reefsupply
Well-known member
He is doing good the tissue is growing back fast and he is vary active.
seahorse forum
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Oscapus
Well-known member
Just an announcement that two of my Reidi seahorses gave birth last week, and for the first time I am getting confident that I may actually be able to raise the fry up to adulthood.
This time I first established a 5gal stand-alone refugium nursery (bare-bottom, stuffed full of macroalgae and 'pods) as soon as Ringo became apparently pregnant. He got so inflated it must have been really painful for him (but he danced for it, believe me!). I kept getting up in the middle of the night several times to check for fry under the LED moonlight, even took a day off from work when I especially thought he was going to pop, but 2 days later came home for lunch and netted most of the fry (some took a trip down to the sump but seem okay since I removed the filter sock).
This time, in conjuction with the pods, I tried feeding frozen Cyclopeze (thanks Extreme Marine!), not just newly hatched brine shrimp. The fry really snick it up, and have almost doubled in size now at day 5. They are even already differentiating into black ones and yellow ones. The largest ones are the "roamers" that go into the macroalgae and (I suppose) find better, live food. Most stay against the tank side dumbly attracted to the light. I also do a 10% water change every day, sucking off the bottom after shooing a few away. LIke adults, any activity perks their interest.
We are not out of the woods yet, but I think that soon I will be presenting 44 little shrimp-snatchers to aquarium society. Stay tuned! P.S. Ringo is already pregnant again......
This time I first established a 5gal stand-alone refugium nursery (bare-bottom, stuffed full of macroalgae and 'pods) as soon as Ringo became apparently pregnant. He got so inflated it must have been really painful for him (but he danced for it, believe me!). I kept getting up in the middle of the night several times to check for fry under the LED moonlight, even took a day off from work when I especially thought he was going to pop, but 2 days later came home for lunch and netted most of the fry (some took a trip down to the sump but seem okay since I removed the filter sock).
This time, in conjuction with the pods, I tried feeding frozen Cyclopeze (thanks Extreme Marine!), not just newly hatched brine shrimp. The fry really snick it up, and have almost doubled in size now at day 5. They are even already differentiating into black ones and yellow ones. The largest ones are the "roamers" that go into the macroalgae and (I suppose) find better, live food. Most stay against the tank side dumbly attracted to the light. I also do a 10% water change every day, sucking off the bottom after shooing a few away. LIke adults, any activity perks their interest.
We are not out of the woods yet, but I think that soon I will be presenting 44 little shrimp-snatchers to aquarium society. Stay tuned! P.S. Ringo is already pregnant again......
Last edited:
Wolfesbane
Seahorse Wrangler
Well done!
~ Steve
~ Steve
Mauisreef
Rigameyer
Too Cool Oscapus!
Maui
Maui
Wink
Crazy Seahorse Lady
Excellent! Be sure to give us regular updates.
And just one thing... it's usually recommended that you not net the fry or expose them to air. Most folks use either a small container to scoop them up or a turkey baster to gently suck them up.
Steven - great to hear your guy is doing better, too!
And just one thing... it's usually recommended that you not net the fry or expose them to air. Most folks use either a small container to scoop them up or a turkey baster to gently suck them up.
Steven - great to hear your guy is doing better, too!
reefsupply
Well-known member
GJ oct. hope the few I sent yoou are dooinng well also
reefsupply
Well-known member
ok call me crazy but I had 2 orders for seahorses that I turned downn because I didn;t think they could care for them. I guess I have grown attached to them.. I have the reorder froms Octs order. We thought it was a DOA but the gods of sea were smileing apon us. I have 3paiirs 2 black and 1 yellow redi. + 2 more females yellow, well yellow with black bands
Oscapus
Well-known member
Reef Supply: Everybody is doing fine, and getting bigger! The black ones are getting lots of white on them, while the yellow ones are turning black! Go fig'r. All are very beautiful. My recent births are from other, older ones I already had, but I am sure your younger ones are getting the message!
Wink
Crazy Seahorse Lady
Reef Supply: I'm confused.. your posts talk about reidi but your website says kuda.. ???
reefsupply
Well-known member
I must have messed up the website post, see what happens when you work 20hs a day. One of my black ones has white bands now
Just like children they never stand still for a pic.
Just like children they never stand still for a pic.
Electrokate
Well-known member
Looking for dwarf seahorses, hello
Hi,
I was wondering how Oscopus did with the Reidi babies. Any luck? They are supposed to be the hardest... I think they need some nutrient that the industry is not willing to disclose as there does not seem to be any shortage of commercially bred reidis. Wish they would be more forthcoming with the info! They certainly are stunning creatures.
