New Seahorse Fry Videos

[jnowell]

I finally got fry out of my H. Kuda seahorses a week or so ago. They had around 120 fry, and all were healthy. I've had a fair amount of die off over the last week, but still have a good number left.

I shot the first video shortly after birth, the second video was shot through my 10X loupe and came out incredible, you can see one nail a newly hatched artemia. I'm pretty proud of them, so I had to post the videos

The newborns
http://www.wfrs.org/sh/sh_babies.wmv

And the extreme closeup!
http://www.wfrs.org/sh/kuda_baby_closeup.wmv

Jason

 

[jnowell]

Sorry, I screwed up the first link. It should have been:

http://www.wfrs.org/sh/SH_babies.wmv

 

[David M]

Cool The folks over at shorg would love to see that, have you posted the links there?

 

[jnowell]

Ahh David, I've been LIVING over there since you gave me the link They've seen it all, but I have been so busy with the fry that I haven't been over here much lately. Figured I'd drop by and show off where I've been.

They're a lot of work (compared to clowns anyways) but I'm doing OK with them...the male is already pregnant again too, so I'll get a second shot soon.

Now that I have my kreisel down to an art, I may try some peppermint shrimp too...cause I need something to take up MORE of my time

Jason

 

[mcegelsk]

Awesome! Thank you for sharing! Good luck with the grow out! ~Matt

 

[David M]

You DO want to collect those pep larvae, but forget growing them out. That is the "secret ingedient" to growing out fat healthy seahorses Collect as many pep larvae as you can and keep them alive for as long as you can, feed them to fry as soon as they are big enough to eat them. I had a lysmata farm going when I was raising erectus 20 gallon tank with a dozen peps and cleaners. An overflow with a small light that goes to a plankton collector. Every few mornings the collector was full od larvae, very simple. Possibly one of the best foods you could give your baby horses.

 

[jnowell]

Funny, I have a pair of peps in the SH tank to help feed the pipefish! As well as pepps and skunks in the reef...between the 3 pairs, I get fry almost twice a week. Thanks for the tip...just this morning I was thinking my fry still looked a little thin considering they were 2 weeks tomorrow. I'll definitely give that a try David.

Thanks Matt, I'll need all the luck I can get! Is that RC in your interests Radio Control? I fly every chance I get, but lately those have been few and far between.

Jason

 

[Kathy55g]

Jason, those videos are FANTASTIC! Congrats on the harvest!

 

[mano]

Nice video Jason.

I breed erectus mostly but also procerus, whitei, reidi and I had a couple batches of kuda a year ago or so but they didn't make it. The adults ended up dying also unfortunately.

Good luck with them!

 

[Fredfish]

David. What size do the shrimp larvae hatch out at and what size fry do/did you feed them to? Sounds like a good suplemental food for seahorse fry.

Fred

 

[David M]

Boy, your'e really taxing my brain and I haven't even finished my coffee Best answer I can give is "larger than new hatch artemia and smaller than adults" I bred erectus which are born fairly large, I think I gave then shrimp larvae in the first week or two but honestly I'd have do some searching around to find anything more specific. The threads on this should still be at seahorse.org and I'm sure many others there have used them since that time. I know I posted a lot about this at shorg. I specifically remember a thread called "strange new larvae" which is about hermit crab larvae and it may have the links to others as well.

 

[Fredfish]

Thanks David. So, not a new fry food.

The horses I am breeding have fairly large benthic fry (~7-10mm) so I could feed shrimp larvae after about a week.

Fred

 

[jnowell]

Fred, David pretty well hit the nail on the head, I'd say the pep fry I have are a little closer to adult artemia than newly hatched, but pretty close to right in the middle.

Kuda fry are much smaller at >5mm, and palegic at birth. Mine aren't eating them yet, but they do investigate them quite a bit. I'm using greenwater with rotifers and NHBS and the pep fry are growing and molting right in there with the fry. I have a skunk cleaner that has a nice green underside right now, and clowns set to hatch tonight.

With any luck, I'll get a new batch of Clarkii, and some fresh seahorse fry food all at once.

Glad you guys liked the videos!

Jason