Breeding the Kuda Seahorse

[CoMMaNdeR]

Hi Guys,

I am new to seahorses but not new to reef tanks. My intention is only to breed them and I am searching alot about what is best to do.

Now I need some of your advice before begining this project. This aquarium is going to be 150 litres, about 28g. My questions are:

- Are the Kuda seahorses easy to breed?
- Which is best for breeding, with Sand or without Sand?
- Is a canister enough for filtration or I need a sump?

Thanks

 

[sebae09]

Kuda

Kuda

best of luck, from what ive read kudas are easy to breed but hard to raise, i know one person that has done it and shes giveing me advice on this subject because i also want to breed kuda's. id love to talk to you about your ideas and tell you what all i know so PM me..

 

[CoMMaNdeR]

Are really Kuda'a babies hard to raise ?

If so which are the easiest seahorses to breed and raise ?

 

[RichardS]

I have read that erectus (southern form) are about the easiest. Captive bred southern from seahorsesource.com. I think dracomarine only does the northern erectus which have smaller pelagic fry, so harder to raise.

This is just what I've read, I don't breed seahorses. Yet.

 

[pledosophy]

No seahorse fry is easy to raise. Species with benethnic fry who accept larger food sizes tend to be the easist while species with pelagic fry tend to need smaller first foods IME.

 

[reefD]

my first and current seahorses are kuda's. i have previous multiply years with reef tanks....sps corals...and inverts of qall kinds. anyways i started a ten gallon nano and let it be for about a year. then i added a pair of kuda's . they have been doing great and growing for about a year now. i do nothing special for them other than keep the tank "species only" for them ( only snails shrimp. ect in tank with them no fish) and i feed them mysis once a day. over the last few months they have begun ritual pre mating behavior. they are my first seahorses so i cant com,pare but they are easy. most in trade are tank raised ...a huge plus!

 

[pledosophy]

Tank raised and Captive bred have totally different meanings these days. Seahorsesource has CB. I would not buy a TR. I have only been keeping WC seahorses for 6+ years, i do not think I have enough experience to handle a TR seahorse. JMO.

I think everyone would be so much happier if they got a true captive bred seahorse from an aquaculture facility like seahorsesource.com. I will never again by anything but. I've done the others, I do know what I'm doing which is shy I think real CB's are so important. I can't urge enough how important I think it is. JME

 

[CoMMaNdeR]

Guys, I wish to breed the kuda's.

- For a breeding tank is good to add sand or no sand?

- Normally if they are alone in an aquarium how long do they take to pair up anf breed?

 

[pledosophy]

No difference, dpends on the rest of youe setup as far as filtration. Vertial height is needed for the mating ritual. If you have no experience with seahorses and are just looking to make money seahorse breeding is not the way to go. Unless your operation is fairly large it is nt cost effective. You will baarely break even IME. Barely not accounting for time spent.

Pairing can take a week to a few years IME.

 

[sebae09]

have you found some kuda's yet? alot of people are haveing trouble finding CB kudas right now lol but i know a personal friend that will have some ready soon if you need them.

 

[whatnot45]

Erectus IMHO are the second easiest fry to raise. The easiest is BY FAR! dwarf seahorse fry. They don't need any special care at all! They will grow up along side the adults, or if you want a better survival rate you can raise them in a seperate tank. If your going for just breeding purposes, you know you are going to have to hatch large amounts of baby brine shrimp, and so dwarfs would not really be a problem at all.
Just giving you some more options here You could even just breed a type of greater seahorse like erectus or kuda, and have a herd of dwarfs to eat all your left over bbs. They will breed on their own, the fry will grow up on their own in the same tank as their parents and just few pairs can turn into 20 or 30 individuals in a matter of months.

 

[CoMMaNdeR]

What is the species name of these DWARF Seahorse whatnot45?

Some people say that the adult dwarf is difficult to maintain, is this true?

 

[ann83]

dwarf seahorses are hippocampus zosterae. The adults are about the size of your thumbnail.
Yes, if you have an appropriate setup without anything dangerous to the tiny dwarf fry, you can raise the dwarf fry up with the parents in the same setup, however, really the fry are no more easy to raise than benthic erectus (southern), it is just that the dwarf parents are as difficult to maintain as benthic fry... so the dwarf fry seem easy in comparison.
The adult dwarf is difficult to maintain for a couple of reasons. It is difficult to keep the water parameters safe for them, and to keep the temperatures low, because they require such small aquariums in order to maintain an adequite feeding density. They also require very low flow, so as not to get blown around and injured, and so they can catch their food. Traditional clean-up crews cannot be kept with them, because they either pose a danger to the dwarf seahorses, or will be killed by panacur treatments to rid the display of hydroids. And, hydroids can kill dwarf seahorses, and will most certainly show up in the aquarium with all the bbs being fed. The biggest issue for dwarves though, is the daily hatching of baby brine shrimp, as baby brine shrimp is the dwarf seahorse's main diet. However, since your intent is only to breed, you'll be hatching out baby brine shrimp anyway, so keeping dwarves would be like having seahorse fry every day of the year.
You still haven't said why your only intent is to breed the horses. Like pledosophy said, if its for the money, you've picked the wrong fish. Also, if it is to sell the seahorses, know that dwarves have very small broods, and with the larger seahorses who have more fry, even the best breeders only have a small percentage of the fry survive to juvenile stage, and sometimes none at all.

