Join us on a reef recovery journey
RoffaReefs aims to make a difference in breeding and feeding of marine fish. In close collaboration with the Rotterdam Zoo we made 100% aquacultured vegan fish feed. The first tests with prototypes of our solar panel fuelled breeding system are up and running.
IMPORTANCE OF CORAL REEFS
Coral reefs are important ecosystems that house one third of all marine fish and 25% of all species worldwide. Unfortunately, these complex ecosystems are vulnerable to climate change and according to the UN all reefs will be critically endangered in 2050. The mind-blowing and colourful beauty of these coral reefs have nourished a business that enables us to cultivate this beauty in our public and private aquaria. To date, half of all fish species are collected from coral reefs for display in these aquaria. Ideally, the capture of these fish species for display in aquaria, should be significantly reduced to minimize its impact on the endangered coral reefs. To achieve this goal, we have to improve our knowledge on the natural habitat and behaviour of these species to construct improved nutritional diets and breeding programs in our aquaria. This might be a huge leap in maintaining the endangered coral reefs and securing the diversity of our sea life.
FEEDING MARINE FISH
One example of our poor knowledge on nutritional diets for fish in public and private aquaria is the feeding of standard processed food to a wide variety of fish species. Usually, these nutritional diets contain high amounts of fish meal. The origin of this fish meal, as well as information on which fish species are processed to obtain the commercial nutritional product is in most cases completely unknown. Unfortunately, there is little to zero control in which fish species are processed, which could mean that we are feeding endangered species in our fish meal to the herbivorous fish we keep in our aquaria. Possibly we provoke cannibalism. Especially, when feeding surgeonfish, such as the Blue Tang (a.k.a. Dory for the people who have watched Finding Nemo), things get complicated. This beautiful creature is scarcely bred and feeds on plankton and algae in their natural habitat. However, our beloved, Dory is fed with pellets that contain fish meal and agriculture products.
BREEDING MARINE FISH
Fish have a vital role in the coral reef ecosystem and it’s recovery; Surgeonfish ‘Dory’ is not just a beautiful creature, but also a gardener that takes control of algae being rampant which would damage corals. Surgeonfish are taken from wild reefs to be a gardener in our own reef aquaria at home and in the zoos. The breeding of marine fish is taking giant leaps forward, in the last few years many institutions made good progress breeding species for the first time. Reproducible results by fellow aquarists are needed to make the marine aquarium sector more sustainable.
Where we are active
