140 gallon

[hobogato]

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC08630.jpg

yep. gonna try to raise some H. ingens tank is now full of salt water. will be adding some rock tomorrow and then it will cycle for a while. will add some macroalgae and let it simmer while i try to raise some ponies.

[Big_Pun]

Ha I knew this was next!!! good luck

[Europhyllia]

So much more exciting than Cichlids... ;)

[Mr Cob]

right on Ace...great choice.

[justahobby]

LOL, great name choice! How many will you put in that beast of a tank? Breeding in the future?

[Regric25]

Ace! How in the heck are they gonna get air? Wont they drown? Is there such a thing as scuba gear for ponies? Good luck Ace!

[hobogato]

lol rick

well, i added the rock last night

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09187.jpg

this morning i built a kreisel for the eventual baby seahorses. while researching, i came across the following site

http://www.ventralfins.com/diy_kreisel.html

so i decided that i could do that :) i decided to plumb it into the main tank to increase water volume and stability

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09190.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09191.jpg

here is a quick video showing the current in the seahorse area. i just left the pvc bits in the pipes so i could use them to judge the current

4gEbYD0OYVQ

[Europhyllia]

When I saw the jellyfish post I figured you were already acrylicing a jellyfish aquarium today. lol

Good luck with the Kreisel. Have you seen Dan's and Cheryl's set ups? Those are pretty nifty. As soon as mine (if) start breeding I'd like to try the koi tub approach. :)

[Europhyllia]

check this out:
http://forum.seahorse.org/index.php?showtopic=46093

(can you see this or is it just for registered users?)

[hobogato]

yep, i had to log in to see it. thanks for posting that. i wonder what keeps the fry from going down the drain?

[Europhyllia]

670 screen

I wish Cheryl hadn't lost her last batch of ingens fry. I really wanted to go see them. Now of course I can just wait and see yours :)

[hobogato]

she lost the batch from this week?

[Europhyllia]

no the older ones

[leliataylor]

That is going to be a awesome system. The kreisel looks great, not too much flow. So many people turn a kreisel into a washing machine. I am not sure yet if my male is pregnant, he has not been dancing the last couple of days so he may be. I also bought a starter culture of Parvocalanus. "Parvocalanus are the smallest of the bunch and pack a nutritious punch. They may be the best choice for culturing extremely small fish larvae such as anthias, tangs, and dwarf angels." I will see if I can get them to grow. They are about the size of rots, however they are suppose to retain their nutritional value for a longer period of time.

I forgot. The tubs are drilled for a stand pipe, then a outer sleeve is placed over the standpipe. Large holes are cut in the lower section of the sleeve and are covered 670 micron nylon mesh. The fry stay in the tank and it is easy to flush any excess food out of the tank. There are valves on the returns so the flow can be increased to flush excess food and reduced for feeding.

[leliataylor]

Like this page 2 near the bottom http://forum.seahorse.org/index.php?showtopic=21838. Dan uses Koi Show Bowls, however muck buckets from Tractor supply work well. I have even built some 3 gallon nano nurseries using round acrylic food storage bowls. I cover the sleeves with 50 micron mesh to keep the rots in the tank with the fry when they are first born, while still providing low flow filtered water.

[hobogato]

...I also bought a starter culture of Parvocalanus. "Parvocalanus are the smallest of the bunch and pack a nutritious punch. They may be the best choice for culturing extremely small fish larvae such as anthias, tangs, and dwarf angels." I will see if I can get them to grow. They are about the size of rots, however they are suppose to retain their nutritional value for a longer period of time...

are they like rotifers as far as culture techniques?

[leliataylor]

are they like rotifers as far as culture techniques?

No I use 5 gallon ice tea dispenser for culturing rotifers. They have a spigot on them so it makes it easy to sieve the rots out of the water. The nano nurseries are for newborn fry to keep a high density of prey in with the fry. Once the fry get larger they go into the larger tubes. Ingens fry are smaller than reidi fry and short of using strictly green water without any filtration, this has been the best solution I have come up with.

[Mr Cob]

ok, now I need to find a reason to come over again Ace, that's awesome. Your wife is way cool!

[hobogato]

well, the tank is progressing nicely. there wasnt a huge algal bloom as there are only some snails and one banggai cardinal living in the tank atm. the xenia and palys as well as the macro-algae seem to be happy and growing.

here is a cruddy pic:

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09205.jpg

[Europhyllia]

any word yet when the pony kids will arrive?

[hobogato]

pappa horse is apparently very round, so hopefully soon :)

[Europhyllia]

awesome. can't wait to see pics of the tiny horsies :)

[hobogato]

picked up this tank raised pony from elegant reef a little over a week ago - seems to have settled in very well

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09229.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09238.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09240.jpg

also got some one day old H. ingens today!! thanks again cheryl :)

vtXL8kIv33g

[Europhyllia]

so is the tankraised Elegant reef one an ingens too?

