Real's Seahorse Diary

[real]

thank you so much flubberina13, ong and kelstorm! wow I have a young fan!!!

my red reidi is really amazing, yesterday give birth, today his pouch is big again Think this is another case of premature delivery. Hope his next batch of babies is larger and stronger.

[kelstorm]

thank you so much flubberina13, ong and kelstorm! wow I have a young fan!!!

my red reidi is really amazing, yesterday give birth, today his pouch is big again Think this is another case of premature delivery. Hope his next batch of babies is larger and stronger.

errr.. who is the young fan???

all the best in the next delivery...

[Cookiemunster]

thank you so much flubberina13, ong and kelstorm! wow I have a young fan!!!

my red reidi is really amazing, yesterday give birth, today his pouch is big again Think this is another case of premature delivery. Hope his next batch of babies is larger and stronger.

Real thanks for sharing with us all this info. I am really inspired to start a seahorse tank now.

When I started marine tank I have always wanted to keep seahorses. But due to the lack of knowledge in how to keep them I have stayed away. After seeing that red and orange seahorse I am determined to keep a pair too.

I would really appreciate it if I could have your assistance in knowledge and setup.

I now have a 2ft tank cycling. I wanted it to be a mushroom only tank but now I want to keep seahorses in it. I have 10kg of liverock and a 4inch DSB. Using 2x24W T5 lights and a modified OHF. I also have a remora skimmer but I am not using it yet.

I have no knowledge of how to make the food to keep seahorses.

Do let me know where I can buy the red and orange seahorses too.

Many

[real]

let's shared & learn from each other, Cookiemunster

1. red & orange H.reidi are still available at WaterCircle, maybe LCK110 still have stocks too. Be prepared to pay about $50 each

2. feed frozen mysis once/twice a day, enriched them with Selcon (from WC) once a while, and occcasionally feed live mysis or freshwater glass shrimp.

3. how tall is your tank? with 4inch DSB, seems like not much height left. Usual guidelines for water height is 2-3 times the SH height. This is especially important if you want your SH to mate & breed.

4. 2x24W T5 lightings seem too bright for 2ft tank. I only used 1x36W 50/50 PL for my 2.5ft SH tank.

5. I don't keep corals with SH, but mushrooms shd be quite safe.

6. protein skimmer will generate fine bubbles, potentially causing gas saturation which may trigger Gas Bubble Diseases in SH. I don't use PS.

7. make sure your OHF current is not too strong. SH don't like strong current.

[acedophin]

Hi Real,

How's your reidi doing so far? One good news, my reidi gave birth this afternoon. . Was shocked to see babies in the water when feeding. There was no tell-tale sign that the male was pregnant. One of the female looked bloated as if she was waiting for the male to fully deliver and carry on part 2. All adult reidi are currently feeding on frozen . Just finished transferring the ponies to nursery. Anyway had another batch of barbouri ponies(100+) about 3 days back. Talk about baby boom.

[changfra]

let's shared & learn from each other, Cookiemunster

1. red & orange H.reidi are still available at WaterCircle, maybe LCK110 still have stocks too. Be prepared to pay about $50 each

2. feed frozen mysis once/twice a day, enriched them with Selcon (from WC) once a while, and occcasionally feed live mysis or freshwater glass shrimp.

3. how tall is your tank? with 4inch DSB, seems like not much height left. Usual guidelines for water height is 2-3 times the SH height. This is especially important if you want your SH to mate & breed.

4. 2x24W T5 lightings seem too bright for 2ft tank. I only used 1x36W 50/50 PL for my 2.5ft SH tank.

5. I don't keep corals with SH, but mushrooms shd be quite safe.

6. protein skimmer will generate fine bubbles, potentially causing gas saturation which may trigger Gas Bubble Diseases in SH. I don't use PS.

7. make sure your OHF current is not too strong. SH don't like strong current.

Hi bro are u willing to let go your SH? Give or sell.... me have a lonely SH in tank, got it from Bu*** Ti*** ... Yellow color SH

[real]

hi acedophin,

congrats!!! so now you have babies of reidi, barbouri and comes! Like to see how they fare under your TLC

my this batch of reidi babies are all gone within 4 days Feed rotifers, BBS and greenwater also no use. My newly bought H.comes gave birth to a few babies (slight yellowish color), and I guess there is more to come. H.comes babies look bigger and stronger than H.reidi.

hi changfra, I loved all my SHs and don't have spare ones to let go. Sorry.

