BLUESTRIPE GRUNT | Haemulon sciurus

Our earliest larval rearing success with public aquarium spawned eggs came from seabream, Archosargus rhomboidalisand bluestripe grunts, Haemulon sciurus. Eggs from the Florida Aquarium were delivered to the Tropical Aquaculture Lab in June of this year. These proved to be a great model and quickly taught us how to transport eggs, acclimate them to the rearing tank and approach rearing some of the unknowns. Like most eggs and larvae that we receive, we really didn’t know what they were until well past metmorphosis. The larvae of seabream and grunts are near the 2 mm mark and undergo a similar developmental pathway as other marine ornamentals. These species play an important role in public aquarium displays and knowledge of their early life history requirements are beneficial for raising these species for displays and understanding how others might develop. These were returned to the Florida Aquarium for display in August of this year.