Babies! And my web cam

[George_G]

I knew my male was due any day. Something I learned here (from a post by Beth) is that when the female looks like she's heavy with eggs again, it's a good indication that the male will give birth.

I need to add that, as much as I want to do it some day soon, I am not properly equipped to raise the fry. But, still... if I see fry, I will net them out and at least try to keep them alive as long as possible.

All that said... my tank (which includes other fish, corals, and inverts) was teeming with Seahorse fry at around 7:30 tonight -- the Skunk Cleaner Shrimp was going nuts eating them. I saved as many as I could -- about 30-40.

Now, my question is: It's now 11:00pm -- can I assume he's done? His pouch still appears to be quite large.

Here is a live web cam pic of him:

http://grippocam.viewnetcam.com:5000/

user name: reef-friends
pw: Hippocampus

If asked to install Panasonic active-x control, you must do so to get the live picture (it only takes a minute, and is safe)

It's on 24/7 -- feel free to look in anytime!

George
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[kichikoi]

Hey George,
Congrats!
Must be a good birth-Day!
My H. Reidi SH gave birth this morning about 4am.
Good luck!

 

[George_G]

Hey George,
Congrats!
Must be a good birth-Day!
My H. Reidi SH gave birth this morning about 4am.
Good luck!

Thanks. I've been following your thread. Best of luck raising your babies!

Regarding my pair's species, I purchased them as ORA bred H. erectus, but a very knowledgeable marine biologist from Atlantis Marine World (our local aquarium here on L.I.) viewed them on my web cam and declared that they are "almost certainly NOT erectus!" He said possibly reidi, kuda, or a reidi/erectus hybrid. I hate that identification with these guys is so nebulous. So I'm going to continue to follow your adventures because I may very well have reidi, just like you.

George
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[Peka]

Have any of them hitched at all? If so you probably have erectus. reidi do not hitch until 3 or 4 weeks. Of course, erectus can be stubborn for the first 3 or 4 days and will just hang out at the top. Congratulations. If you have questions, ask...

 

[kichikoi]

Hi George!
Was this the first spawn that you noticed? My SH's first spawn happened early morning and there were only about 2 dozen fry. Each consecutive spawn the numbers have grown. He is consistant with the time though, right around 4am.
I'll hope for your sake that they are Erectus. Although literature I've read suggests the Pacific are more difficult than the Atlantic.
I purchased mine at intervals from one source here in town. Said they were Kelloggi, but honestly it didn't matter to me. I used to keep SH many years ago and wanted to try again.
God help you if they are Reidi!
Keep us posted!

 

[George_G]

Update

Update

Hi, Fellow Syngnathidae Lovers,

To review... on 3/22 I managed to net out of my "community tank" exactly 30 newborn Seahorses (species unknown, see above posts). Having heard how difficult raising them is, and not being properly equipped, I had little hope of them lasting more than a day or two. But I did have newly hatched brine shrimp on hand, and Phyto Feast (for enrichment), so I had a go at it.

To my surprise, they ate and did well! They were housed in a one gal drum bowl, and I did a 50% water change twice daily.

I lost very few over the next 10 days... then... bam! A big overnight die off right around 10 days. There were five survivors. Over the next week I gradually lost four more. At exactly four weeks old I lost the last one and was devastated, because by this time the little guy had acheived "pet status!"

Beth... in a post above you asked me about hitching as a species indicator. I had some chaetomorpha in the bowl the entire time and at no time did I observe any hitching whatsoever! In addition, swimming was very haphazard -- swimming upsidedown was as common as right side up!!!

Here is a photo of the four-week-old right after I found him dead. Notice the "chomp" out of his belly. Anyone know what's up with that? I guess it was what killed him, but what caused it?

Thanks for reading, and for any help you can give me.

George
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[Peka]

If they are a species that do not have the ability to hitch from birth then you need to keep them in a kreisiel or tank which keeps them in suspension and away from the surface so they can not take in air and get suck at the top which leads to starvation....

The horse in your picture looks underfed but that could also be due to it drying out prior to your picture. What are you feeding and enriching with?

