Hatching Fry???
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- Start date
water`bug
Premium Member
I copied and pasted this post from one I wrote in another thread... hope it helps you.
Our first brood, we weren't prepared and adopted them out. The same day he gave birth, we witnessed the egg transfer so we knew right away that we only had two weeks to prepare for yet another brood of fry.
We set up a Kreisel Nursery System. (Google Kreisel Seahorse Nursery to get set-up ideas)
""""Kreisel nursery tanks rely on gentle, carefully directed currents to keep pelagic fry -- and their food (rotifers, Artemia nauplii, copepods, etc.) -- suspended evenly in a circular flow until the young seahorses are ready to settle down on the bottom. Centripetal force draws the fry and their food gently towards the center of this vortex and keeps them suspended in midwater. This has several beneficial effects. Most importantly, it keeps the fry off the surface and prevents them from gulping air. Secondly, it keeps the newborns from swimming into the side glass (in the vastness of the ocean, pelagic fry NEVER encounter such obstacles, and the baffled newborns can injure or exhaust themselves trying to swim through these invisible barriers in an aquarium). And it has the added advantage of concentrating the newborns' food supply exactly where the hungry fry are drifting.END Quote""""
We then ordered Rotifers and began culturing them ourselves. In addition, we had live Phyto culturing and lastly... live BBS. (Decapulated eggs from Brine Shrimp Direct)
Feeding
Keep them in green water for 1st 2 weeks.
Feed Rotifers 3 times daily for first 3 days
(We skimmed copepods off the surface of our 54g Seahorse tank
and fed them to the babies in the nursery - Kreisel system)
Intro'd them to live BBS on 4th day (am feeding), continued with
rotifers for addtional feedings (3 times a day total feedings)
Some of the Babies start hitching 4th day (Chaeto)
7th day feed BBS only
14th day, intro'd babies to frozen bbs and cyclopeez; soaked in Selco (am feeding) and continued with Live BBS pm and evening feedings. When soaking BBS in Selco, I never soak more than 6 hours.
Added a small shell for feeding station, use turkey baster to put
am feeding in and around shell
Water Changes
Daily 50% water changes for first 2 weeks
In addition, I'd take 3-4 cups of water out of 10g Aquarium (The
Kreisel system) and flush out bowls... 3-4 times a day
After adding 10 - 1 month old babies to a 5g nano, I change 50% water every other day and 25-30% on the alternating days and detritus cleaning with a turkey baster twice daily. (replacing water taken out) Also added 25 2-week olds upon the delivery of the 4th brood of 350 fry! lol
Misc::::
I add 1 drop of Adult Liquid Vitamin B into their bowls daily until they are moved over to their nano.
Be careful when placing macro algae for hitching. I find it best to add thin strands. If you get it in there too thick, it will be a task and a half to get them loose when performing your daily water changes.
Salinity - 1.025. Most of what we read suggested taking it down to hypo-range (1.016) We forgot and kept them at 1.025 and thus far, have a great survival rate. So since it was working for us, we continued with it.
PLEASE be cautioned, this is not a *get out of jail free" pass. However, it has worked for us!
We have a thread, very detailed, on our local board. If you want the link, please pm me. In the interim, I have taken all of my pictures... from courting, to the egg transfer, to birth and sequence of events as they grow... and am putting an article together. Wish I had it completed to point you to it.
All I can say is this... we have a handful of people, presently, with the offspring of my 2 reidi's, all of whom are following the outline above pretty close and it seems to be working.
I know as soon as I post this, I'll think of something else! lol OR, the experts will say we're doing it wrong... hoping that if we are, they'll give us suggestions for an even better outcome... So far, it's working... and our babies are still alive, fat and healthy!
Update::::
We still have the 10- now "7" week olds... and "25" 5 week old baby Reidis. We have not lost any in a couple of weeks now. I have them eating frozen mysys (chopped in a small blender) and cyclopeez. I only feed live food (baby Brine) once a day... a very small amount...weaning them off of live all together in a week.
They are fat and happy!
Quite a few of them are changing colors... some are still black. They are sooo adorable! I have continued with my 50% water changes every other day...and still the 30% on the alternating days.
Hope this helps you. Get ready---Its ALOT of work!! But waaay worth it!!
Good luck and I hope this helped you!
donna in N. Dallas
Our first brood, we weren't prepared and adopted them out. The same day he gave birth, we witnessed the egg transfer so we knew right away that we only had two weeks to prepare for yet another brood of fry.
