Researchers make unprecedented breakthrough with fish made famous by 'Finding Nemo': 'It's important we do this research'
It turns out the fish from Pixar's Finding Nemo are pretty hard to find — and costly, too. However, researchers at the University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) are looking to change that. They're doing it by developing a method for effectively breeding these beautiful aquatic species.
Clownfish and blue tang are among the most sought-after saltwater fish for aquarium owners. This is likely due in no small part to the fact that they're the two breeds of the main characters in the Finding Nemo films. But acquiring these fish is expensive for the buyer and tricky for the seller because they must be taken from the wild.
Breeding these fish — and many other popular saltwater species — is notoriously difficult, thanks to their unique needs: The zooplankton they eat are difficult to grow, and different types of zooplankton are required as the fish continue to develop.
However, UF/IFAS researchers are finding success in their plans to breed clownfish, blue tangs, and many others. Two research groups have successfully bred blue tangs (the same breed as Finding Nemo's Dory) within two weeks of one another.
Solving this aquatic riddle can be a tremendous boon to the country's ornamental fish market, which had an estimated value of $1.68 billion in 2024, per Grand View Research. That number is expected to grow significantly. However, UF/IFAS researchers still have their work cut out for them.
"It's very labor- and cost-intensive, which is why it's important we do this research for the industry to create a blueprint," Matthew DiMaggio, director of the UF/IFAS Tropical Aquaculture Laboratory in Ruskin, said.
This research will not only benefit the economy — it can also work to protect our beautiful oceans and leave their delicate ecosystems intact. On top of that, it can benefit the many aquariums around the country that do incredible conservational and educational work.
"We don't know how wild harvest affects these reefs," DiMaggio said. "So, finding ways to raise sought-after marine fish species can contribute to conservation, as well as job creation and economic stimulation."
What's the biggest obstacle stopping your organization from using solar panels?
They're too expensive
Don't know where to start
They're an eyesore
We already use solar panels
Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.
Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scientific American
13 hours ago
- Scientific American
Engineered Viruses Make Neurons Glow and Treat Brain Disease
The brain is like an ecosystem—thousands of different types of cells connect to form one big, interdependent web. And just as biologists document species of plants and animals, neuroscientists have spent decades identifying different 'species' of neurons and other brain cells that support them. They've found more than 3,000 cell types spread throughout the brain, including chandelier neurons surrounded by branching arms, pyramidal neurons with far-reaching nerve fibers and star-shaped astrocytes that help neurons form new connections with one another. This newfound diversity is not only a beautiful picture for neuroscientists—it's also key to understanding how the brain works and what goes wrong in certain brain diseases. From Parkinson's disease to schizophrenia, many brain disorders stem from specific types of brain cells. 'As long as I've been doing neuroscience, it's been a goal of researchers to have brain-cell-type-targeting tools,' says Jonathan Ting of the Allen Institute, a nonprofit research center in Seattle. Now they have them in spades. In a fleet of eight studies funded by the National Institutes of Health and published last week, scientists from 29 research institutions found and tested more than 1,000 new ways to home in on specific cell types, no matter where they are in the brain. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. The technique behind these tools uses non-disease-causing viruses (called adeno-associated viruses, or AAVs) to deliver genes directly to specific neurons. This can make the cells do almost anything. Scientists can turn them off, activate them, 'light them up like a Christmas tree' with glowing proteins or deliver gene therapies right to them, says Ting, senior author of one of the new studies. The researchers have tested the technique only in nonhuman animals, but the bulk of the tools work across mammal species and would likely work in humans, too. Similar, less-targeted AAV gene therapies are already approved for treating spinal muscular atrophy and are being tested in clinical trials for Huntington's disease. 'There are a lot of good examples' of how AAVs are being used to treat brain disease, says Nikolaus McFarland, a neurologist at the University of Florida, who treats neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Huntington's. 