baby pipe fish

They are soo cute! Do read up here and on other forums for SH fry rearing and you may have a good shot at raising them for a few weeks. Theres always a learning curve of course, but if you're up for BBS hatching and enriching theres a good shot. Some people are able to switch SH fry to frozen cyclopeeze in just two weeks. :) Good luck with them whatever you decide. But geez they're so cute!

>Sarah
 
this is the first I have heard of pipefish breeding in captivity. Good job!!!

It would be sweet if you could raise them. I am not sure how raising them would be different than seahorses...but i assume they would be very much alike
 
Raising baby pipefish is hard, they have the same requirement as seahorse. I don't know how many will survive, I shall do the best I can.
 
I had babies on the 2nd, had 27 total. Now it is down to 7 after 12 days, they really started to drop off between days 7-10. I'd say at least 4 of them look extremely healthy now. They are eating a lot and growing very fast. I have been feeding freshly hatched brine enriched with Zoecon and DT's, and now starting to mix in some cyclopeez, which some of them are eating. I hope I can get at least get a few to make it!
 
Ime, big drop offs in broods tends to indicate a lack of nutrition. As they grow, even over the space of just a few days, try to move them to progressively larger food items. Mixing in cyclopeeze is a great method. BBS, even with enrichment, may not be enough to get them over that 7-10 day hump. I bet if you cultured copepods the survival rate would come up. Something to think about for the next batch if you pursue it. You may also want to consider culturing shrimp larvae (ghost or grass shrimp) for juvies too. :) I think its great you've gotten even a few so far along though!

>Sarah
 
Okay, now I'm down to only one. He looks great, but so did a lot of the other ones. I did notice that a couple of them didn't seem to be able to catch BBS as good as the others. Their heads would snap at them 15 times, and never catch anything. I can still say that even if they all die, the experience was still definitely worth it, its amazing to observe. I even made a home movie!
 
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