Aquaculture 2025

March 6 - 10, 2025

New Orleans, Louisiana USA

VISUALIZING SKELETAL DEFORMITIES OF Amphiprion ocellaris USING DIFFUSIBLE IODINE-BASED CONTRAST-ENHANCED COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY

Brittney Lacy, Casey Murray, Jaimi Gray, Andrew Rhyne, Matthew DiMaggio

 

Tropical Aquaculture Laboratory

University of Florida

Ruskin, FL 33570

blacy2@ufl.edu

 



Ocellaris clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris) are a popular marine fish in the aquarium trade and are a major contributor to the profits of marine ornamental fish farms globally. Although this species has been aquacultured since the 1970s, many research gaps in the biology and culture of these fish remain. A major hurdle facing culture of this species is the inadvertent production of deformed, unmarketable fish that must be culled prior to distribution, thus reducing profits for producers. Skeletal deformities appear to be one of the most prevalent types of deformities among many cultured species, including A. ocellaris. Deformities of this type have rarely been categorized and empirically described with large knowledge gaps in the etiologies for morphological features as well other processes influencing their development. This study aims to characterize common deformities observed within clownfish aquaculture through diffusible iodine-based contrast-enhanced computed tomography (or dice-CT). Juvenile and adult A. ocellaris specimens with gross deformities and apparently normal specimens (n=39) were scanned utilizing this technique and the resulting projections were reconstructed to visualize and describe the morphological differences occurring in deformed fishes (Figure 1). Morphometric shape/statistical analyses will be utilized to further delineate differences between deformed and normal specimens (i.e. partial procrustes superimposition, principal components analysis, canonical variates analysis). Both undesirable and desirable deformities (i.e. stubby clownfish) were accessed to help inform research on the causative factors for deformity development. With a better morphological understanding of these fish, more precise manipulation of their physical traits should be possible.