Babies at the puddle coral
- Thread starter tmz
- Start date
Veganbrian
New member
That is so awesome! I love them, Are you going to be selling them when they grow up?
Conesus_Kid
Premium Member
Wow! That is amazing! Nice work, Tom! When the organisms we keep spawn/reproduce in captivity, you know that you're providing a great environment for them.
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
I love the orange horses. Thoses babies are so tiny they look like pods.
Excellent news!
Thanks for the comments everyone.
Super cool. Is the hardest part over with saving the babies? Do you think most of those left will survive or is the survival rate near zero?
It's still touch and go. Erectus fry are in the moderate degree of difficulty category for rearing fry among he seahorses.
The degree of difficulty is based on two factors predominant factors outside of normal husbandry:
First,
pelagic nature-though most seahorses are benthic( surface dwelling) some fry are pelagic( swim to the surface) for variable durations of time in their early life from a few days to a month or more. The longr they do this the more likely they are: to tangle at the surface; gulp air; lose equilibrium ,and, die.
Second,
fry size and feeding requirements.
The larger the fry the easier they are to feed and several species including erectus are large enough to take newly hatched atremia nauplii right away. Others require rotifers which can be useful for the larger species but are not critical for them.
Reidi, kuda and fisheri are highly phelagic and small. They are the most difficult.
zosterae,(picies), Barbouri(spikies) ,Capersis(lulus) are large and fry have no benthic phase , ranking them them the least difficult.
Erectus are in the middle. They have a phelagic phase that lasts several days and are large enough to feed atremia napulii right away. Mine seem to have settled off the surface already and most are hanging on the chaeto.
About 30% are usually born dead ,so culling is important.
A survival rate of 30 to 50% overall is considered good to very good for erectus.
I'll be kee[ping them on atrmia nauplii for abut a month with a phase in of chopped mysis and cyclopeeze. After about 2 months , survivors should be doing well on frozen foods.
Super cool. Is the hardest part over with saving the babies? Do you think most of those left will survive or is the survival rate near zero?
It's still touch and go. Erectus fry are in the moderate degree of difficulty category for rearing fry among he seahorses.
The degree of difficulty is based on two factors predominant factors outside of normal husbandry:
First,
pelagic nature-though most seahorses are benthic( surface dwelling) some fry are pelagic( swim to the surface) for variable durations of time in their early life from a few days to a month or more. The longr they do this the more likely they are: to tangle at the surface; gulp air; lose equilibrium ,and, die.
Second,
fry size and feeding requirements.
The larger the fry the easier they are to feed and several species including erectus are large enough to take newly hatched atremia nauplii right away. Others require rotifers which can be useful for the larger species but are not critical for them.
Reidi, kuda and fisheri are highly phelagic and small. They are the most difficult.
zosterae,(picies), Barbouri(spikies) ,Capersis(lulus) are large and fry have no benthic phase , ranking them them the least difficult.
Erectus are in the middle. They have a phelagic phase that lasts several days and are large enough to feed atremia napulii right away. Mine seem to have settled off the surface already and most are hanging on the chaeto.
About 30% are usually born dead ,so culling is important.
A survival rate of 30 to 50% overall is considered good to very good for erectus.
I'll be kee[ping them on atrmia nauplii for abut a month with a phase in of chopped mysis and cyclopeeze. After about 2 months , survivors should be doing well on frozen foods.
I love the orange horses. Thoses babies are so tiny they look like pods.
Yeah, I like the orange/ yellows too. Reds are even harder to find and too pricey, up to $750. Part of the fun in rearing them is waiting for colors to show up to see what they picked up from the gene pool. Some of those with less bright colors have realy nice stripes, dots ,saddle markings and so on too.
The fry range fro .4 to 1.0 cm.
Yeah, I like the orange/ yellows too. Reds are even harder to find and too pricey, up to $750. Part of the fun in rearing them is waiting for colors to show up to see what they picked up from the gene pool. Some of those with less bright colors have realy nice stripes, dots ,saddle markings and so on too.
The fry range fro .4 to 1.0 cm.
