Seahorse ?

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by BCOrchidGuy

Beverly, one thing I can tell you is that Seahorses are very charming but they aren't all together exciting. They appear delicate and almost helpless, but they have a look of regalness to them... (is that a word?)

Yes, they are soooo charming I think that's why people like them so much and why they're on the CITES list.

I have to admit that before going to the lfs this morning, I had already planned how I'd rearrange all the rock and corals in our three reefs to comfortably accomodate some horses. I also had plans in place to modify the AC Mini to reduce the out flow trough by 2/3 so they wouldn't be fighting strong current all the time. However, it was not to be as the ones at the lfs will become too big for our 7 gal bowfront

But .... one of the staff who was off today might know of a local breeder of dwarfs. I'll check into it later this week.

Originally Posted by BCOrchidGuy

I'm happy with mine, and I may also get into the dwarfs, the idea of a 1inch long adult seahorse just tickles my fancy.

Quite honestly, such little creatures kind of scare me. The smaller they are the faster their metabolism and shorter their digestive systems, right? They'd need more frequent feedings than just twice a day, wouldn't they?

On the one hand, I'm far from making any firm decisions on the matter. On the other hand, I've got the new arrangements ready to go in the event seahorses are in our future

But we shall see .....

[EmilyB]

I'm curious about the pouch squeezing which I was shown, apparently it is required ??

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by EmilyB

I'm curious about the pouch squeezing

arn't we all

Steve

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by EmilyB

I'm curious about the pouch squeezing which I was shown, apparently it is required ??

Look under Seahorse Problems at the following webpage for the answer to why it might have to be done:

http://www.saseahorse.com/stable.htm

[BCOrchidGuy]

It isn't actually squeezing, more like massaging.

The dwarfs do fine on newly hatched brine shrimp so thats great, you hatch some out and then add them to the tank, the dwarfs eat when ever they want, I'm working on a system right now of hatching the shrimp then feeding them selcon for 2 days before feeding them to the Aquarium, basically, hatch the BBS out, and at 24 hours remove them from the hatching cone and put them in clean newly mixed water, add a bit of selcon, a bit of Kent Zoe Marine and do the same thing after 24 hours again, so I have my hatching cone, one container (rubbermaid 1 liter) with BBS that just came out of the cone and the second container that has the BBS that is almost ready to feed to the aqaurium. My Black Kuda's didn't seem interested in the newly hatched bbs but they seem to like it when it is a couple days old, I've been contemplating adding a drop or two of garlic extreme to the 2nd container so the BBS get good and garlicy... yummy

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by BCOrchidGuy

I'm working on a system right now of hatching the shrimp then feeding them selcon for 2 days before feeding them to the Aquarium, basically, hatch the BBS out,

Hatch them in what? Does the container have a heater and/or filtration? What temp is the water they're hatched in? What salinity? Is the container aerated or filtered in any way?

Originally Posted by BCOrchidGuy

and at 24 hours remove them from the hatching cone and put them in clean newly mixed water, add a bit of selcon, a bit of Kent Zoe Marine and do the same thing after 24 hours again,

Same questions as above for the Selcon container.

Originally Posted by BCOrchidGuy

so I have my hatching cone, one container (rubbermaid 1 liter) with BBS that just came out of the cone and the second container that has the BBS that is almost ready to feed to the aqaurium.

Before committing myself to actually buying any mini horses, available sometimes as Seanic, I'm going to try my hand at culturing the food first to see how much of a PITA it is. If I can handle culturing BBS, I'd feel better about converting the 7 gal for some H. zostrae. What's the name of the company who makes the brine shrimp eggs that you use?

Sorry for all the questions, but inquiring minds want to know

TIA, BCOG

[Samw]

Originally Posted by Beverly

Before committing myself to actually buying any mini horses, available sometimes as Seanic, I'm going to try my hand at culturing the food first to see how much of a PITA it is. If I can handle culturing BBS, I'd feel better about converting the 7 gal for some H. zostrae. What's the name of the company who makes the brine shrimp eggs that you use?

Sorry for all the questions, but inquiring minds want to know

TIA, BCOG

Fortunately for me, my seahorse does eat newly hatched baby brine shrimp and I considered getting some sort of low maintenance hatchery to provide continuous food for it before it was trained to take frozen mysis shrimp.

