A journal of an attempt to raise Seahorse Babies

[bulletsworld]

Way to go Neal! Looking great so far! Keep up the good work!

I'm totally cheering for ya!

Keep us posted!

[tranvictor]

Nice Neal:

I am glad for the horsies. I see they have a good father.

Vic

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Good job so far. Are these kudas or erectus? Hopefully they're not Reidis because those seem harder to rear than the other species, since the babies are pelagic & don't hang onto things. Whatever species they are, looks like you did a good job researching & setting up a proper system.

Anthony

[phillybean]

Sweet! Looks awesome, I've been crusin Reef Central for months and came accross this site a few weeks ago and have been a looky-lou for until now, I signed up just to ask this question...

Do you have any idea why the adults "did it"?

[howdy20012002]

Still no casaulties.
They are getting bigger.
You can see them eating the rotifers now.
I am still doing about a 30 percent water change x 2 a day from the main SH tank.
And still adding a fair amount of prime.
Lots of rotifers in there.
Phillybean...the adults "did" it because it is in their nature to reproduce.
I am going to start growing live brine shrimp this weekend to get used to doing it and so that I can have some live adults in a couple of weeks.
Neal

[phillybean]

Hah, I didn't mean it like that, I'm still new to reef keeping but my question was what caused it? I didn't think that Sea Horses bred in tanks commonly, what do you think caused yours too? How old are they? Was it just the 2 in the tank? Were there any special conditions that may have helped them to breed? On a lighter note...they musta look funny "doing it"

[howdy20012002]

I believe they are about a year old. I personally have only had them for about a month. Maybe tranvictor knows how old they are.
actually SH bred quite regularly in captivity. It is just difficult generally to have any luck with raising the babies.

[woodcarver]

Wow !!!

[Beverly]

Way to go, Neal Very cute babies

Looking back on when we were trying to raise fry, I remember having a fiar amount of water movement in the fry bowl to keep the water oxygenated. I read that you were doing 2 bubbles per second. I'd increase it to at least 5 bubbles per second. That way there's gonna be enough O2 for the growing fry.

I know they are still very, very tiny and may not be able to hitch onto anything yet, but please do anchor some macroalgae for them to hitch to if they can/want.

So far so good!!!! Love the pics

[howdy20012002]

Still no casaulties.
Although I think I am going to lose a few cause they aren't moving around that much as the other ones are.
I noticed late last night - early this morning that a few were twitching and scratching. I had read that was a sign of high ammonia. I tested and was at .50. I did about a 30 percent water change and then about a hour later did another 30 percent water change.
I am going to start doing 4 x 30 percent water changes every day. That way I hope that they won't produce too much waste.
In the next couple of days I am going to start up another tank and split them in half. That way the waste won't build up as much.
At this rate, I am not going to have a dining room table left..lol.
I am also going to start the brine shrimp tomorrow so that I get used to that.
Anyways, I am truly surprised that things have been going so well.
I most be doing something right.
Beverley, I am going to add a piece of of macro algae in there tonight.
Give them something to maybe hold onto.
Most of the time they just float around in circles with the current being caused by the slow flow of air bubbles.
they are slowly getting bigger. You can actually see them from across the room now.
I still have tonnes of rotifers in the tank.
I think that this is key for this. I think that perhaps alot of people don't have enough food in the tank for them and the seahorses don't get enough nutrition.
I will post more pics tommorrow.
thanks for the support everyone.
Hopefully in a couple of months a couple of you will be able to buy a couple of these guys from me
I will keep everyone posted.
Neal