'It's really exciting stuff.' Viral Shuttles Every type of brain cell is like a unique creature. Scientists have categorized the cells based on their shape, location and electrical properties—and, more generally, based on the genes they express most out of an organism's full library of DNA. By expressing certain genes, these cells carry out specific actions, such as building specialized proteins. If researchers can identify a unique snippet of genetic code that is activated just in those cells, they can use that snippet to target them. Next, they attach this genetic snippet, called an enhancer, to an AAV that has been gutted of its viral DNA. They can fill the viral husk with specific genes to deliver to those cells. The now-filled husks enter the bloodstream like a fleet of delivery shuttles, bypassing the blood-brain barrier, but are only able to activate their genetic cargo in cells with the enhancer. In the new studies, researchers focused on cell types in three parts of the brain: the outer layer of brain tissue called the cortex that plays a role in higher-level thinking, the striatum, which is part of the basal ganglia (a stretch of deep brain tissue) that is impacted in Huntington's and Parkinson's disease, and the spinal cord, whose motor neurons are destroyed in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The consortium of 247 scientists was funded by the NIH's Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative as a part of a larger research project called the Armamentarium for Precision Brain Cell Access. The scientists found and tested more than 1,000 enhancer AAVs, now freely available to researchers, that target specific cell types in those key brain regions. Tweaking the Brain Previously, these enhancer AAVs had been developed in a slow trickle by different labs, but 'now we have thousands of tools' to tweak specific cell types, says Bosiljka Tasic, director of molecular genetics at the Allen Institute and senior author of one of the new studies. Researchers can load these AAV shuttles with all sorts of different genes to answer different questions. In some cases, even just seeing the neurons in action is cause for celebration: 'Some of them are very rare cells that you wouldn't find randomly by poking around in brain tissue,' Ting says. To observe them, researchers can introduce a gene that makes a glowing protein that lights up elusive neurons from the inside to reveal their structure and how they connect with other brain cells. Researchers can also control how certain brain cells fire and turn their activity up or down to see how the change impacts an animal's behavior. To do this, researchers insert a gene into the target cells that creates a light-sensitive protein called an opsin; then they can shine specific wavelengths of light on the brain to make those cells fire on command. Ting's team used this technique, called optogenetics, to stimulate certain cells in the striatum of mice. When the researchers stimulated those cells on just one side of the brain, the mice began moving more on one side of their body than the other, causing them to go in circles. These interventions are reversible and repeatable. 'That's the part that's really satisfying for neuroscientists,' Ting says. 'You can turn them off, turn them back on and then see how that affects the brain circuit.' It's ' so much better and also so much more informative' than destroying whole parts of a mouse brain to see what happens, as is the case with much neuroscience research from the past century, Tasic says. 'That brain region may have a hundred different cell types,' so being able to activate and inactivate them more precisely will reveal more information about how these circuits work, she says. New Treatments So far, the new enhancer AAVs have been tested in mice, rats and macaques. 'We keep trying more and more species,' Ting says. 'We haven't even figured out what's the limit.' And that brings us to humans. 'That's really the answer to the question 'Why do we care?'' he says. 'We have built strong evidence that some of these tools—maybe not all of them, but many of them—may work across species into humans and could represent the start of a new therapeutic vector development that could be used to more finely treat debilitating brain disorders.' For these treatments, enhancer AAVs could deliver gene therapy right to the brain cells that need it. The best candidates for this technique are neurodegenerative diseases, such as ALS, Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease. Researchers are currently working on AAV gene therapies for these conditions and others that target whole regions of the brain rather than specific types of brain cells. Trials of these therapies indicate that they are largely safe. 'We now have lots of good examples of AAV being used,' McFarland says. 'We have [a] good safety record for that.' 'There's a lot that we still don't understand about neurodegenerative diseases,' he adds, and these little viral shuttles will allow scientists to make those discoveries that enable new treatments. While each of these brain disorders is unique, cracking one of them might help scientists crack the others, too, McFarland says: 'I wholeheartedly believe that.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Beachgoers mesmerized by massive swarm of sand fleas spotted on Florida's Space Coast
