color change

[Allmost]

yap, ordered the dan's formula today, waiting for confirmation. also ordered the algea paste and beta glucans, I'll use them for something lol


I have ALOT of mysis shrimps and pods in the seahorse tank and Fuge, but cant do much with those.

hopefully I will start a hatchery and grow out tanks for Brine shrimp in my parents basement soon. doing it in a one bedroom condo is just a waste of time money and space lol


what I still dont get is what makes that system sophisticated ! and allows him to keep temp at 80s, that my system is missing and I cant keep it at 79 (which by the way is up to 80 now due to heat and the seahorses doing fine ! but I do agree with ure comment before that maybe the horses I got were stronger and more tolerate to bacteria, or maybe its the Zeo vit system and use of ZZ and Coral snow. )

 

[rayjay]

Good luck with the brine!

As for the systems that Aquamarine uses, they have hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment that micro filters and kills off anything that comes in with the ocean water, and, they kill off the bacteria that our tanks are so prone to causing disease. The systems are pretty sterile compared to ours and they don't have live rock or anything else that adds pathogens to the systems like other fish, corals, inverts, rock and so on. There systems are bare bottom and nothing is left to decay for any time at all.
Equivalent systems are not sold for the hobby so it would be costly to make up your own with equipment that may be used for other things.
The majority of breeders using ocean water don't use this extensive filtration and therefore, allow pathogens that wild caught have to exist in their breeding systems, even though they do some filtration for major particulate matter. That is one of the reasons they can sell them so cheap.
You say your tanks are ok, but they are ok now but may not at some point later because of the increased temperatures now. You are still working in the short term, not the long term where you may be six months to a year or more before the problems happen.
You also may be lucky and not have any problems but that is a low percentage possibility.
Zeovit is a system that is supposed to rid your tank of nutrients using good bacteria, but it doesn't do anything to stop the bad bacteria from growing in your tank.
I don't know what ZZ is but Coral Snow is not going to help either as it's supposed to transfer "needed" things to corals, not to do anything about the bacteria problem.

 

[Reverend Reefer]

funny. i just took out all the brightly colored plastic ornaments out of my SH tank recently and put some live rock and macro. one of the black reidis i got from ray turned metallic red!!!

my theory is the addition of live rock and macro made the water conditions better and caused one to change color. but that of course, is just another theory. but why not the other? i dunno what gets them to change color but everyone has a theory.

based on this experience, i'd say the "enrich their foods with carrot juice theory" is just like the "put brightly colored ornaments theory." this also contradicts lukey's experience regarding live rock, where i added live rock and the opposite happened. i've also had a bright blue background and they were both black until i added the live rock and macro. so what's the verdict? i guess until someone figures out a way to ask the seahorses why they change color, we're all just shooting in the dark with unscientific descriptive accounts where we come up with our own theories on how to induce color change....

just my 2 cents.

 

[seahorse63098]

if i purchase a black or brown seahorse, can it change to a yellow or orange color if given brightly colored hitching posts and live rock?

I got an H. reidi and when i got it origanally it was black, i put fake pink, purple, yellow, and orange plants in there and almost instantly they changed color to match their background! soooo cooool!!!!!!!!!!!:lol2:

 

[Allmost]

funny. i just took out all the brightly colored plastic ornaments out of my SH tank recently and put some live rock and macro. one of the black reidis i got from ray turned metallic red!!!

my theory is the addition of live rock and macro made the water conditions better and caused one to change color. but that of course, is just another theory. but why not the other? i dunno what gets them to change color but everyone has a theory.

based on this experience, i'd say the "enrich their foods with carrot juice theory" is just like the "put brightly colored ornaments theory." this also contradicts lukey's experience regarding live rock, where i added live rock and the opposite happened. i've also had a bright blue background and they were both black until i added the live rock and macro. so what's the verdict? i guess until someone figures out a way to ask the seahorses why they change color, we're all just shooting in the dark with unscientific descriptive accounts where we come up with our own theories on how to induce color change....

just my 2 cents.