I am interested in finding CB dwarf seahorses in the Seatac area or even south down to Portland/Salem. I have a fishroom, breeding mostly killifish (freshwater). I hatch and feed BBS daily, as well as feeding a variety of frozen and live foods and should be able to care for them. Anyone breeding other seahorses around here as well? I know a lady in Vancouver who would break the landspeed record to get some. She breeds clownfish and show bettas-which are actually very difficult and even more expensive than most marine fish.
As an OT aside, would like to locate a local oscellaris clown breeder.
Kate B
Oly WA
Hi,
I was wondering how Oscopus did with the Reidi babies. Any luck? They are supposed to be the hardest... I think they need some nutrient that the industry is not willing to disclose as there does not seem to be any shortage of commercially bred reidis. Wish they would be more forthcoming with the info! They certainly are stunning creatures.
I am interested in finding CB dwarf seahorses in the Seatac area or even south down to Portland/Salem. I have a fishroom, breeding mostly killifish (freshwater). I hatch and feed BBS daily, as well as feeding a variety of frozen and live foods and should be able to care for them. Anyone breeding other seahorses around here as well? I know a lady in Vancouver who would break the landspeed record to get some. She breeds clownfish and show bettas-which are actually very difficult and even more expensive than most marine fish.
As an OT aside, would like to locate a local oscellaris clown breeder.
Kate B
Oly WA
Oscapus
Well-known member
In short, after probably 15-20 birthing episodes, I have been totally unable to keep reidi fry alive longer than a few days. I just got 65 more this morning and put them in the nursery. My adult males are continously pregnant so I have an ample supply for research.
The 3 young seahorses I have successfully raised to adulthood are not reidi. I think they are either tigertails (H. comes) or Barbouri (H. barbouri). With all the natural variability it is just too hard for me to tell the species definitively, perhaps they are sterile hybrids since mom and dad look so different. These were born much larger than reidi, hitched the first day, and were much more active and inquisitive from day 1. They have grown up fast once weaned away from baby brine shrimp and onto frozen mysis. One only took 2 days to start eating mysis after placement in the main tank with adults, the other took 3 weeks, and the third took over 7 weeks and was near death before taking mysis. Now all are growing fast but the difference in timing with mysis is reflected in their size.
I have several theories about why reidi die. My nursury is a bare bottom Eclipse 12 with sponge filters, live rock, and lots of cheatomorpha macroalgae. I was losing half a hatch the first night, half again the second night, by day 4 there were only 2-3 left swimming. No dead bodies anywhere. I thought it was predatory amphipods that come out at night so left the lights on continuously. That really improved survival but all were still missing within 10 days.
I cleaned out everything, killed the live rock (amphipods and bristleworms), reduced the chaeto to keep them below the water surface (bubbles kill them?) and tried again. No avail. I am still only keeping them for about 10 days max with baby brine shrimp. They eat, take on black color, run around, etc... but are simply missing the next day. I could understand if they were dead on the bottom, and I doubt the snails eat them. There may be some predator I haven't eliminated (no further signs of hydroids either).
I was hoping to start selling them to offset the cost of mysis for the adults(about a dollar a day), but with only 3 produced so far, my time investment and fatherly love is overwhelming. They would be the very last thing I would sell on earth! They are so cute and inquisitive, they will even play with me at the front of the tank. I thought all 3 were female, but suddenly one had a growth spurt (length) and developed a pouch. After having a pouch for only 8 days, he started the courtship ritual with a big female. It was hilarious since he was so small compared to her. Needless to say he has a new nickname I can't say here.....
As I said above, I just got 65 more this morning, and will keep up the research. Any ideas are welcome.
The 3 young seahorses I have successfully raised to adulthood are not reidi. I think they are either tigertails (H. comes) or Barbouri (H. barbouri). With all the natural variability it is just too hard for me to tell the species definitively, perhaps they are sterile hybrids since mom and dad look so different. These were born much larger than reidi, hitched the first day, and were much more active and inquisitive from day 1. They have grown up fast once weaned away from baby brine shrimp and onto frozen mysis. One only took 2 days to start eating mysis after placement in the main tank with adults, the other took 3 weeks, and the third took over 7 weeks and was near death before taking mysis. Now all are growing fast but the difference in timing with mysis is reflected in their size.
I have several theories about why reidi die. My nursury is a bare bottom Eclipse 12 with sponge filters, live rock, and lots of cheatomorpha macroalgae. I was losing half a hatch the first night, half again the second night, by day 4 there were only 2-3 left swimming. No dead bodies anywhere. I thought it was predatory amphipods that come out at night so left the lights on continuously. That really improved survival but all were still missing within 10 days.