Thankyou Scott,
When I first started vodka and vinegar dosing, I wondered if it would negatively effect breeding . Apparently not ;several of the pairs of amphiprion in the system breed regularly; and, now the seahorses have joined the party. Maybe a few drinks get's them in the mood:spin2:
Update:
I lost all the fry in the first batch.
Too slow on the brine shrimp hatch. Screwed up the first batch of brine; not careful enough with separating the egg shells. Fed rottfers al for the first few days but it wasn't enough. Too much current as well; I think. I was overly concerned abut keeping them of th surface and over did it.
Just as my disappointment was fading, I got a second batch. There are 7 survivors, 16 days old. Getting better at it. :reading:
Today, I got a third hatch; just finished gathering them and placing them in a second nursery.
That's 3 hatches in less than a month . There are only two sexually mature males and one sexually mature female. Busy critters. The other 2 males and 2 females are pretty close to sexual maturity. I think I'm going to need more tanks.:eek2:
I lost all the fry in the first batch.
Too slow on the brine shrimp hatch. Screwed up the first batch of brine; not careful enough with separating the egg shells. Fed rottfers al for the first few days but it wasn't enough. Too much current as well; I think. I was overly concerned abut keeping them of th surface and over did it.Just as my disappointment was fading, I got a second batch. There are 7 survivors, 16 days old. Getting better at it. :reading:
Today, I got a third hatch; just finished gathering them and placing them in a second nursery.
That's 3 hatches in less than a month . There are only two sexually mature males and one sexually mature female. Busy critters. The other 2 males and 2 females are pretty close to sexual maturity. I think I'm going to need more tanks.:eek2:
fishman1234
New member
Sorry to hear about the fry. And hope all goes well with the rest. if you need a 20 gallon long or reg. 20 I have em both if you wanna trade for a frag?
Well, still have 7 from the second hatch,almost 3 weeks old now.
Very little die off in the 3rd hatch of about 30; just 4 dead after 4 days.Typically 30% are born dead. This batch has slightly larger specimens and seems stronger than one and two. We'll see. I fed them right away and keep a good deal of food( newly hatched atremia nauplii) available for them. Got the timing down on hatching the baby brine shrimp now. Still waiting/ expecting a larger number to drop out.
At 3 to 4 weeks some folks start to mix in frozen cyclopeeze. I'm going to to do that at 4 weeks.
This week I'm going to mix in some 1 to2 day old brine shrimp pre fed with atremia food along with newly hatched nauplii.
I'll start some shredded frozen mysis in week 5 along with live enriched brine shrimp.
Can't wait until week 12 when it's just frozen food, mostly whole small mysis.
I've got an 18 gallon bin for grow out that I'll plumb into the drain line from the seahorse tank for return water and drain it to the system's sump. Trying to keep all the seahorse rearing vessels in the system water rather than in a separate system. Trying to avoid adding another pump too.. The 650 gallon low nutrient system can handle the extra feeding waste quite well given the size of it and the amount of food it handles now.
Very little die off in the 3rd hatch of about 30; just 4 dead after 4 days.Typically 30% are born dead. This batch has slightly larger specimens and seems stronger than one and two. We'll see. I fed them right away and keep a good deal of food( newly hatched atremia nauplii) available for them. Got the timing down on hatching the baby brine shrimp now. Still waiting/ expecting a larger number to drop out.
At 3 to 4 weeks some folks start to mix in frozen cyclopeeze. I'm going to to do that at 4 weeks.
This week I'm going to mix in some 1 to2 day old brine shrimp pre fed with atremia food along with newly hatched nauplii.
I'll start some shredded frozen mysis in week 5 along with live enriched brine shrimp.
Can't wait until week 12 when it's just frozen food, mostly whole small mysis.
I've got an 18 gallon bin for grow out that I'll plumb into the drain line from the seahorse tank for return water and drain it to the system's sump. Trying to keep all the seahorse rearing vessels in the system water rather than in a separate system. Trying to avoid adding another pump too.. The 650 gallon low nutrient system can handle the extra feeding waste quite well given the size of it and the amount of food it handles now.