Also, the tank water needs to be kept pristine. I do 100% water changes at least one a week and I sterilize all the equipment. Daily wiping down of the sides and bottom of the inside of the tank (with a clean paper towel) will keep the bacterial levels down also. You may also need to control ammonia using prime or another decholorinator. I use purigen in my HOB filters on my baby tanks....

Hope that helps. I will try to check this again later to see if I can offer anything regarding the food you are offering.....

 

[kichikoi]

Wow George! 4 weeks! That's great for a first effort! Also very sad for the little guy.
The longest I've made it almost 3 weeks! Definitely keeping the bacteria down and their tummy's well fed is difficult task.
Have you had any more spawns in your tank?

 

[George_G]

If they are a species that do not have the ability to hitch from birth then you need to keep them in a kreisiel or tank which keeps them in suspension and away from the surface so they can not take in air and get suck at the top which leads to starvation....

Ok... I have read about this (it's what Kichikoi has been doing), I just need to review the method in old posts and implement it next time.

The horse in your picture looks underfed but that could also be due to it drying out prior to your picture. What are you feeding and enriching with?

There was no drying out at all, he was right out of the water and still wet. I actually thought the growth in four weeks was phenomenal; on the other hand, I also thought the disproportionate head to body ratio was "odd," but never having raised Seahorse fry I didn't know if it was a normal growth pattern (i.e., body catches up later).

I was feeding newly hatched (< 1 day old) brine shrimp enriched with Phyto Feast by Ocean Nutrition. It's what I had on hand -- but, by coincidence, a clownfish breeder told me he used to culture microalgae, but now uses the above and has had better results (as well as a lot less fuss and bother!).

Also, the tank water needs to be kept pristine. I do 100% water changes at least one a week and I sterilize all the equipment. Daily wiping down of the sides and bottom of the inside of the tank (with a clean paper towel) will keep the bacterial levels down also. You may also need to control ammonia using prime or another decholorinator. I use purigen in my HOB filters on my baby tanks....

Well... I was doing 50% twice a day -- old water w/detritus siphoned from bottom of bowl. But I wasn't wiping the sides -- I'll do that next time.

I know you and the other successful breeders on this forum stress a sterile environment, and I certainly value your opinions; but with all the talk these days about how human kids are being raised in a "too sterile" environment thus not allowing their natural immune systems to develop and making them susceptible to diseases later in life, I just wonder if that might apply here, too. Please don't misunderstand... I'm not being argumentative, and I DO plan to follow your advice; just speculating, that's all.

Hope that helps. I will try to check this again later to see if I can offer anything regarding the food you are offering.....

It does. And thank you for taking the time to respond.

George
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[George_G]

Wow George! 4 weeks! That's great for a first effort! Also very sad for the little guy.
The longest I've made it almost 3 weeks! Definitely keeping the bacteria down and their tummy's well fed is difficult task.
Have you had any more spawns in your tank?

Thanks, Karen. I'm awaiting the next batch... he's big, but I'm pretty sure he was even bigger last time before giving birth. And she is showing no sign of plumping up with eggs again, so, I'm assuming we're not really close yet.

Check them out on my live web cam. I'm really surprised that no one has commented on my cam since I posted the URL and access ID and PW. Is it really possible not one single person has looked in on us???!!!

What's happening with your guys right now? Do you have young, or are you in the waiting stage, too?

George
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[kichikoi]

In trying to replace my Caluerpa that crashed big time, I think that I may have brought in something bad with the new plants. So, I'm waiting patiently and watching carefully...
My male had actually looked pregnant, growing and getting big. Then about when he should have delivered, there was nothing.
I observed the pair going through their mating ritual for a few days before she finally deposited the eggs last Friday morning. He is hiding once again, and appears that his tummy is growing.
Just lost the last of the prior spawn this last weekend. Sad....

 

[Peka]

I tend to find that the babies that grow lengthy and don't fatten up is due to nutrition issues. I would suggest getting some of Dan's feed from seahorsesource.com and enriching your brine with that. Let the brine grow out to one or two days even for feeding newborns.

The only success that I have had raising fry is keeping everything sterile.