[flubberina13]

Hi Real,

How's your reidi doing so far? One good news, my reidi gave birth this afternoon. . Was shocked to see babies in the water when feeding. There was no tell-tale sign that the male was pregnant. One of the female looked bloated as if she was waiting for the male to fully deliver and carry on part 2. All adult reidi are currently feeding on frozen . Just finished transferring the ponies to nursery. Anyway had another batch of barbouri ponies(100+) about 3 days back. Talk about baby boom.

Wah...so jealous...

Then I dun need to help you find the male liao...right?

[acedophin]

Hi flubberina13,

I am still looking for male Kuda for my 2 single female Kuda. Wanted to breed them as well as for experience. It's my red seahorse that gave birth not the one I am searching for . So still the same phase 'Only male apply'.

[real]

my tiger tail finally gave birth to all babies (abt 100+), I have been waiting for many days. The babies like to form clusters of 3-5 by hooking tails together. Almost no floaters, all look big and swim very well. Some already know to how hitch on day one. These babies are definitely more encouraging than H.reidi babies, the latter usually have many floaters and skinny and don't swim well.

here is the best pic I can get from these day 1 babies:

[real]

Here is the tiger tail father. When I bought him from ReefWorld, he is already heavily pregnant. I really love the patterns on his head and body, looks a bit like pot belly SH. Hope he will recover well from his pregnancy and start mating with my female H.comes.

[acedophin]

Halo Real,

My last batch of tigertail pony didn't make it. They were eating well and most of their belly are orange with bbs. But after 4 or 5 days, heavy casualty starts. Most are not active and just float along with the water current. I conclude that bbs is definitely not the ideal food for this species after a number of failed attempts. need to work out on other food source . Maybe you can prove me wrong with your breeding method and I hope that you are success in this current batch. keep us update

[real]

hi acedophin, I also read from some breeders in seahorse.org that BBS is not suitable for Tiger Tail fry. I am feeding rotifers as well as BBS, and the babies are already eating them at day one (today). Yet to know if they will hit the problem as you. I left some babies in my SH tank and some in nursery but outside the round bowls, to try if they can survive by hunting on pods alone.

let's see how it goes. Hard to believe that such big and active babies is more difficult than H.reidi fry.

[chandler]

Hi,

I've also had a lot of batches of tiger tail fries not living beyond the 7 days. I've asked the experts at TMSI and was told that the bbs that the fries eat are actually still alive while they are in the fries' mouth/throat, and the bbs' movements will injure and tear the tissues of the fries, causing them to die. So still dunno what type of food to feed them.

[Cookiemunster]

let's shared & learn from each other, Cookiemunster

1. red & orange H.reidi are still available at WaterCircle, maybe LCK110 still have stocks too. Be prepared to pay about $50 each

2. feed frozen mysis once/twice a day, enriched them with Selcon (from WC) once a while, and occcasionally feed live mysis or freshwater glass shrimp.

3. how tall is your tank? with 4inch DSB, seems like not much height left. Usual guidelines for water height is 2-3 times the SH height. This is especially important if you want your SH to mate & breed.

4. 2x24W T5 lightings seem too bright for 2ft tank. I only used 1x36W 50/50 PL for my 2.5ft SH tank.

5. I don't keep corals with SH, but mushrooms shd be quite safe.

6. protein skimmer will generate fine bubbles, potentially causing gas saturation which may trigger Gas Bubble Diseases in SH. I don't use PS.

7. make sure your OHF current is not too strong. SH don't like strong current.

Bro thanks for the advises.

My tank height is about 18 inches. Water height minus sand bed is about 14 inches. However its breadth is only 12 inches, and with live rocks it becomes only 5 inches of sand bed space.

You don't use any skimmers? But how about the water quality? How often do you change water?

thanks

[real]

hi Chandler, you are right. I have seen a movie clip that BBS is still alive after SH fry consume it. Too bad in the market only have BBS and rotifers, don't know what other food sources to find. For rotifers, I simply can't see a thing in the water, don't even know there is enough quantity for my fry. How do you guys tell?

my nursery tank has a pods boom, so I am trying a few H.comes babies to feed solely on pods. So far I have not witnessed them eating a pod with my own eyes.