I cleaned out everything, killed the live rock (amphipods and bristleworms), reduced the chaeto to keep them below the water surface (bubbles kill them?) and tried again. No avail. I am still only keeping them for about 10 days max with baby brine shrimp. They eat, take on black color, run around, etc... but are simply missing the next day. I could understand if they were dead on the bottom, and I doubt the snails eat them. There may be some predator I haven't eliminated (no further signs of hydroids either).
I was hoping to start selling them to offset the cost of mysis for the adults(about a dollar a day), but with only 3 produced so far, my time investment and fatherly love is overwhelming. They would be the very last thing I would sell on earth! They are so cute and inquisitive, they will even play with me at the front of the tank. I thought all 3 were female, but suddenly one had a growth spurt (length) and developed a pouch. After having a pouch for only 8 days, he started the courtship ritual with a big female. It was hilarious since he was so small compared to her. Needless to say he has a new nickname I can't say here.....
As I said above, I just got 65 more this morning, and will keep up the research. Any ideas are welcome.
Electrokate
Well-known member
That is an awesome article, very detailed. I tried raising a batch of reidi fry a friend here had but they only lived a week, believe they did have the problem with parasites despite starting with a very clean system. Next I set up a 10 gallon tank with lots of rock and aragonite substrate, adding plants and leaving it fallow but adding greenwater occasionally. Goal was to get a good pod population and try adding only a dozen fry to see if I could sustain the fry on the pods existing in the tank supplemented with enhanced rotifers, but the fry supply dried up.
Oh well, it's a really splendid quarantine system...
Decided that since Reidi's are supposed to be the very hardest species to raise it might be wise to start with the easiest ones, the dwarves. There is a limit to how many times I can stand banging my head against a wall, much as I love the reidi's I will leave them to the experts. Next I will try banging my head against the wall of breeding clownfish.
Kate
Oh well, it's a really splendid quarantine system...
Decided that since Reidi's are supposed to be the very hardest species to raise it might be wise to start with the easiest ones, the dwarves. There is a limit to how many times I can stand banging my head against a wall, much as I love the reidi's I will leave them to the experts. Next I will try banging my head against the wall of breeding clownfish.
Kate
Oscapus
Well-known member
Kate: I have a big male ready to pop any day now, and would share some fry if you would like to try your system. Just remember me when you are rich and famous!
I met Addie (sp?) Rhodes of Essential Live Foods (aka Ocean Pods, one of our sponsors) at the PSAS meeting this weekend. She has relocated to Seattle, and is interested in raising dwarf seahorses too. She needs a tank first though! You two should talk.
I met Addie (sp?) Rhodes of Essential Live Foods (aka Ocean Pods, one of our sponsors) at the PSAS meeting this weekend. She has relocated to Seattle, and is interested in raising dwarf seahorses too. She needs a tank first though! You two should talk.
ladygator
Active member
Hi - Not sure if I will actually raise seahorses myself, but I do want to hear about anyone's successes or failures with different feeds. I often get asked about various products besides the ones I sell, and I honestly don't know how well the seahorses take them. It seems that everyone has a different method of rearing their seahorses, so it would be great to get some feedback on what is working so I can pass it on.
Addy
Addy
Oscapus
Well-known member
I am so sad to report that I caught some kind of bug in my main adult seahorse tank, and they are dying left and right. It is horrible to watch them convulse, gasp, and die within a few hours of showing any symptoms. It all started last night when I discovered my largest and most beautiful female dead, with a smaller male gasping right next to her. Everybody was eating and playing at noon that day.
I put a 36w UV sterilizer on the tank to try to cut down the level of any pathogen but it is just added with a powerhead and not 100% inline covering the circulation. I read somewhere that is really necessary to be effective since any bypass of the UV really negates the benefit.
The next day (today) 3 more are gone. I put a high dose of kanamyocin in the nursery and tried saving 2 that were affected but appear to still be somewhat active. They died in horrible convulsions. A few fry that were born last weekend are okay so I know the nursery tank parameters cannot be what killed them. The remaining adults in my main tank are still hunting and even courting, but it may just be a matter of time. My 3 teenagers that I raised appear to be the healthiest, the most active.
Not sure how it got in there. About 3 weeks ago I bought a new WC seahorse at my LFS and she died the same death after only 6 days. I had not quaranteened her since I watched her for several days at the LFS before buying. She looked great. Perhaps the bug laid dormant or otherwise built up over the last 2 weeks since her death before affecting the other adults.
