Baby Seahorses!

[heranatomy]

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The video was shot when they were 2 days old. Today, they are 4!
I've never raised baby seahorses before so my goal is to raise at least 1!

I'm super excited!!!!

Also, check out this size comparison:

I've done a lot of research, so I feel like I'm ready. Is there anyone that has any advice they wished they knew before they started?
Thanks!

 

[krak256]

holy crap thats awesome. what are you feeding them? i hear they're super fragile to sudden changes in water chemistry.

 

[heranatomy]

holy crap thats awesome. what are you feeding them? i hear they're super fragile to sudden changes in water chemistry.

Right now, freshly hatched baby brine shrimp. After a couple weeks, I'm going to ween them onto Cyclopeeze, and then some shaved Mysis. If I can get my hands on some copepods, I'm going to give them some of those =)

Yeah... a lot of feeding and cleaning =)

 

[timinnl]

Try to get your hands on tisbe & tonsa. Also start enriching the BBS.

 

[rayjay]

What kind are they?
Some of the smaller pelagic fry are best started with rotifers.
I raise my reidi fry in 4L jars using greenwater in the jar and feeding rots for the first two weeks, rots and bbs for the next two weeks, and then just bbs starting the fifth week.
I use lighting of 24/7 and do continuous feeding.
Water changes every two days.
There are many different ways to raise the fry but it can take a bit to learn how to manage with the method you choose.
Pelagic fry are normally considered to be a bit harder than benthic fry because they are usually smaller, and, they don't normally hitch at birth.

 

[heranatomy]

What kind are they?
Some of the smaller pelagic fry are best started with rotifers.
I raise my reidi fry in 4L jars using greenwater in the jar and feeding rots for the first two weeks, rots and bbs for the next two weeks, and then just bbs starting the fifth week.
I use lighting of 24/7 and do continuous feeding.
Water changes every two days.
There are many different ways to raise the fry but it can take a bit to learn how to manage with the method you choose.
Pelagic fry are normally considered to be a bit harder than benthic fry because they are usually smaller, and, they don't normally hitch at birth.

erectus. i think southern. i wasn't sure if they were southern or northern and a couple of them hitched after birth so, kreisel was not needed lol. i built it just in case, but now im going to go get a divider, and section off the hob and put some fake plants in there for them to hitch on =)

 

[rayjay]

OK, then likely they are benthic.
You might want to do as Tim mentioned and enrich the bbs.
Dan at seahorsesource.com is using enriched bbs in fry raising.
There are threads about it on seahorse.org but basically he is enriching with mixtures of his own concoction but you can use various other products like Algamac Protein Plus and Algamac 3050. Even spirulina powder works well for brine I feed my reidi fry. Beta glucan is another excellent enrichment.
Brine can't be gut loaded until they reach the 2nd instar stage so you can take 24 hour old bbs and put them in another container and add the enrichment, aerating gently to keep everything in suspension, for a period of 12 hours.
Dan I believe dose one twelve hour period but the manual recommends two 12 hour periods with new water and food for the second period.
Once session works for Dan though.
If you check out his site, he may have all the enrichments available there as I know I've bought Algamac 3050 from him.
It will also give you time to learn how to grow out brine shrimp in the quantities you may need if you have a high survival % reaching older stages.
Even if you get them switched to frozen early, it can be a big help to also feed live brine gut loaded with nutrient and vitamins, but the brine will need to be grown out to whatever appropriate size is needed for the stage of growth of the fry.

 

[rayjay]

See this thread and scroll to post #12 by DanU
http://forum.seahorse.org/index.php?showtopic=43233&st=0&#entry458046

 

[Octoshark]

Cool babies!

See this thread and scroll to post #12 by DanU
http://forum.seahorse.org/index.php?showtopic=43233&st=0&#entry458046

That link is invalid, at least for me. Anyone else? Maybe you can copy/paste the post?

When I click on it, its says: Fatal error: Call to a member function Error() on a non-object in /home/seahorse/public_html/forum/sources/ipsclass.php on line 5643

 

[rayjay]

Darn, I guess you have to be a member there to view it.
Sorry about that. It mighthave been a big help to fry raisers.

 

[timinnl]

Another thing Dan has been doing is adding live mysis into the tank with the fry. I do this with my H. zosterae & I did it with my last batch of H. reidi until I killed them all. (Forgot too turn the pump back on.)

 

[rayjay]

By the way, for members on the org, the post by Dan was #10 not 12 as I had said.
Tim, one good thing about my nursery jars is they don't have a pump to turn on.
As for the air line each one has, it's hard not to see that it hasn't been replace if I forget.

 

[timinnl]

On SH.org, if you look under Dwarf Seahorses > Passing out cigar

Dan wrote about how he is treating the brine shrimp.

 

[timinnl]

Ray,

I found this store here in The Netherlands www.brouwmarkt.nl they sell things to make your own wine & things for canning. I think I found the jars you were telling me about.

 

[rayjay]

I clicked the catalog but only one page came up.
The two jars shown were only 720ml and the ones I use are 4000ml or 4L.
My openings are large enough to put my hand in but are smaller around than the major diameter of the jar.
The upper part of the jar rounds so that the air bubble from the rigid airline rise up and are directed across the top like a kreisel would do.
Here is a pic of four of the jars.
FOUR LITRE NURSERY JARS, ex pickle jars

 

[noobtothereef]

are you using a krisel? looks to not be very much flow, most fry i have seen have been in a higher flow krisel to keep from getting floaters

 

[rayjay]

are you using a krisel? looks to not be very much flow, most fry i have seen have been in a higher flow krisel to keep from getting floaters

In an earlier reply it was mentioned:

erectus. i think southern. i wasn't sure if they were southern or northern and a couple of them hitched after birth so, kreisel was not needed lol. i built it just in case, but now im going to go get a divider, and section off the hob and put some fake plants in there for them to hitch on

Also, the circulation would have been turned off for taking pictures.

 

[Slim_jim989]

So tiny of some horses but I wish you the best of luck.

 

[heranatomy]

are you using a krisel? looks to not be very much flow, most fry i have seen have been in a higher flow krisel to keep from getting floaters

I am, but the bubbles were slowed down in the cvideo because I was feeding them. Turns out, they're benthic fry so, the kreisel is not necessary.

 

[heranatomy]

So tiny of some horses but I wish you the best of luck.

Thank you =)