I was considering to try this:

http://www.jlaquatics.com/cgi-bin/sh...gno=fd-tbsfeed

Now that my seahorse does eat frozen mysis, I don't need to try this. You may want to try it and see if its hassle free. I previously used San Francisco Bay hatchery but since the water isn't aerated, the shrimp don't last very long after they hatch unless you dump them to another aerated container.

http://www.jlaquatics.com/cgi-bin/sh...alogno=fd-shat

[BCOrchidGuy]

Samw, your seahorse may be eating the bbs but it isn't really an adequate diet in the long run for it. And please don't consider buying that hatching thing, the water your bbs hatches in gets really nasty really quick and I'm sure it will get into your tank. Mysis shrimp etc would be much better... mine seem to take some in when it still has the eyes and is moving, but being frozen it doesn't move much .. unless... I have a small powerhead that keeps the water moving through the area the horses hang out (the corral) The mysis or plankton in my case tumble very slowly through and a few of them get eaten. Adult horses will only eat about 5 mysis shrimp a day so you don't need alot of food for them.

Beverly, brine shrimp are really easy to hatch out with a few very very simple tools... Two, two litre coke bottles that have been cleaned really well and still have the cap work great for hatching cones. Invert them so the cap is down, drill a hole in the center of the bottom (top now) large enough so a small funnel with fit in it. Rig a way so you can stand these two bottles side by side, I used an old plastic milk box you see at the grocery stores etc... Fill one 7/8ths or so of the way with fresh water and add 1 Tablespoon of your salt mix to the water. Now, take a length of rigid airline tube and cut it so it will rest on the cap when placed in the filler hole.... so its like a straw... use some airline to supply air from a small pump. NO AIRSTONES. Just use the smallest pump you can find, you don't want the water boiling just enough air to keep the eggs in suspension. Now the final thing to do is add some light, a 40 or a 60 watt bulb will supply the heat you need, you run the light 24/7 close enough to the cones so the water temp stays around 80 degrees.

The reason for two coke bottles is, one can be used to hatch out the newest eggs the other will be used to move the hatched bbs out of the first and into a container that they can be enriched in. You can use three coke bottles if you want to keep your shrimp for a longer period but I'm thinking you don't need to do that. I'm going to cut back to a double bottle set up again.

So to summerize, two coke bottles inverted with a small airpump work as your hatching cones, a single desk light will work as your heater and light source (brine shrimp eggs need the long photoperiod to hatch). Add a small amount of brine shrimp eggs (I use 1/4 of a tsp and get tons of bbs) add 1 table spoon of your salt mix and aerate for 24 hours. Remove the airline and let the hatched egg shells float to the top and the unhatched sink. The bbs will be visible swimming around, if you can set the light so it is near the bottom of the hatching cone the bbs will concentrate there, if they still hang out near the top simply siphon off some of the mix and then add fresh unsalted water, the lower salinity will encourage them to go deeper in the water.

This is the part I haven't mentioned yet, now you need one more peice of rigid airline tube with some airline hose. You should have this peice cut a bit shorter than the others... what I do is cut it so if I catch the airline where it joins the tubing against the edge of the hole I drilled in the bottom of the coke bottle... I cut the rigid airline tube so it will sit about 1/4 of an inch away from the bottom of the hatching cone. The reason I rest the tube like this is so I can start the siphon and then watch the bbs go into the bbs net. Resting it like this also helps to keep from stiring up the hatched egg shells. Once you have siphoned about 3/4 of the water/bbs out of the cone simply cover the end of the siphon hose and drain it back into the cone... rinse the cone out completely and it is ready to go for the next batch.... You should feed about 50% of the newly hatched bbs to your horses or your reef and then move the other 50% into the second container that was set up exactly the same way as the first, add 5 drops of selcon and 5 drops of Zoe liquid vitamins and aerate for 12-24 hours. To get them out do exactly the same thing you did with the newly hatched stuff and you can feed them to your fish or store them in the fridge at 4degrees C for upto 48 hours.. but I recommend using them asap.... hope this helps.... its alot easier to do it than describe it.

[Samw]

Originally Posted by BCOrchidGuy

Samw, your seahorse may be eating the bbs but it isn't really an adequate diet in the long run for it. And please don't consider buying that hatching thing, the water your bbs hatches in gets really nasty really quick and I'm sure it will get into your tank.

Baby brine shrimp actually are suppose to be nutritious when they are newly hatched as they still have the yolk sacs. It is only after 24-48 hours that enriching them with selcon is possible. In this article they only document baby brine shrimp as the main diet for dwarf horses.

http://www.seahorse.org/library/arti...fKeeping.shtml

I fed my seahorse newly hatched brine shrimp only when it wasn't trained to eat mysis shrimp, and now only on weekends when I'm not at the office to feed them frozen mysis. I wouldn't try to feed it exclusively on new hatched brine shrimp.

[BCOrchidGuy]

Glad you have them trained to eat mysis, I'm sending you a PM.