Happy Birthday little fry by the way ;)

[leliataylor]

Love the video Ace. I hope they do well for you. As for the young seahorse you have, now that I can see the darker spots and a more pronounced coronet in the pics, combined with the silver markings I saw at your place, I am thinking kuda. As the little one matures it will become much easier to give a positive ID. Kuda have a dip below the coronet with a spine below that which gives them a concave appearance directly below the coronet. This is in stark contrast to ingens which have a large plate below their coronet, erectus which have a straight line leading to the coronet and reidi which have almost no coronet. If all else fails we can resort to counting trunk rings. LOL P.S. His snout is way to long for a zot.

[leliataylor]

Happy Birthday little fry by the way ;)

Karin, you just brought a tear to my eye. I have been so busy today tweaking flow, harvesting rots and pods, catching fry, cleaning nursery's I hadn't even thought about this being their birthday. Happy Birthday baby seahorses, may "The Great Seahorse" shine upon you.

[hobogato]

lost some overnight as expected, but there are still at least 40 living. they seem to be swimming more strongly and i saw definite feeding strikes this morning when i gave them their breakfast.

[leliataylor]

lost some overnight as expected, but there are still at least 40 living. they seem to be swimming more strongly and i saw definite feeding strikes this morning when i gave them their breakfast.Ace, you might want to add some tetraselimis to the nursery and if you have pods add them as well.

If you can, cool the tank down below 72', wipe down the sides and bottom to remove any biofilm daily and consider adding Sanolife probiotics. I am off on Wednesday and can bring you some of the probiotics. If all else fails, I think he is pregnant again. Tough little guys to raise, well worth the years I have spent trying. Each step is one small step for mankind and one giant step for seahorse propagation. To date, the only breeders of ingens are in Mexico and they have spent 8-10 years working with them, one of the hardest species to raise. Scripts has managed to raise some and a couple other of our National aquariums have also had limited success.

Karin, a lot like reidi.

One other thing is I maintain my SG at 1.020.

[Europhyllia]

I think the saddest part is that from what I've been reading die off is still possible and common so late in the game (at around 8 weeks).
Ace is super experienced in all this culturing though! He'll do well I bet :)

[hobogato]

ok, so i was wrong in my earlier estimate of how many were still alive...

there are at least a hundred of them doing well :)

here are some pics and a vid just after i added their early evening meal - rotifers, two day old enriched live brine as well as some nannochloropsis

three days old

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09252.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09250.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09249.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09248.jpg

zp6YL6um3Eo

[Europhyllia]

that's a lot of seahorses lol

[leliataylor]

Sweet. They look like they have grown. Mine have been eating pods and rots. I will start then on BBS tomorrow. They sure can eat a lot. When I added more pods this evening they all swam over to feast. It was really nice to see. Best of luck with them, they are looking great.

[Richard]

Very cool Ace, best of luck with your new project. I had fun trying my hand at it but be forewarned it can be VERY frustrating. One step forward two steps back seems to be the learning curve.

Your fry setup is similar to what I started off with. It was very promising until hydroids reared their heads. Almost microscopic buggers that killed the fry on contact. So keep a close eye out.

Cheryl, you still working with comes?

[leliataylor]

Very cool Ace, best of luck with your new project. I had fun trying my hand at it but be forewarned it can be VERY frustrating. One step forward two steps back seems to be the learning curve.

Your fry setup is similar to what I started off with. It was very promising until hydroids reared their heads. Almost microscopic buggers that killed the fry on contact. So keep a close eye out.

Cheryl, you still working with comes?

Hi Richard, haven't heard from you in awhile.

You are right hydroids can become a problem in nurseries. I haven't seen any in a couple of years, however they have a way appearing when you least expect it. I now use Dan's technique of giving the newly hatched BBS a peroxide bath, then place them in new SW. They get a second peroxide bath before being fed out. We have both seen instances where we have several nurseries going and see hydroids in one, but not the other tanks. Same food, water, cleaning technique, etc., it has left both of us scratching our heads.

As for the comes, I still have the female I raised and she will be 3 years old the first part of next year. Unfortunately, neither Karen nor I were able to raise any males. Aquamarine International now has true captive bred comes available. The problem with them is they will only ship via wholesalers so there is no telling what the seahorses have been exposed to enroute. Karen has also been in contact possible sources in Vietnam, if I recall correctly one of them was the Institute of Oceanography in Nha Trang. Dan, is also working on finding a good source for healthy comes and I have been in contact with Simply Seahorse in the UK. So far everything we have found are either net/pen raised or would be exposed to poor quality seahorses during transit. Giving up no, frustrated yes.

[hobogato]

hey richard! nice to see you around :)

well, most of them parished in the last 24 hours unfortunately. there are about 15 still alive and about 5 of those are really doing well. hopefully they will pull thru...

here is one of the really strong ones

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09257800x600.jpg

[BSJF]

sooo tiny!

[leliataylor]

Hi Ace, I have lost almost all of the fry I kept. Although this pair did reproduce I know they were not in the prime condition they needed to be in to produce viable offspring. The male is pregnant again and this time things seem to be going much more normally. He is not courting his mate daily, has become reclusive and is eating large amounts of food instead of dancing all day long. Something in the move threw them off. If you want to try this again, I will hold the fry for a few days to ensure they are viable, before I pass any to you. Head banging.