 

[cmsargent]

Getting the seahorses to breed is pretty easy...raising the fry is not! I'm just getting into the game of seahorse raising and let me tell you it's not easy and is very time consuming.

Most pairs of adult seahorse kept in good conditions will breed. The tank for the adults should just be a normal tank set up for seahorses with lots of height to allow room for egg transfer. BTW I don’t know the specs of your tank but a 28g might be a bit on the short side. You’re aiming for a height 3x the length of the seahorse. For kuda that would be a minimum of 18 inches (don’t forget to subtract the room the sand takes up).

The tanks for fry rearing are different. There are a variety of different setup depending upon the species being raised and the preferences of the breeder. You’ll need a couple of smaller tanks 1-5 gallons, airline and pumps, maybe a sponge filter. You’ll also need various sized growout tanks, filters, heaters, etc. Again exactly what you’ll need will depend upon the type of system you use.

You’ll also need the time/space/equipment to maintain cultures of greenwater, rotifers, copepods, brine shrimp and possibly mysis or cleaner shrimp larvae. Again which of these you’ll need will depend on the species you’re raising and your own person system. For pelagic fry expect to need all of these. Then there are the enrichments. You want at minimum some type of green algae, caratanoid pigments like NutraRose, and a fatty enrichment like Selcon or Zoecon.

Success at raising fry can be extremely low. For example I’m trying to raise pelagic fry right now (Northern erectus). At 3 week I have a grand total of 1 left! I’ve been getting help from an experienced breeder and out or 3 broods of pelagic fry she has only 2 left at 3 months. This is considered success with this species as few others have managed to keep any alive. Her success with benthic fry is better. If you manage to raise 1-2% of the fry you will be doing well. Don’t expect to have any success for your 1st couple of broods and only minimal success after that. Some hobbies breeders do manage to have successful fry rearing operations (and by successful I mean that maybe 5% of the fry reach sellable age). Don’t expect to make money at this though. There is almost no way to recover you expenses, much less your time and effort raising seahorse on the hobbyist scale. If you’re really serious about breeding seahorse then I suggest you do some research, google the topic and you should find another site that specializes in seahorses. They have a rearing section full of great info from people breeding seahorse (hobbyist and professional breeders). Spend some time reading their threads, research the needs of different species, then if you’re still interested you’ll find lots of help and encouragement there.

 

[CoMMaNdeR]

Thanks alot for your detailed post cmsargent,

No I don't want to make money, I am asking because I never kept seahorses and would like to experiance them breeding etc, it would be nice and staisfaction for me If I raise some of the babies.

Dwarf is too small I think, I be better with a kuda or southern erectus. I want only to have a pair, so maybe like I said they will pair up and breed.

My tank is 18 inches height. Do you think is good for kuda or erectus?

Thanks

 

[whatnot45]

I think some company should bio-engineer seahorses to have fry that are easier to raise.

And as for your tank hight, i think you ought to go w/ a tank that is taller. An 18 inch tall tank is really not tall enough for even a small pair of 6 inch seahorses. The bare minimum rule of thumb is 3 times the hight of the seahorse, and most kuda and erectus get to be about 8 inches. even if you did get some that were only 6 inches, if you ad any type of substrate, the water collumn is not going to be tall enough.

 

[CoMMaNdeR]

Not tall enough for what?

You mean to breed or to live in ?

 

[whatnot45]

To breed, and live comfortably. You could live in a house w/ 5 foot sealings, but it would not be comfortable would it.... Same principal.

 

[cmsargent]

The concern with height is for breeding horses. When they do their courtship dance they need vertical space in order to have time to complete the egg transfer without hitting the bottom.

Seahorses can live in slightly shorter tanks...but they'll do better in a taller tank. Gettting them to breed in a shorter tank is much harder and may be impossible.

I have southern erectus in 29gallon tank, which is 18" tall. They have about 15" of swimming room once you subtract the sand and the fact that the tank isn't filled right to the brim. This tank has just 2 males so no breeding. The horses are fine in there but I don't think they'd have enough room to breed (if there was a female to worry about). I've personally seen erectus that were huge (12 inches or more). A horse that size would be misserable in my tank. Mine are about 7".

So you could keep a pair in your tank but if you want to breed them something taller would be better.