Reidi Seahorse fry

When I researched doing the rot culture I didn't see anything other than feeding them the Nannochloropsis. Guess I'll have to look into that now too.
I also have Roti-feast as well as frozen Rots. Have you tried either of those?
About at how many days old do you start feeding the fry the bbs?
I didn't think the sh fry were big enough to eat them until they were about a week old.
Mine haven't made it that far...yet!
 
Nanno is the gold standard for rotifer growth.

I would start offering nhbbs as soon as the babies were large enough to eat them, I guess this will depend on the type of brine your using and the size of your babies.

In my personal experience over the last year of so I have found that the less I tinker in the first few weeks the better the out come. I don't aim for best conditions as this seems to lead to more stress for everyone. What I mean is once the fry are in their rearing tank I don't make many adjustments other than adding food for the first few weeks. Some of my best results were in a basic 10 gallon that was for all purposes on auto pilot.

I would not use any type of dead rotifer product. That said the makers of Roti-feast know their rotifers. They offer some of the best enrichments on the market if you ever go that route.
 
kreisel flow for the reidi fry...

kreisel flow for the reidi fry...

Well evidently figuring out a flow rate is still my main problem at least from my standpoint.
I had hoped that adding the extra spray bar to move the water would help.
And it did look like it seemed to be working.
But, Obviously from the side floaters on top this morning, the pump for the spray bar to move the fry across the water was not strong enough.
I had to do some quick re-plumbing to change it out for a stronger one.
Looks like everyone is now blowing across just beneath the surface.
Now...onto maintaining water quality!

Also, should I be able to keep these little guys alive, at what age should I begin offering the nhbbs?
 
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I feed reidi fry enriched rotifers for the first two weeks, followed by two weeks of both rots and enriched bbs. After that, I just use enriched bbs.
While nanno is used most often for growing rotifers, it is NOT a suitable enrichment material IMO.
Roti-Feast is a good product to wean older fry off live food but IMO it is not the best for seahorse fry. Frozen rotifers also will most likely not work until later at best if they do at all.
With live food being necessary for the new fry, it's still best to enrich them and Dan's Food has been tailor made for seahorses and their fry.
I no longer use nanno for growing rotifers choosing instead to grow them on spirulina powder from BSD. I blend it for two minutes and store in a pop bottle in the refrigerator, adding to the culture container two to three times a day.
Rotifers I enrich for 8 hours before using them as feed.
For brine shrimp, I hatch the decapped cysts and grow them out for another day until they develop digestive system and then enrich them with Dan's Food in two 12 hour stages with new water and new enrichment for each of the 12 hour stages.
Sounds like you have the flow working good now. With good food density you should start to be successful now if you can keep the bacteria from being a problem.
Just remember, that few hobbyists have been successful right of the bat in raising reidi fry. They are harder than erectus or barbouri.
In my case it took longer than I planned on with nine failures before I succeeded.
 
rayjay said:
While nanno is used most often for growing rotifers, it is NOT a suitable enrichment material IMO.
Click to expand...

I should have been clear. I meant nanno is the gold standard for growing rotifers. I don't think you would want to use Dan's Feed as a grow out instead it more of an enrichment.
 
Well, here we go again!
New batch of fry is due either Monday or Tuesday since I have disrupted the mating cycle. I will no longer be transferring Mom and Dad to the nursery as it is too stressful for ME!
Not putting all my eggs in one basket this time, so to speak.
Although since they're not available here, I'm still waiting on the 2 1/2 g fish bowl to arrive. In the meantime I've modified a 29g tank, with sections on each end for the fry.
Bio wheels, and live rock in the center. I'll try the spirulina green water as I think that the tiny amount of Methylene blue to color the water was a problem last time, even with multiple water changes each day. Spray bars are now secured so hopefully that not be an issue, again.
 
Seventh batch of fry is HERE!
Flow appears to be just about right! Will be working on keeping both tummies full as well as water quality perfect!
 
Thanks rayjay!
Keeping my fingers crossed here too, as well as checking flow rate to keep them off the surface, rot saturation in nursery, water quality....So far so good!
 
24 hours later...
Maxi jet 400 side looks to be about right for flow. Aqua clear 20 not so much. A few side floaters in that part of the tank. Moved those the fry to the other portion til I trade out the pump. I am still concerned that as the fry get stronger they may be able to fight the flow on the 400 side. In comparing motion from You-tube though, it looks just about right.
Also had read something about lighting from the bottom of the tank. NOT good. In watching the fry they keep looking up...where the light goes. Moved it to the side instead. It really does highlight the rotifers for the ponies.
 