Or, the day before the deaths began, I bought 2 peppermint shrimp from the same LFS, but they are fine still. Maybe they carried something in. I also bought a new pack of Hikari mysis shrimp with that purchase, perhaps there are parasites in it or otherwise was spoiled, and my herd was poisoned and not disease struck. I just bought another Hikari mysis pack from Petco to check that option out.
Anyway, needless to say I am pretty depressed, especially by the horrible suffering they go through. At least it is amazingly quick. If they all die (likely) I intend to tear everything down, sterilize it, and buy the biggest UV sterilizer money can buy and try again. I would love to locate some source or method for gamma irradiating frozen mysis just to make sure that wasn't the cause. Maybe the hospital would do it for a price.
I put a 36w UV sterilizer on the tank to try to cut down the level of any pathogen but it is just added with a powerhead and not 100% inline covering the circulation. I read somewhere that is really necessary to be effective since any bypass of the UV really negates the benefit.
The next day (today) 3 more are gone. I put a high dose of kanamyocin in the nursery and tried saving 2 that were affected but appear to still be somewhat active. They died in horrible convulsions. A few fry that were born last weekend are okay so I know the nursery tank parameters cannot be what killed them. The remaining adults in my main tank are still hunting and even courting, but it may just be a matter of time. My 3 teenagers that I raised appear to be the healthiest, the most active.
Not sure how it got in there. About 3 weeks ago I bought a new WC seahorse at my LFS and she died the same death after only 6 days. I had not quaranteened her since I watched her for several days at the LFS before buying. She looked great. Perhaps the bug laid dormant or otherwise built up over the last 2 weeks since her death before affecting the other adults.
Or, the day before the deaths began, I bought 2 peppermint shrimp from the same LFS, but they are fine still. Maybe they carried something in. I also bought a new pack of Hikari mysis shrimp with that purchase, perhaps there are parasites in it or otherwise was spoiled, and my herd was poisoned and not disease struck. I just bought another Hikari mysis pack from Petco to check that option out.
Anyway, needless to say I am pretty depressed, especially by the horrible suffering they go through. At least it is amazingly quick. If they all die (likely) I intend to tear everything down, sterilize it, and buy the biggest UV sterilizer money can buy and try again. I would love to locate some source or method for gamma irradiating frozen mysis just to make sure that wasn't the cause. Maybe the hospital would do it for a price.
Oscapus
Well-known member
I forgot to add that I also got a horribly infected thumb during all this. I have always battled coral infections in my loving (?) cat's minor scratches, but this is something much more. I suspect I have the same infection in my thumb that is killing my seahorses. Talk about family togetherness!!! Maybe when my thumb falls off the doctors will tell me what I had and I will know what my seahorses had (probably Vibrio sp.).
ladygator
Active member
is it a pathogen or environmental?
Hi Oscapus, Sorry to hear about the problems, and it seems that you are on the track to figuring out the cause. - sometimes the seahorses can get gas bubbles, which might cause them to expire that rapidly. Has anything changed in their environment lately? Anything that may have caused the aeration to change?
Hi Oscapus, Sorry to hear about the problems, and it seems that you are on the track to figuring out the cause. - sometimes the seahorses can get gas bubbles, which might cause them to expire that rapidly. Has anything changed in their environment lately? Anything that may have caused the aeration to change?
Oscapus
Well-known member
No, one of the recently expired did recently have internal gas bubble disease both in the pouch and the metabolically-active tail. I have been working on him with a 28-gauge syringe and had him okay when this new problem developed. I even had ordered some Diomox (carbonic anhydrase inhibitor, i.e. CO2 inhibitor) for him but never used it due to the success of the "physical" method. I pulled him out of the tank first off, trying to reduce the weakened individuals that might prepetuate the disease, but he was the first to die in the antibiotic-laden nursery. The move was just too much for him in his weakened state. Too bad, he was my breeder.
The present problem shows no external symptoms at all, just convulsing and gasping. I suspect Vibrio bacteria, an apparently common problem. Informal autopsies do not indicate any flukes or other apparent parasites in the gut track but I need more experience with this. I do have a very nice lab-grade Olympus BHTU microscope ( I know, what a nerd...) so it is more lazyness than lack of tools.
The present problem shows no external symptoms at all, just convulsing and gasping. I suspect Vibrio bacteria, an apparently common problem. Informal autopsies do not indicate any flukes or other apparent parasites in the gut track but I need more experience with this. I do have a very nice lab-grade Olympus BHTU microscope ( I know, what a nerd...) so it is more lazyness than lack of tools.
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