[hobogato]

wow, sorry to hear that cheryl. i will definitely try some more from the next batch.

[hobogato]

well, at one week we are down to six. they have at least doubled in size since last Sunday, so i am hopefully that they will be with us for the long haul

[hobogato]

lost the last surviving baby today. it had grow to about 1/2" long with its tail stretched out. hopefully the next batch will do better.

[Europhyllia]

sorry :( I lost my last one today as well

[hobogato]

so, this is what a tank looks like when the live phytoplankton you use to enrich your brine shrimp decides it is comfortable in your tank and begins to reproduce.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09341.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09345.jpg

it doesnt seem to be causing any problems, as the xenia and gorgos i can see are extended well and eating constantly. the only problem is, you can only see into the tank a few inches. the two ponies in the tank come up to the front to peek out every once in a while, they are growing.

here is one of them

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09342.jpg

as you can see in the first pic, i added a hang on tunze skimmer to try and clear things up a bit - not really sure what else to do?

[Europhyllia]

maybe add rotifers?

[Texreefer]

Ace, how is the one that we were concerned about when I was over there the other day?

[hobogato]

he did not make it mike - he was the smallest of the three and had not really grown at all while in the tank.

good idea karin, i may bring some home tomorrow to give it a try.

[hobogato]

well, it got much worse. for a couple days, i could not even see the silhouette of the rocks. i have been adding rotifers almost daily and have taken the white t5 bulbs out of the cycle for a couple of days. not sure if either of the seahorses is still alive, but the cardinal is doing fine.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09355.jpg

[Europhyllia]

Wow that's crazy! Are the clams in there? Maybe they can filter it out?

[hobogato]

they are in there and they are eating continuously. they will probably grow and inch by the time they clear out the tank :lauging:

[Europhyllia]

just make sure calcium levels are up. Those Thornies can grow some crazy stuff -my first one grew so much and sucked up calcium like crazy.
Sorry for your limited viewing but I am excited for the oysters! :D

[hobogato]

ok, after a week with no white lights, the tank looked better this morning

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09361.jpg

i decided it wasnt clearing fast enough, so i did a 50 gallon water change

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09362.jpg

will do another every day until it is cleared up.

[Mr Cob]

that looks like some sort of crazy experiment that will produce a new species of something.....

[hobogato]

hahaha, for any of you x-files fans, it looked exactly like the tanks they used to incubate the alien/human hybrids :lauging:

[Scream311]

Ace, i think i see the Creature from the Green Lagoon Coming out of there :clown:

[hobogato]

lol james

well, after changing 70 gallons more, i think the green may be gone. now we shall see how long it takes to clear up...

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09366.jpg

unfortunately, no sign of the seahorses. hopefully they are just hiding

[txg8gxp]

^ Hey, there are some gorgs in there......

[hobogato]

yeah, funny thing is, i glued them in when i could not see into the tank. today was the first time i got to see my work to see how they look since putting them in over a week ago :D

[Kristy]

Wow. We all should have stopped by with buckets to help you with your water change! :D

[txg8gxp]

Yeah you could've bagged that stuff and sold it as Ace's Live Phyto. I bet the gorgs probably have new growth, they must have loved all that fresh food in the water.

[hobogato]

Wow. We all should have stopped by with buckets to help you with your water change! :D

yeah, i was a bit tired after moving 48 buckets of salt water in one day.


Yeah you could've bagged that stuff and sold it as Ace's Live Phyto. I bet the gorgs probably have new growth, they must have loved all that fresh food in the water.

it was so green that by the time the discard bucket was 1/4 of the way full, you could not see the bottom anymore. the gorgos and the oysters are probably not so happy that i took away all that food.

well, the seahorses did not make it thru the ordeal, they are nowhere to be found. i am thinking of putting in a cowfish and maybe a lion instead of going back with ponies.

the water is considerably clearer this morning

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09367.jpg

[hobogato]

did one more big water change on monday. the tank is really starting to clear up now.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09380.jpg

the lion, longhorn cowfish, and dogface puffer are all settled in as well. i am switching out the sicce 3.0 for a 5.0 because the tank needs more flow, and i dont have to worry about having too much flow anymore.

[Europhyllia]

:o

are you totally sure? oh I hope the lion didn't eat any remaining seahorses. Boo :( How sad

[allan]

aw man, I miss sponge bob.

[hobogato]

i am sure. i looked everywhere. they were not in their favorite spots for many days and i have not seen either of them in at least a week. :(


:o

are you totally sure? oh I hope the lion didn't eat any remaining seahorses. Boo :( How sad

[hobogato]

the tank is all cleared up now, and the fish are settled in - they all try to bite me any time my hand is in the tank (zach and alex think that is hilarious).

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c329/hobogato/150/DSC09408.jpg

unfortunately, all of that food in the water caused the aiptasia to go crazy and the lion fish ate the three peppermint shrimp i had in the tank the first day i put him in. some of the aiptasia moved into the edge of the spiny oyster and it did not survive the attack :(

[Europhyllia]

Oh no :(

[reefreak]

Man that sucks try a file fish