OMG!! My lost shipment of dwarf seahorses is still alive!!!!

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Beckmola24

Beckmola24

Hawkfish
Joined
Mar 17, 2004
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1,112
Location
Columbus, OH
I was supposed to receive my shipment of dwarf seahorses last Wed, but due to "issues" with the USPS they delivered them this morning. I was SHOCKED to see that every one of the 4 seahorses was still alive!!!:shock: I QUICKLY opened the bag and acclimated them very slowly with very oxegenated water. They are in quarantine right now and have been snicking at BBS all afternoon. These guys are really thin, but eating for the moment. They are one tough crowd. I really thought they would end up arriving dead.

I set up a new culture of BBS and set up a culture of Copepods (from Oceanpods) So they will have plenty of food when they shape up... Everyone keep your fingers crossed that these cuties will be able to pull through this!!!
 
Wow that is truely amazing!!! Good luck and keep us posted on there progress!

Brian
 
Here is one of my little guys. I really like this one :) He's really cute and seems to pose for the camera... lol... These guys aren't easy to photograph....:lol: Thanks for the support. One of them is not doing very well :( The other 3 are eating well and hitching.

Oh BTW this is their quarantine tank. Since these guys are wild caught, I'm going to quarantine them for 4-6 weeks to be on the safe side.

Notice the rediculous ammount of BBS I put into the tank??? I think I overdid it a little, but hey, these guys are starving....

SeahorsePic.jpg
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Good news!! I just watched as the "stressed" dwarf snicked up some bbs!! I think he might just make it if he keeps eating!!!
 
Wow Becky! I can't believe they are alive. That's outstanding!

I would watch how much food you are putting in the tank at one time. I'd hate for the water quality to go down from too much food (? how long BBS lives once added to the tank), and cause issues. Maybe add a little bit at a time, but more frequently throughout the day.

Keep us posted!
 
Is there any way to gut load the BBS so they are more nutritious for the sea horses? My thoughts are you really don't want them pigging out all at once, but as I stated in the last post, more frequently throughout the day, so giving them something with good nutrition will help them on their recovery.
 
Thanks for pointing out the "water quality" issue Nikki. For some reason that didn't really cross my mind... Could I possibly put a single Nassarius in the tank to remove detritus and other "things" and remove it if I need to add meds for the dwarves??

I'm kind of worried about my smallest guy... I think he has bubbles in his pouch and am a little hesitant to "burp" the pouch since these are my first seahorses and they are SOOO tiny....

Oh, BTW I've witnessed all of my little guys poop! That's a really good thing in the seahorse world :) lol... That means they were able to digest the bbs; Their digestive system COULD'VE shut down from being so long w/o food, but it appears that their digestive tracts are working properly!!!
 
With any size seahorse, the air in the pouch isn't a problem unless it stops them from navigating enough to get food, otherwise it's not doing any harm so the best thing to do is leave them alone. If they can figure it out, they can flush the air out of the pouch by themselves. One of my dwarfs definately had air but I left him alone and he fixed it. If you think he's not getting enough food ('cuz he can't get to it) then you might have to intervene - usually not a problem with dwarves as they just wait for the food to come to them anyway.
We always keep cleanup crew in the quarantine when not actually medicating. Just remember if you do take them out again that they could be "contaminated".
And Nikki is right, gutloading 1-2 day old brine (or even older, up to a couple weeks at least, mine love up to about 5mm size) is great. I give them a mix of new hatch and older enriched so they get the benefits of both. Only small fry are limited to new hatch.
I'm so happy this is working out for you!
 
I'm happy too!!! OK well after CLOSE examination, I do have 2 pair. 2 boys and 2 girls. They are the cutest little animals. What I find really funny is how they are VERY aware when another dwarf swims close by and tend to like to group together. The males appear to stare down each other and if they are opposite sexes they almost appear to give each other sweet eyes :) I'm probably over analyzing them, but that's what it looks like to me :) lol... my yellow male (Gideon) puffed himself up today for the female (Marta), but seemed to forget what he was doing when a bbs swam by :) He's not going to get a girlfriend if all he thinks about is food :) lol

All of them are also very interested in their reflections on the bottom of the tank and the side walls.

Marta is was the one with the problem but she is eating fine (she is NOT a he:)), so I don't think it's a problem. They are all eating fine and have little bellies right now. I figured out something for myself today too, in order for someone to "train" dwarfs to eat frozen (which is near impossible) you have to have a dwarf that eats off the bottom. 1 of mine picks up the bbs off the bottom. I MAY try to put some cyclopeeze in there are see what he does.

I took a turkey baster and cleaned up the tank today and removed all detritus and a lot of bbs. I did a little water change and everyone is still doing well. I will place a Nassarius in there tonight, to help clean up the ground a bit.
 
Well, I thought I'd post an update. All 4 dwarves are doing well and getting their plump little bellies back. They're still in quarantine, and will stay there until I'm completely sure they're healthy, fat, and parasite/hydroid free. I am very happy they're doing well.
 
I have FRY!!!! They're so tiny and cute!!!
I received 4 more dwarves, because the people I bought them from didn't expect the first batch to be alive and/or make it very long so I was shipped a second batch. I now have 8 adults (the previous 4 are doing very well) and to my suprise I opened the bag and found a baby hitching to one of the adults and a REALLY plump male. Well the male had the rest of the babies today and I have 9 fry. The one that was born during shipment is named Squirt :)
 
Awesome Becky!!! I just saw a local reefer's new sea horse tank today, and loved how calming they were to watch. I thought watching a reeftank was calming, but wow...sitting watching sea horses is just as relaxing :)
 
lol, I have 20/20 vision (with my contacts) and the little fry are SUPER hard to see. Talk about making you go blind while trying to watch them ;) I'll try to get out my good camera to try and get some pics of these guys. I got some beauties in this last shipment.

One plus to the seahorses, is that my husband is really interested in them, so maybe I can get him addicted too ;)

I just got a GREAT deal from my LFS for a 37g high tank and stand so I will be setting up for large horses too!!
 
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