Iowa's Central Campus High School Students Breed Lemonpeel Angelfish!

Captive-bred (aquacultured) Lemonpeel Angelfish produced by marine aquarium sciences students at Des Moines Public School's Central Campus, about as far away from the ocean as you can get! — Captive-bred (aquacultured) Lemonpeel Angelfish produced by marine aquarium sciences students at Des Moines Public School’s Central Campus, about as far away from the ocean as you can get!

Big News from Central Campus Aquarium Science

Our students are thrilled to announce an incredible milestone: they have successfully spawned and raised the Lemonpeel Angelfish (Centropyge flavissima)!

Since 2010, Aquarium Science students have been honing their skills by breeding various clownfish species. But this accomplishment marks a first–raising a pelagically spawned marine species. Unlike clownfish, which lay their eggs in clusters on rocks, pelagic spawning happens in the water column, making it a real challenge to collect and hatch these nearly invisible eggs one by one.

It took almost 3 months of dedicated effort for students to nurture these tiny eggs into juvenile fish about half an inch in length. While the Lemonpeel Angelfish has been bred in aquariums before, it’s still not commonly available as aquacultured, making this achievement even more remarkable.

This year alone, our talented students have raised four new-to-the-program marine fish species, including the Neon Goby (Elacatinus oceanops), Lemon Damselfish (Pomacentrus moluccensis), and the Yellow Tailed Blue Damselfish (Chrysiptera parasema) [in addition to the Lemonpeel Angelfish].

Please join us in celebrating this incredible success. Watch the video to see the beautiful Lemonpeel Angelfish up close.

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Editor’s Notes – Attendees at the 2011 MACNA in Des Moines, Iowa, had the wonderful opportunity to visit the Central Campus High School Marine Lab. At the time, it was already an impressive undertaking, and if you were there, you know how special this is.

The entire CORAL staff congratulates educator Kirk Embree and the entire team of dedicated Aquarium Sciences students for accomplishing a marine fish aquaculture success that is normally reserved for commercial-scale operation. The successful breeding of Centropyge spp. angelfish at home, by a single hobbyist, is almost never accomplished, being just too resource and time-intensive for a single individual.

We are all a bit envious that we didn’t get to have this experience ourselves as high school students, and can’t wait to see this next generation of aquarists continue to make meaningful contributions to science as they head out into the world!