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The Marine Breeding Initiative was created as a tool to encourage marine aquaria hobbyists to get involved in the captive breeding of marine organisms. The MBI was designed with the help of leading experts in the breeding of marine ornamentals to be a standardized award system and database that can be easily adopted by aquarium societies and site owners to promote captive breeding amonst their members.

There are many pressures on todays tropical reef environments and the practice of captive breeding to reduce the need for wild caught specimens is one way we as hobbyists can reduce those pressures. The MBI creates a standardized model that uses a central database to share information between all MBI sites while rewarding and encouraging new hobbyists to begin breeding and existing breeders to tackle more difficult species and try new techniques.


Purpose
1. To encourage captive breeding 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 reduce reliance on wild caught animals for the marine aquarium hobby by supporting captive breeding and sustainable collection.

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

Eligibility
The Marine 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 spliting 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:
http://www.MarineBreedingInitiative.org/Species.aspx



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:
http://www.MarineBreedingInitiative.org/Points.aspx


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 the Breeder levels can be found here: http://www.marinebreedinginitiative.org/Levels.aspx

Join the Marine Breeding Initiative
Are you an individual breeder that would like to share your breeding experiences with the world and be recognized for your accomplishments? Join the MBI program today! Register and get started earning points in just a few minutes.


Are you a club or website owner that would like to allow your members to search and even submit MBI reports right from your own website?
The MBI system is designed as a portable solution that can be installed on nearly any website while still allowing users to search and share data with all other MBI enabled websites. Users remain local to your organization's website during the entire process so no need to send members off to another website to submit or review information.

If you are interested in setting up the MBI system on your site please Contact Us today: webmaster@marinebreedinginitiative.org