Baby Seahorse

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LongIslandMike

New member
Hi Guys, My name is mike and I am new to the forum. I have been in the saltwater reef hobby for about 10 years. My daughters asked me to add a seahorse to my reef. I know I can't add them to the reef (they have a hard time competing for food) so I decided to do a seahorse tank. shortly after adding the seahorses (ORA yellow kuda) I witnessed the female putting her eggs in the males pouch. After seeing the transfer I realized I better get on the move on with the sea horse carousel. From the research I did about baby sea horses, They do best in a carousel moving tank. I decided to use a fish bowl with airline tubing. I put the bowl in a 10g tank filled with heated water. The heated water will transfer the heat to the water in the seahorse carousel. I didn't want to put the heater in the carousel because I was afraid they would get burnt. I also added a reef keeper light as my tempter control. I decided to add some dead monti digitata as hitching posts , green star polyps and some zooz. I bast the rocks everyday and have my apex dose do a small water change every day. I have been on the fence about removing the sand bed but as of now it seems to be ok. I siphon the sand bed twice a week.
After about two weeks or so I witnessed the first birth of the warning fry. I knew that there should be more to come in the next day or so. So I waited..... and waited but nothing? I have a very fine net that covers my overflow so non of them can get sucked into the sump but I checked the filter sock anyway but nothing? When he was releasing the female was trying to put more in. Well, I guess she succeeded but he is looking bigger everyday. Is it normal for them to only have one fry? I did see him drop about 3 eggs during the transfer but that was it. Also by week 2 he was pretty big?

video of the transfer
http://vid1382.photobucket.com/albums/ah253/mikeryan556/IMG_6250_zps5lvpypn4.mp4

Video of the release
http://vid1382.photobucket.com/albums/ah253/mikeryan556/IMG_6417_zpsyhapqxdy.mp4

IMG_6745_zps4afbfe8e.jpg

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Hi Mike, congrats on your the baby seahorses! For some reason I could not view your videos but your tank and nursery look great.

My seahorse experience was very much like yours in that I no sooner recieved my H erectus ponies when within 2 weeks they mated. It was 19 days that my male carried the eggs and he had 34 fry when he delivered. I also built a kreisel,'carousel'model nursery with a fish bowl. I use a plastic drum bowl and drilled a small hole in the shoulder part for the airline tubing to create a good circular flow. I also cut a 1" diameter hole in one of the flat sides and siliconed netting over it for water exchange and then I had a Tom's aqua lifter continually feed water from the filtered tank into the fish bowl. I only removed it when I fed bb so it wasn't flushed out before the fry could feed for half an hour or so. That worked pretty well. I did wipe down hitches and the sides of the tank every 3 days to guard against infection.
 
Ok, I could watch your baby seahorse eat. Very cute. I forgot to say that I kept 22 of my fry, (gave the rest away) and I still have 15 at almost 16 weeks old.
 
Hi vlangle, thank you very much for your kind words. Congratulations on your success with your baby seahorses. That is wonderful that you were able to raise so many. Your setup sounds Great!!! Very creative. Have they given birth again since? I think my male will be releasing more fry very soon (he looks like he is going to pop) I took a 30g long tank and setup 3 fishbowls inside of it with the heated water exchange. I have another 3 bowls ready as spares for when I do the water changes. I figured I would use the heated water exchange to keep the temp consistent with no fluctuations.

Hi StarlinMarlin, Thank you very much for the kind words. I really appreciate it.

IMG_6751_zpsdb4b4b7c.jpg
 
LongIslandMike said:
Hi vlangle, thank you very much for your kind words. Congratulations on your success with your baby seahorses. That is wonderful that you were able to raise so many. Your setup sounds Great!!! Very creative. Have they given birth again since? I think my male will be releasing more fry very soon (he looks like he is going to pop) I took a 30g long tank and setup 3 fishbowls inside of it with the heated water exchange. I have another 3 bowls ready as spares for when I do the water changes. I figured I would use the heated water exchange to keep the temp consistent with no fluctuations.

Hi StarlinMarlin, Thank you very much for the kind words. I really appreciate it.

IMG_6751_zpsdb4b4b7c.jpg
Click to expand...

O boy, you are set up to really handle a lot of fry! You are much more ambitious than I am. I found the fry rearing routine to be exhausting. So much so when my male just had babies last Friday I did not attempt to get them to raise. I had posted on my local forum that anyone could have them free if they wanted to try and raise them but no one was ready to give it a try. As a result I just let the tank filter them out which made me very sad but my priority is the 15 juveniles and 2 adult seahorses I have now.

