to breed and the males

are actually mouthbrooders and will hold the

eggs in their mouth until the eggs are ready to hatch.

There are many species of captive bred Blennies

that are available to aquarists today, but

most of them hide within your rock work.

One exception is the new Kamohara Blenny available

from ORA.

This hardy, attractive fish was once only

available in Japan and is now being aquacultured.

This is a very energetic and active fish.

It actively moves throughout your tank all

day long, hunting for small crustaceans or

places to hide at night.

It's one fish we'd highly recommend for you

as it's peaceful and it's gotten along with

everything in our reef tank.

Like Clownfish, Cleaner Gobies are one fish

that's been captively bred for many, many

years and is almost a must for any reef aquarium.

These fish eat parasites off of other fish

and will help keep your other tank inhabitants

healthy.

They stay very small and grow under two inches

in length and are very docile.

Since they clean other fish with parasites,

they get along with virtually every species

of fish and they're recognized as a cleaner fish.

In aquariums, they will also eat small bits

of frozen and dry aquarium foods.

Two of our favorite captive bred Gobies are

the Shark Nosed Goby and the Neon Goby.

Dottybacks are another captive bred fish that

are excellent for nano-reef aquariums.

In the wild you'll find them darting in and

out of the rocks and under ledges looking for food.

They are a very hardy fish and are quiet

easy to keep and have very feisty personalities.

It's usually best to keep one or add multiple

small ones at a same time to create a harem

of breeding fish.

They're available in a wide variety of colors

and varieties.

Our two favorites are the Orchid Dottyback

and the Indigo Dottyback.

Both of these are brilliant purple color and

you can even get them in the Electric Indigo

Dottyback which is a crossbreed of these

two species.

Without a doubt, the more species of captive

bred fish you keep in your aquarium, the more

success you're going to have.

And the great thing about our hobby is every

year we're seeing more and more species come

out that have been aquacultured.

So what species can we expect in the next

year that will become more readily available

to us?

We recently got a sneak peek at some baby

captive bred Coral Beauty Angelfish, Mandarin

Gobies that actually eat flake food and some

new Aptasia eating Filefish.

Thanks so much for watching our video and

we hope that this inspires you to keep one

of these fascinating captive bred fish in

your nano-reef aquarium.

If you're looking for more information on

captive bred fish, ORA is a great resource

and we've provided a link for them in the

section below.

And if you're looking for more helpful tips

like this, don't forget to subscribe to our channel.