The Brief Thousands of sand fleas swarming were spotted on the Space Coast. The rare phenomenon caught on camera may have been during a mass mating. SATELLITE BEACH, Fla. - A video of thousands of tiny sand fleas is going viral on the Space Coast. What we know A longtime beachgoer captured the sight in Satellite Beach. Sand fleas are super common by the waterline on the coast of Florida, but it's extremely rare to see that many all at once above the sand. Experts think they could have been mating or eating something in the area they all liked. Sand fleas aren't bugs but actually crabs. They're known for being good bait and totally harmless. But, in other countries, doctors say they can leave parasites in people's skin. What they're saying A massive swarm of sand fleas spotted this week along Florida's Space Coast has beachgoers stunned and experts guessing, as video of the unusual sight spreads across social media. "It was very shocking. That's why I took the video. I didn't think it was going to blow up like that," said Denise Derrick Wright, who took the video she posted on social media. Dr. Todd Osborne, a biogeochemist at the University of Florida, said he's never seen so many gathered in one place. "There may be a lot of that buried in the sand there, or maybe it's a mating thing's going on, and I think that's more likely," said Dr. Osborne. While the sight might be unsettling, Florida's sand fleas are harmless. However, experts note that similar species in other parts of the world can carry parasites. "There are some in other countries that kind of lay eggs under the skin and leave parasites and things like that, but that is not something you have to worry about on Florida's beaches," said Dr. Bobby Ford, who's the ER Medical Director at Orlando Health. STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 35 ORLANDO: Download the FOX Local app for breaking news alerts, the latest news headlines Download the FOX 35 Storm Team Weather app for weather alerts & radar Sign up for FOX 35's daily newsletter for the latest morning headlines FOX Local:Stream FOX 35 newscasts, FOX 35 News+, Central Florida Eats on your smart TV The Source FOX 35 reporter Esther Bower spoke with several beachgoers, including Denise, who took the video on May 29, 2025. She also connected via zoom with a medical doctor on the possibility of people getting bitten by the fleas and a scientist on zoom about why they could have been swarming like they were. She spoke with other fishermen on the phone about how often they see sand fleas and how they're good for bait.
Gizmodo
5 days ago
- Gizmodo
Two of the World's Worst Termites Hooked Up in Florida—and Now We're Screwed
A termite horror story a decade in the making is unfolding in South Florida. Two of the most destructive invasive termites on the planet are not only coexisting—they're mating. And now, scientists have confirmed that the populations are hybridized. In a new study published this month in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers from the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) report that the Formosan subterranean termite and the Asian subterranean termite are crossbreeding and producing viable offspring in South Florida neighborhoods. The result is a new hybrid termite population that could cause even more environmental and structural damage than its already-devastating parents. 'Unfortunately, termite colonies are very cryptic and trying to find hybrid colonies in the field is like looking for a needle in a haystack,' said Thomas Chouvenc, a researcher at the University of Florida and lead author of the study, in a university release. 'We monitored termite activity closely for more than a decade to check for the establishment of hybrid colonies in some of the neighborhoods affected by the two termite species.' Genetic testing confirmed that the strange-looking termites first spotted in 2021 were hybrids of the aforementioned species. 'At first, I could not believe it, as I was hoping to never find it,' Chouvenc said. In October 2024, the researchers discovered a full-blown hybrid colony in a Fort Lauderdale park, which had likely been active for more than five years before being detected. Chouvenc said that there are likely many more hundreds of colonies across South Florida that have not yet been found. Both parent species are prolific breeders, capable of forming massive colonies and spreading rapidly. The fact that these hybrids are swarming—and potentially just as fertile—raises major red flags. Fort Lauderdale's status as a global boating hub may accelerate the spread. 'This may be a Florida story now, but it likely won't stay just in Florida,' Chouvenc warned. Private boats have previously been implicated in termite spread across the U.S. and internationally. Termite hybridization is not just an American problem; the phenomenon has also been observed in Taiwan, suggesting that crossbreeding between the species may be unavoidable in areas where they coexist. In the meantime, Florida's latest invasive residents are combining forces to chomp their way across the state—and beyond.