[real]

hi Cookiemunster, my SH tank is a refugium/sump to my 3 feet reef tank. So water quality is more stable due to the total volume. I used to change about 10% once a month, but have not done so for a few months already. My ammonia indicator always show healthy level even though I feed 2 cubes of frozen mysis twice a day. I seldom measure nitrate level but it is not worst than when I used PS.

the main reason I remove my Macro PS is that it sucks. Nitrate level is still high even I run it 24x7. Then I found that some of my SH have gas bubble problems in tails and pouch, so I suspect the PS have generated too much fine bubbles causing gas saturation. Anyway, without PS I find that more pods are growing in my SH tank, so I guess my water quality is still good.

Even my nursery tank, I don't use PS and seldom change water now, bcos the ammonia indicator shows healthy.

[flubberina13]

hey...real...the PS you mentioned is Protein Skimmer? I did put one in the nursery tank now. Does it mean I must remove them?

Anyway, my Kuda gave birth to hundred+ babies and upon Joe's advice, feed them with phytoplankton and bbs. Upon reading about the live bbs, really worried that they may not survive.

I also got them a dead seafan. They like hooking on the dried branches.

Btw, I saw the babies pecking on my #0 sand, wonder if they are eating pods or gosh!!! SAND???

Just hope they can survive...

[real]

Congrats flubberina13!!! Hope you have luck with Kuda babes. I have seen Kuda day 1 babies in ReefWorld, they look big and active, similar to tiger tail fry.

I am not sure SH babies will encounter gas bubble disease, adult will. If you can maintain the water condition without PS, I would suggest removing your skimmer. There may be a chance that the babies intake fine air bubbles from PS.

Some of my tiger tail babies also can hitch, but not H.reidi babies, they are damn difficult.

Pods like to clinch to the glass walls, not the sand substrate. They may be pecking on BBS near the substrate.

[acedophin]

Hi flubberina13,

Don't worry too much about feeding bbs, so far in my experience, bbs didn't quite work well with tiger-tail pony but not the rest of the other breeds. Kuda fry are big in size like an Ang Mo so I don't think bbs poses as a food problem. Success in rearing pony also factors in quality of water as well. There will definitely be ammonia spike due to huge population and excess waste. So changes of water must be carried out on a daily basis. Even though you have a filter, it is being overloaded. I am sure that Real will agree with me that if you try to be kiasu and overstock your nursery. You may lose every single fry at the end as fry fighting for food and poor water quality is the end result. It's quality that counts not quantity. Unless you can afford to have a number of nursery tank running at one time, else culling and distribution of fry to other breeder is the way to go.

[flubberina13]

So changes of water must be carried out on a daily basis. Even though you have a filter, it is being overloaded. I am sure that Real will agree with me that if you try to be kiasu and overstock your nursery.

Ace...

Overstock w what? gadgets or Fries?

And for water changes...a bit tricky here...can advise how to go about it and how many percent?

Thanks...

And when you talked about nursery tanks...how many at a time?

Or...lend me yours???

[real]

agree with acedophin on the fry contension point. SH breeding experts have advised that we should be heartless for once to keep only healthy babies and drop the rest, then the chance of the small batch surviving is better.

regarding the BBS feeding problem, you shd add H.reidi to the list as some SH breeders in seahorse.org have mentioned. I can understand for H.reidi bcos the fry are really too small, but tiger tail fry are relatively big so I don't understand why they have problems with BBS.

I also recommend frequent water change for nursery tank, although I am doing it less frequent, due to stressful lifestyle and small quantity of fry.

[real]

as you guys expected, I lost all my H.comes babies by day 5. I thought BBS + rotifer can work, but prove that BBS is really a NO NO NO for H.comes. Next time will try solely on rotifer.

My H.reidi gave birth again 4 days ago. This time I feed only rotifers and no BBS. But by today, I have lost quite a lot of babies, and the remaining do not look as active as they are on day 1-2. I wonder if my rotifers have run out without my knowing, bcos I really can't see anything in the rotifer culture. Any advice other than buying a microscope?

[berrykin]

Hmmm wat is the require for nursery????? can show a pic of it.. so maybe next time if my Sh give birth i know wat to do mahz...

[real]

hi berrykin, I have detailed description and pictures of my current nursery tank in page 2 of this thread. FYI pls.