[cmpenney]

In an effort to encourage captive breeding of marine fishes and Invertebrates, MASM is happy, and proud, to announce the start of the MASM Breeding Initiative!

MASM would like to involve everyone that is currently breeding as well as those that are interested in giving it a try.

In the next few weeks we will set forth the guidelines for the Breeding Initiative, which will take place over the course of the next year and is open to anyone that would like to get involved, MASM membership is not a requirement to participate in the MASM Breeding Initiative. The initiative will include a Breeder's Challenge where anyone that is interested in breeding ornamental marine fish or Invertebrates will have the opportunity and support to do so. We will be organizing a group buy for equipment and materials for the Initiative, and we will have dedicated forums for participants to create breeding logs to document, and to ask questions about, their project.

We are also extremely happy to announce that master breeders Matt Wittenrich, author of “The Complete Illustrated Breeder's Guide to Marine Aquarium Fishes” and Matt Pedersen, MASNA’s 2009 Hobbyist of the Year, have volunteered to act as advisors for the MASM Breeding Initiative and will help answer the more difficult breeding questions posted on the MASM forums.

As a special treat, we will be holding a "Breeder's Workshop" in March 2010 where both Matt Wittenrich and Matt Pedersen will be in town to speak with us! This will be more than a simple lecture. A short lecture and Q&A session from each speaker will be followed by a social gathering where attendees will have plenty of personal, "one on one" time with both Matts. This will be a great opportunity to get individual questions answered by the experts and to share your successes and difficulties experienced through the first several months of the Breeder’s Challenge!

We will have more specific details about the Breeder's Challenge and a date for the Breeder's Workshop in the next few weeks.


We already have the two forums created that will be used for this Initiative. You can see them at: MASM Forums

They are both marked with a: on them so they are pretty easy to pick out.

While there are a few details up in the air one requirement is that anyone involved in the initiative must have a thread( or two ) in the Breeding Journal forum detailing their progress though out the challenge. Anyone that does have a regularly updated thread will at the very least be guaranteed of receiving a certificate of participation. There will be other awards as well given out during the course of the Initiative for achieving specific milestones and at the end of this year's initiative.

We seriously hope that this will be an ongoing yearly event for us.

[cmpenney]

Today, November 1st is the official kick-off of the MASM Breeding Initiative. We gave you some basic information regarding the Initiative not to long ago via emails and on many of the popular forums with a note that there would be more to come. As promised I come to you with all the details now.



Purpose

1. To encourage spawning of marine ornamental fish and invertebrates.
2. To share knowledge of captive breeding techniques.
3. To enable more people to participate in captive breeding.
4. To recognize outstanding achievement in the captive breeding of marine ornamental fish and invertebrates.
5. To create a pool of information for hobbyists and professionals to use in breeding of established and untried species.
6. To encourage the reduction in reliance on wild caught animals for the marine aquarium hobby by substituting tank raised specimens for wild caught specimens wherever possible.



Time
The first Initiative will run from November 1st 2009 till December 31th 2010



Eligibility
The MASM Breeding Initiative is open to anyone interested in captive breeding. MASM membership is not a requirement although creating a breeding log on the MASM forum is a requirement. This Initiative applies only to propagation via sexual reproduction. Specimens propagated via asexual means such as fragging or splitting are not included in the MBI.



General
Species will be divided into classes based on difficulty. Classes are grouped generally as follows:

Class A-Easiest species to breed in captivity
Class B-More difficult Species but still regularly bred in captivity
Class C-Species considered very difficult to breed in captivity
Class D-Species never or hardly ever successfully bred in captivity

You can find a complete list of all currently classified species at:
Official Species Class listing



Points will be awarded as follows:
Points will be awarded at 4 stages during the breeding process; spawning event, hatching event, metamorphosis, and 60 days post-metamorphosis (or 60 days after birth if live bearing species).



Class A: 60pts
Class B: 120pts
Class C: 300pts
Class D: 700pts



Points will only be awarded once per species. In other words, you don't have to start from scratch every time a pair spawns, but you only get points for that species spawning, hatching, etc. once.

You can see more information on the points system at:
How Points are awarded



Breeder Levels
The following is a list of the breeder levels and awards:



Apprentice
Fledgling Breeder
Novice Breeder
Journeyman Breeder
Established Breeder
Progressive Breeder
Advanced Breeder
Expert Breeder
Master Breeder
Grand Master



More details on breeder awards and award levels can be found at:
Breeder Award Levels





All participants must start a Breeder's Log on the MASM Breeding Journals forum and post updates and pictures during the program for each species that they are working with. The Breeder's Journal Forum can be found at: Breeding Journals





Participants will receive awards for reaching specific milestones during the MBI. These may include certificates, plaques, and/or trophies.