Two things that I believe contributed to my success with my baby seahorses was enriching the bb with Dan's Feed, immune boost formula and using a probiotic, Sanolife mic-F in the water. Both of those products I purchased from Seahorse Source.
 
Hi vlangel, thank you very much for your advise and sharing your methods on keeping baby seahorses. The funny thing is, my male just released over 100 fry this morning!! I didn't expect all at once? I figured I would get some warning fry but sure enough they all came at once. I ordered the dans feed and Sanolife mic-F today like you said. Did you remove the baby brine after a short time or did you leave them in the tank all day? I plan on doing a complete water change every two days.
Thank you again, Mike
BTW your setup looks awesome!! Great job!!
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Ha ha Mike, it seems your seahorses want to put your seahorse nursery to use! I had my fishbowl in the sump of my adult seahorse tank and reef tank. That had a total volume of about 70 gallons of water. What I did was put the newly hatched or enriched baby brine in the fishbowl. I removed the line from the aqualifter that was bringing in water from the sump (that way the bb would not be flushed out with the exiting water through the hole covered with mesh). I did however keep the airline tube going as I discovered that the the bb used oxygen too and could potentially deplete the fishbowl of enough oxygen, (seahorses have high respiration and need a lot of oxygen). After a half hour or so I replaced the aqualifter tubing, thus adding water from the sump into the fishbowl and flushing the bb out with the exiting water. Being a 70 gallon system I figured it could handle the left over bb from 22 fry. I was doing somewhat bigger water changes on the system as well. In your case I think I would syphon the excess bb out since you have a lot more fry and a smaller system. You could monitor ammonia to see if it built up before your water change.
I will try and post a pic of my system. I have added a 10g tank connected to the sump by a Rio 800 return pump. Right now the juveniles are in the 10g but I have the Rio turned off because I don't want the bioload of 15 juveniles on my system. I do a 2.5 gallon water change every day and have a HOB skimmer. However, when I am raising fry in the 'in tank' fishbowl I will have the Rio turned on and the 10g connected to the system and instead of the sump I will use the 10g to house the fishbowl. Then I won't have to get on the floor to feed them.
 
Hi vlangel, your system looks great!! I also have a reef setup. I plumed the display tank into my main reef system. I figured with about 300g worth of water in my main system (tank, sump, frag tank and seahorse tank) the levels in my seahorse tank wouldn't fluctuate and stay stable. I do a 3 gallon a day water change in my main system through the Apex dose. I check my levels everyday and all had been good. MY nitrate is .075. I have actually been feeding more to try and bring it up a little. I picked up two 30g long tanks I am going to use for for future grow out tanks if all goes well. I am going to put them on there own system.
I will definitely work out getting the BBS out of the fish bowls between water changes.
Thanks again for your help
 
LongIslandMike said:
Hi vlangel, your system looks great!! I also have a reef setup. I plumed the display tank into my main reef system. I figured with about 300g worth of water in my main system (tank, sump, frag tank and seahorse tank) the levels in my seahorse tank wouldn't fluctuate and stay stable. I do a 3 gallon a day water change in my main system through the Apex dose. I check my levels everyday and all had been good. MY nitrate is .075. I have actually been feeding more to try and bring it up a little. I picked up two 30g long tanks I am going to use for for future grow out tanks if all goes well. I am going to put them on there own system.
I will definitely work out getting the BBS out of the fish bowls between water changes.
Thanks again for your help
Click to expand...
Wow, your system sounds wonderful. Similar to mine but way yay yay bigger! LOL So is the 30g L plumbed into the system? If it is then maybe you don't have to syphon the excess bb out.
 
HI Vlangel, Thank you for your kind words. No I don't have them plumed into my main system. I have them separate. I do have the parents tank plumed into my main system. I did decided to do a sister 30g long with the three carousel's though. I set it up exactly with temp and perimeters. I figured it would be best for the fry with less stress to go directly into another system instead of waiting wile I clean the tanks.
I picked up some rotifers and have been feeding them to the fry thee time a day.
 
Hi Coral, Thank you very much for the kind words. Today the fry are 15 days old. They are doing very well and growing more and more everyday. I am sorry to say that I lost a couple along the way and I am sure I will be loosing a couple more. I have between 95 and 100 little guys swimming around now. I will be adding enriched BB to the rotifers tomorrow. I will be sure to keep you all posted
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