the addition of extra live rock introduced more live creatures such as copepods who are rich in carotenoids, that one seahorse ate alot of copepods and is now color full ?

but I like how u worded your post, we dont know , we simply dont yet so putting what works for me down in not really professional

but if you read my posts, I agree that the better the water conditions and the better their food, the easier they can change color to what they want , does that make sense ? in a nice day, when I had a good meal, Id take my GF shopping, lol any other day, I aint going close to a mall haha, u know what I'm saying ?


here are some good readings :
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_4/V4I1/hippocampus_color/Color_In_Hippocampus.htm

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_4/V4I2/hippocampus_color2/Color_In_Hippocampus2.htm

2 parts on seahorse color

 

[rayjay]

No, I don't understand the analogy.
While Pete Giwojna is a knowledgeable person, he is still a salesman, selling overpriced ORA seahorses and products like vibrance so you have to temper some of his writings with that in mind.
There are an awful lot of people who have done everything he recommends and their ORA seahorses have not returned to the coloration they had at purchase.
Most of the science of what he writes in those articles are relating to seahorses in the wild, and while our seahorses still have the ability to change, they don't have the same influences to affect a lot of that change.
There is nothing in his writings there that will tell you how to get your seahorses back to the red they were when you bought them.
You can have the healthiest seahorses possible, and have seahorses from the same brood, in the same tank eating the same things, and have them different colours.
Almost all of what he speaks of really relate to seahorses in their natural habitats and we cannot totally replicate all those parameters.
Something I believe to be possibly the biggest thing a seahorse uses for coloration is predation.
In the wild, the seahorses MUST adapt to their surroundings or perish.
In our tanks I believe they come to KNOW there is no predation there and as such, are not forced to be using instinctive colours to blend in.

 

[Allmost]

No, I don't understand the analogy.
While Pete Giwojna is a knowledgeable person, he is still a salesman, selling overpriced ORA seahorses and products like vibrance so you have to temper some of his writings with that in mind.
There are an awful lot of people who have done everything he recommends and their ORA seahorses have not returned to the coloration they had at purchase.
Most of the science of what he writes in those articles are relating to seahorses in the wild, and while our seahorses still have the ability to change, they don't have the same influences to affect a lot of that change.
There is nothing in his writings there that will tell you how to get your seahorses back to the red they were when you bought them.
You can have the healthiest seahorses possible, and have seahorses from the same brood, in the same tank eating the same things, and have them different colours.
Almost all of what he speaks of really relate to seahorses in their natural habitats and we cannot totally replicate all those parameters.
Something I believe to be possibly the biggest thing a seahorse uses for coloration is predation.
In the wild, the seahorses MUST adapt to their surroundings or perish.
In our tanks I believe they come to KNOW there is no predation there and as such, are not forced to be using instinctive colours to blend in.

lol I agree about Pete, although a knowledgeable person, he advertices vibrance too much and now we know the "special ingredients" is only carotenoids lol

very good point about predation though ! something i never though of ! makes sense as they get comfortable in tank and know food will come everyday, so why waste extra energy ...

Ray, do you think its possible to train seahorses to take pellets ? lol I started mixing in some pellets with their mysis, and out it in the dish in their tank, I need to do this more, but I think one of my seahorses took a couple of pellets ! lol or maybe I was too optimistic lol will try it again tonight

 

[rayjay]

People have been trying to train seahorses to eat a variety of foods and to this day I've not seen any success stories.
It doesn't mean that it won't happen some day but it would probably take many generations of seahorses down the road to be able to breed out that instinct to only eat what they presently perceive to be food.

 

[timinnl]

ack!! I was told by a breeder that once they turn black, it is nearly impossible to get them back to color...:-(...I have tried the colored posts, blue backgrounds and got nada. But I love them just the same!!

Not true. Once you go black, you can always go back. My H. reidi are going between black, greenish yellow, bronze/brown. Most of the time it depends on the time of day or if they are eating live or frozen mysis in my case.

Tim

 

[amonte]

hmmm, interesting!