Dwarf SeaHorse tank!

i have two air pumps rated for 10 gallons that'll be used in the 2.5, so i think it should be good ;)
 
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I started the hatching a bit later then i had planned, but non the less after 24 hours i moved them from the pop bottle hatchery to the 2.5g tank with green water. It appears to be a very successful hatch, Used a turkey baster to remove the shrimp with minimal eggs/unhatched shrimp. I think i am ready to start looking into ordering the seahorses.
 
I MUCH prefer to remove the air line after hatchout, let sit for 4 minutes, and siphon off the nauplii into an ice cream container. Then I pour through the mesh to capture the nauplii, rinse to remove all traces of hatching water, and then add to the grow out container. If not using decapped cysts then I also treat with a 5 minute hydrogen peroxide bath before the rinse.
Remember, they can't feed on the greenwater until they are about a day old when the molt into instar II stage. This means you will end up with exoskeletons in the container that many people think are dying nauplii. Roughly speaking they will go through about 15 of these molts by the time they mature.
These molts are another reason for cleanout of the containers as the food settles and decays and the molts decay along with nauplii feces decaying, providing perfect conditions for nasty bacteria to thrive. Usually when a brownish tinge starts to the water it indicates the molts and feces have decayed.
 
Yea i took the airline out for a good 10 minuets, let everything settle, then moved them, i didn't rinse them before putting them into the holding tank but will be rising them before starting any enrichment process. With the feces and molts decaying just complete water changing and cleaning between batches in the holding tank?
 
IMO, rinsing should occur at every step of the way when it comes to brine.
Bacteria can be transferred just so easy you need to minimize the possibility as much as possible. Even better if you can use hydrogen peroxide.
 
For any batch after, and anymore steps with this one ill be rinsing inbetween. What is a good source for dwarfs if you know of any.
 
Now one more question, Tank mates i know are a no-go, has anyone had luck with corals with dwarfs? i know the lights on my tank wouldn't be good enought for most, but im thinking a smaller nps gorgonian, would that cause issues? i know the big thing with adding corals would probably be the risk of hydroids.
 
I can't help with corals as I've never had any with dwarfs. However, you would have to consider whether or not the corals needs were compatible with the dwarfs needs. i,e, waterflow, feeding, temperature
In a small tank it would be especially hard to provide sufficient light for many corals without overheating the small tank to above the recommended range of 68° to 74°F
 
Right, I'll just stick with the artificial plants ;P I recieved my order of dwarfs today, Got 8 healthy looking sea horses and one actually gave birth in the shipping bag so there are 3 little ponies swimming around :)
 
Can't tell for sure as in the pic the pouch sticks out in front well but appears to be sunken in the side.
Swollen pouches sometimes just indicate the male is inflating the pouch to show the female he is ready to accept eggs.
 
Well it's day 3 with the seahorses lost 1 in shipping and 2 shortly after, so the final count currently is 7 adults and 7 babies, that i can see atleast haha, they like to hide in between plants. Brine shrimp has been going pretty well, there eating good from what i can see. Thank you for all the help and advice getting things ready for them ray!

In honor of you, http://i.imgur.com/dFtdSrh.jpg Meet ray the seahorse! :P
 
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Don't know if anyone here can answer this, When a dwarf seahorse has the ponies how small are they, i say this because i had one that i thought just gave birth in shipping, had some really small seahorses but could clearly tell they were seahorses. Now looking in the tank i see what looks very similar to one, but very small...way smaller then the then thought to be babies. Its so small i can't get a picture that you'd be able to see anything to verify.
 
Any I had were fairly uniform in size but occasionally I would get some smaller ones. Those smaller ones though never seemed to last long.
You will definitely be able to tell that they are seahorses though.
I've never actually measured one but the smallest I've seen were larger than the reidi and erectus fry I've raised.
You could probably fit about 8 dwarf newborn on a dime.
 
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