We set up a Kreisel Nursery System. (Google Kreisel Seahorse Nursery to get set-up ideas)
""""Kreisel nursery tanks rely on gentle, carefully directed currents to keep pelagic fry -- and their food (rotifers, Artemia nauplii, copepods, etc.) -- suspended evenly in a circular flow until the young seahorses are ready to settle down on the bottom. Centripetal force draws the fry and their food gently towards the center of this vortex and keeps them suspended in midwater. This has several beneficial effects. Most importantly, it keeps the fry off the surface and prevents them from gulping air. Secondly, it keeps the newborns from swimming into the side glass (in the vastness of the ocean, pelagic fry NEVER encounter such obstacles, and the baffled newborns can injure or exhaust themselves trying to swim through these invisible barriers in an aquarium). And it has the added advantage of concentrating the newborns' food supply exactly where the hungry fry are drifting.END Quote""""
We then ordered Rotifers and began culturing them ourselves. In addition, we had live Phyto culturing and lastly... live BBS. (Decapulated eggs from Brine Shrimp Direct)
Feeding
Keep them in green water for 1st 2 weeks.
Feed Rotifers 3 times daily for first 3 days
(We skimmed copepods off the surface of our 54g Seahorse tank
and fed them to the babies in the nursery - Kreisel system)
Intro'd them to live BBS on 4th day (am feeding), continued with
rotifers for addtional feedings (3 times a day total feedings)
Some of the Babies start hitching 4th day (Chaeto)
7th day feed BBS only
14th day, intro'd babies to frozen bbs and cyclopeez; soaked in Selco (am feeding) and continued with Live BBS pm and evening feedings. When soaking BBS in Selco, I never soak more than 6 hours.
Added a small shell for feeding station, use turkey baster to put
am feeding in and around shell
Water Changes
Daily 50% water changes for first 2 weeks
In addition, I'd take 3-4 cups of water out of 10g Aquarium (The
Kreisel system) and flush out bowls... 3-4 times a day
After adding 10 - 1 month old babies to a 5g nano, I change 50% water every other day and 25-30% on the alternating days and detritus cleaning with a turkey baster twice daily. (replacing water taken out) Also added 25 2-week olds upon the delivery of the 4th brood of 350 fry! lol
Misc::::
I add 1 drop of Adult Liquid Vitamin B into their bowls daily until they are moved over to their nano.
Be careful when placing macro algae for hitching. I find it best to add thin strands. If you get it in there too thick, it will be a task and a half to get them loose when performing your daily water changes.
Salinity - 1.025. Most of what we read suggested taking it down to hypo-range (1.016) We forgot and kept them at 1.025 and thus far, have a great survival rate. So since it was working for us, we continued with it.
PLEASE be cautioned, this is not a *get out of jail free" pass. However, it has worked for us!
We have a thread, very detailed, on our local board. If you want the link, please pm me. In the interim, I have taken all of my pictures... from courting, to the egg transfer, to birth and sequence of events as they grow... and am putting an article together. Wish I had it completed to point you to it.
All I can say is this... we have a handful of people, presently, with the offspring of my 2 reidi's, all of whom are following the outline above pretty close and it seems to be working.
I know as soon as I post this, I'll think of something else! lol OR, the experts will say we're doing it wrong... hoping that if we are, they'll give us suggestions for an even better outcome... So far, it's working... and our babies are still alive, fat and healthy!
Update::::
We still have the 10- now "7" week olds... and "25" 5 week old baby Reidis. We have not lost any in a couple of weeks now. I have them eating frozen mysys (chopped in a small blender) and cyclopeez. I only feed live food (baby Brine) once a day... a very small amount...weaning them off of live all together in a week.
They are fat and happy!Quite a few of them are changing colors... some are still black. They are sooo adorable! I have continued with my 50% water changes every other day...and still the 30% on the alternating days.
Hope this helps you. Get ready---Its ALOT of work!! But waaay worth it!!
Good luck and I hope this helped you!
donna in N. Dallas
I've got a really long document of instructions I gave to some folks I was training to raise fry. Like Donna (above) I've had some success and all I can tell you is what I've been doing. I won't claim to be an expert or to have the best way... just one that can work. After several lost broods, my "trainees" are also having some success. If you'd like me to send the document to you please send a PM with your email address.
In any case, I wish you the best of luck.
In any case, I wish you the best of luck.
Sure, I would like a copy of the document. I just thought I would give it a shot. kfross@sbcglobal.net
Spracklcat
Disaster Expert
Thanks to everyone for all the detailed info they have been putting out--I have a bunch of baby capensis I'm raising now, and it's good to see everyone else's work.
christine
christine
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