72 hours...
This is where it really gets discouraging...so many little guys seem to not be able to keep themselves upright this morning. So very hard to watch...I know this is where I should try to cull, well...maybe even a little late for that at this point. I might still try it though.
I've definitely solved the surface snicking issue. However, several if not most do have varying sizes of that stupid silver bubble in their throats. On the upside there are a few that don't. Kinda wondering now if that was due to the low flow side? There were only about half on that side, but more like 90% have the bubble?
Really thinking about the food issue also, if this could be an issue? Was going for a good density of snow-storm for rots in the nursery, but stepped it up to a blizzard yesterday.
Hoping it's not too late.
Did the first big water change also yesterday. About 25%. Tests are looking good so far...
 
For me, I don't cull except ones that have died. Just a personal thing with me.
I'm not sure but the silver bubble may be the swim bladder but I know that when I separated ones with and without the silver bubble, I had mortalities and survivors in each batch so now I'm not hugely concerned about the bubbles, at least until I know for sure they are causing the fry problems.
I keep food density very dense myself so that as the fry are being tumbled continually by the water motion, they just have to snick up the food right in front of their noses, so to speak.
Also, I probably mentioned it before, but my biggest concern is bacterial problems so I do complete water changes and cleaning of the whole rearing container every 48 hours. I believe a slime builds up on the container and feeds the bacteria which then get to the seahorse fry.
I think that cleaning was the major reason I started to succeed after so many failures, although I switched to the 4L pickle jars at that time as well.
 
beginning of day 6...
I'm wondering how accurate that info was about the bubble myself. Some do appear larger than others though. I'm guessing at this point I'm down to about 1/2 to 1/3 survivors of the fry now, some with some without...Time will tell.
I've definitely stepped up the food density with this batch, however am now watching water quality closely, and doing larger, and larger water changes, due to the waste issues due to the density of the rots as well. (started 10%, now up to 30% daily) Can really appreciate the idea of changing out litre jars vs gallons daily! I'm really considering trying that as well as the larger goldfish bowl kreisel with some of the next batch due mid next week. How many fry per jar do you stock? And are you using the spirulina vs the nanno with those? I'm not seeing or feeling any slime build up on the glass, not sure why? But will keep checking.
The darker side of the nursery seems to be doing as well or better than the side with light on the lower 1/4 of the tank?
Thanks Rayjay your input has been very helpful!
 
I start off with about a hundred or a few more per 4L jar, depending on the size of the birthing.
As they grow, and as some losses occur, I add more jars and reduce the numbers to 75, then 50 and eventually down to 25 per jar. At 4 months of age I transfer them to a breeder tank with sump until sold.
I don't use spirulina as being dead it cannot use up the ammonia produced by the fry so I use only nannochloropsis and I continue using it until they are about 3 months of age.
 
Getting frustrated here...it's like by about days 6 and 7 they can't keep themselves upright. The survivors at this point appear almost to be flat.They've had rotifers in abundance...So I don't know why?
So many rots that I was very concerned about water quality. And now by day 8 there are no survivors....literally looks like they've been starved. So sad....
I'm seriously going to go back over all of the statistics on Reidi to see if this is what they actually are? The first batch in December were eating pods in my aquarium that very first day.
Next batch experiment...Try some like rayjay has been doing...Nanno, rots and clean bowl every 48 hours.
Some in 2 1/2 gal goldfish kreisel, maybe keep the rots more dense?
And some in the nursery tank with spray bars and LOTS of "safe" live rock in the divided section as well as lots of Rots?
 
You definitely give me hope rayjay knowing I'm not alone in decimating herds of adorable little ponies...
It's amazing that they keep "rewarding" me (and I use that term quite loosely!) with herds of fry. Especially after last week when the stupid caluerpa decided to go "sexual" after the (stealth) heater in the tank malfunctioned majorly shorting out.
What a week....
 
Count each day as a success. reidi are very difficult. Like rayjay, I went through many batches prior to success. Hang in there and don't get discouraged. The secret to each batch is change only one thing so you can see if that made a difference or not. I like the goldfish kresiels myself but they don't work for everyone. You have to find what works for you.
 
Thanks guys (again!)
I'll work at getting those rots enriched properly. Nursery is teeming with pods. And, I've also started a micro algae culture as well. I'm guessing the new batch will arrive mid week in the wee hours of the AM!
I used to think 7 was my lucky number, but here's hoping to 8!
 
OMG! Here we go again!
They're coming right now! Usually he has them around 4 am! Only the first batch was born at this time in the morning!
Now I am reminded why I've been trying so dang hard, They are so freaking cute!
 
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