seahorse breeding

[smurph1415]

hello all. I'm pretty new to this forum, but have a good amount of experience in the hobby. I am thinking about changing my 75 gallon tank to a sea horse breeding tank. How hard would it be to breed them? Could I by breeding pairs anywhere? What equipment would I need? How many sea horses would be a good number for a 75 gallon. I have many questions as u can see so any help and info would be great. Thanks!! Steve

 

[HappySkittles]

i think it all depends on the kind of seahorse.
what seahorse do you plan on getting?

and i have seen breeding pairs of dwarf seahorse sold...i am sure that they sell breeding pairs of the larger seahorse too.

 

[ReefNutPA]

Seahorses pair up rather easily, so you should have no problem just introducing male/female pairs and letting nature take it's course.

Tom

 

[krazeekiddie]

If you are serious on it, do ALLOT of reading on food cultures!

Brine Shrimp, Rotifers, green water etc

The food is the hardest part IME when rearing fry. Once you have the food cultures down, it will be allot of trial & error from there.

Yup, horses do pair up easily, so that is not a concern, but a healthy pair is the most important. Start with hardy CB breed horses from a reliable source.

If you wanted to rear fry, I would be concerned with the 75 as a tank size. Think of it this way, you would have to go swimming to retrieve the fry once the male has "given" birth. For simplicity sake, I would go smaller if your goal is to "breed" them.

They have fry very consistently, about every 2 weeks, & once they are acclimated & comfortable in their new set-up, you will have fry! And the cycles are very predictable once you have gone through 2-3.

=) Good Luck! Heather

 

[smurph1415]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13223641#post13223641 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by HappySkittles
i think it all depends on the kind of seahorse.
what seahorse do you plan on getting?

and i have seen breeding pairs of dwarf seahorse sold...i am sure that they sell breeding pairs of the larger seahorse too.

i think i am going to get some Yellow Reidis

 

[smurph1415]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13232257#post13232257 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by krazeekiddie
If you are serious on it, do ALLOT of reading on food cultures!

Brine Shrimp, Rotifers, green water etc

The food is the hardest part IME when rearing fry. Once you have the food cultures down, it will be allot of trial & error from there.

Yup, horses do pair up easily, so that is not a concern, but a healthy pair is the most important. Start with hardy CB breed horses from a reliable source.

If you wanted to rear fry, I would be concerned with the 75 as a tank size. Think of it this way, you would have to go swimming to retrieve the fry once the male has "given" birth. For simplicity sake, I would go smaller if your goal is to "breed" them.

They have fry very consistently, about every 2 weeks, & once they are acclimated & comfortable in their new set-up, you will have fry! And the cycles are very predictable once you have gone through 2-3.

=) Good Luck! Heather

thanks, i think im going to need it at first. do youo have any good sources that i could read about the foods? also i would like to know what would be a good list of equipment to have for the entire breeding process. any other information that you feel would be helpful would be great! thanks everyone, steve

 

[smurph1415]

anyone have any suggestions for tank setups

 

[CCall]

You can research more on www.seahorse.org. Reidi fry are the most difficult to raise. Everyone uses different systems for raising fry. They do need rotifers and newly hatched baby brine shrimp as their first foods.
I got my Reidi from www.seahorsesource.com. They are captive bred.

 

[smurph1415]

thanks for all the advice everyone. Not exactly sure which type I'm going to breed. Thinking reidi right now but if their is something easier my mine can be changed. What would be an easier type of seahorse to breed?

 

[smurph1415]

if I bought a pair ofbhorses that were already breeders do u think I would be ok??

 

[ReefNutPA]

Having the seahorses breed is the EASY part. Raising the fry is the HARD part.....and Reidi fry are some of the HARDEST to raise!

If these are your first seahorses and breeding is a major concern for you, I'd suggest a pair or two of Southern Erectus. Their fry hitch from birth (or shortly thereafter) and can eat newly hatched bbs from the start. Make sure they are Southern Erectus, and not Northern Erectus as Northerns fry are much smaller and do best on rotifers as their first food (ie: they are harder to raise).

Tom

 

[krazeekiddie]

I second that ReefNutPA!

Erectus are MUCH easier, Reidi are not impossible, but they take much more "work." And learning for that matter.

We have some erectus broods with only 1 loss. Reidi, man would I love to come close to that number, we are at an aprox 15-20% survival to frozen training.

 

[smurph1415]

i see. so on average, how much time a day do you put into your horses? Could you post some pics of the set up and the fry tank setups?? thanks. every little bit of info helps!

 

[David123]

If your breeding, and trying to raise fry, your success will be determined upon the hours you spend on the fry, many hours, many fry, simple.

Fry need live food, a pretty big job in itself, reideis need 3 initial foods, first you will need rotifers, live, ten copepods, live, these you have to culture, as in many tanks just for food, rotifers are not so hard, but they eat like monsters and will crash a algae culture in no time, so you will also need tanks of mico algae culture just to feed the rotifers. Copepods are easier, calanoids are what you will be wanting, lots.

After this, artimea, (bbs) these are easier as they come in a tin as resting cysts and you simply hydrate them, decapsulate and then hatch, rinse to rid the live from the remaining cysts, gut load and them feed out.

After al this you will need to then get some very small mysids, like hykari, and train them to eat frozen foods, which they do not easily take to.

If you can do this, and then also feed the fry 4-5 times a day, cleaning there tanks daily, weekly taking all out and sterilizing the tank, spending hours a day on them, you will have great success.

 

[smurph1415]

thanks for the info!