H. comes - tigertail seahorses

[leliataylor]

I started working with comes over 4 years ago and now have 2 lovely pairs of true captive bred comes, a female I raised, some almost juveniles that were shipped to me as newborn fry and a large pair that appear to be wild caught. Here is a link to my thread on seahorse. org about my journey. To view the thread you would need to register at seahorse.org.

http://forum.seahorse.org/index.php?showtopic=47876

[Europhyllia]

WOW. WOW. WOW.

Just in case any new MAAST members come across this post I am going to add our write up of Cheryl's system so you guys can fully appreciate the whole thing:
http://www.maast.org/showthread.php?68970-MAAST-TOTM-November-2011-leliataylor

[leliataylor]

Thank you Karin.

[Pennies2Cents]

Cheryl, its good to see you are doing well.

[leliataylor]

Thank you Eve. Yes I am doing well and still working with seahorses. My male delivered approximately 150 fry at about 2:30 this morning and they are happily munching pods. I knew he was going to deliver last night when he went to the highest point in the tank and hitched.

Pictures of the adult pair.

[BSJF]

Congrats momma and papa

[leliataylor]

Some of the new fry in the nursery tub and a couple of pics of them targeting copepods. Although comes fry are capable of ingesting baby brine shrimp at birth our survival rates are much higher when they are fed pods for the first 1-2 weeks.

[Mr Cob]

thanks for posting the pics over here.. so awesome, and love the babies and their big horsey heads :)

[leliataylor]

You are welcome. I finally figured out the easy way to post pictures over here.

Comes are the only species of seahorse I have kept that produce fry that keep their tails tightly curled for the first 3 weeks of life. I kid about the reason they don't hitch at birth is they don't know they have a tail.

Here are a couple of pics of some older one's I am raising. They now eat frozen shaved mysis.

[leliataylor]

My male 3 days before he delivered. This is only his second pregnancy so he should get bigger and produce more fry next time.

[Pennies2Cents]

Wow.. Simply Amazing.. Awesome pics..

[leliataylor]

Wow.. Simply Amazing.. Awesome pics..

Thank you Eve. It is hard to photograph something that looks like a eyelash and get a clear pic of them. 60 some odd pics and got a couple that were decent.

The adults completed another egg transfer while I was at work today and received some aquacultured live/enriched mysis for their effort. I am still in the building stage and will update this thread as time goes on.

[leliataylor]

A couple of updated pics of a young pair CB I received from a fellow seahorse addict. They are just starting to dance and the female finally decided to change color in response to the male. More fry due this next week.

[Richard]

Great job Cheryl!

I sometimes think about trying again but then I remember all the work lol. Your dedication is amazing.

[leliataylor]

Thank you Richard, glad to see you are still around. Yes they are a lot of work, however since I have changed most of what I was doing 4 years ago they are much easier to care for. Much of what I am doing has come from my mentor Dan Underwood.

Things I Have Changed Since 2008-2009

I now use only round nursery tubs.
The fry are fed exclusively on copepods for at least the first week. Yes, I now have 25 gallons of pods.
Add live mysis shrimp to the fry tanks once the fry get larger. I am culturing my own mysis from stock I purchased from Frank Ghangi.
I no longer keep any rotifers around.
Each pair is housed in their own individual 29 gallon bare bottom tank with a overflow and sump.
Each pair has two dedicated nursery tubs for their fry.
I no longer assume a pair his healthy and initiate treatment at the first sign of increased respiration, yawning, weak snick, etc.
Treat all my tanks daily with probiotics.
Added oxydators, 50 micron filter pads and UV sterilizers to each tank.
Use exclusively Wet/Dry filters or sumps instead of canister filters.

I have to build the filtration for the round nursery tubs myself, as they are not commercially available. I have also spent a great deal of time experimenting with raising live cultures of pods and mysis to bring my production up enough to sustain large enough quantities to feed fry. It is a ongoing process and after 4 years with comes I feel like I am starting to turn the corner.

All for the love of comes.

[leliataylor]

Finally, one of my captive bred pairs is due to deliver any day and my wild caught is also expecting. This will be first time I have gotten fry from a CB pair and I am so excited. I traded another species of seahorses with Dan Underwood to get this pair. My males first pregnancy ended when the pair began to dance and he opened his pouch releasing the partially developed embryos. This time they are dancing, however he is keeping his pouch sealed tightly. I have known for a long time that there is a learning curve involved for seahorses to produce viable fry. Early on they may botch a egg transfer, they will usually start to dance again a few days before the male delivers and this is prime time to loose the fry and then there are the overly excited females that try to complete a egg transfer while the male is still in labor.

I am so ready. Currently I have 8 cycled nursery tubs, five 5 gallon containers of dense pods, sterilized brine shrimp hatching cones, decapped BS cysts and 10,000+ count of
seahorse diapers LOL.

Wish me luck. I will post pics asap once the fry are born.

[LittleReef]

Absolutely blown away, Cheryl! Gorgeous little guys you have there... and an awesome set up! (MY DREAM SET UP)!!

[leliataylor]

Thank you. It has taken several years of work to get to this point as I accumulate the equipment I need, build the nurseries, stands and some of my sumps. I will forever be on a learning curve as I improve my rearing techniques.

Both males are still holding and have yet to exhibit the side to side movement characteristic of a male that will deliver within the next 12 hours (rearranging their pouch contents). The younger male is looking like a dirigible with a head stuck on one end and a tail streaming out the back. Both are staying well hidden even when they feed, typical of very pregnant males. The younger male may explode if he doesn't deliver soon, then again I may just have to squeeze him (it is a old joke from seahorse.org and not to be taken seriously).

For those of you that are considering trying to raise seahorses I would recommend starting with a captive bred pair of H. erectus. They produce bethnic fry that are much easier to raise and will teach you so much about the world of seahorses.

On a final note, when discussing male pregnancies at work be careful who overhears your words as you will get some very strange looks.

[leliataylor]

I wanted to post a pic of the female I raised who is now 4 years old. I never thought she would even live long enough to become a adult and never believed she would become this large. She has become my inspiration for my comes journey.

[ramsey]

Beautiful horse!

[leliataylor]

Beautiful horse!

Thank you.

I have been concentrating all my efforts of conditioning my adults and growing out my two CB pairs. They are all becoming large and rocket off their hitches as soon as the mysis hits the water. Exactly what I want to see. No signs of weak snicks, tail bubbles, white patches, PE, etc. I am still keeping them chilled down to 68' in BB tanks. Testing my pH daily.

[leliataylor]

I wanted to give a quick update. I currently have some juvenile comes, some 9 day old fry and some 6 day old fry. I did a experiment of Thursday moving some of the fry into a glass along with some pods and BBS. The fry ignored the larger slower moving brine shrimp and continued to exclusively target pods.

Here are some pics of fry from two different pairs. The first 2 pics are a newborn and a 6 day old fry from my non captive bred pair. The next 2 pics are a newborn and 9 day old fry from my CB pair. The fry from my CB pair were much larger and more developed at birth, this is inspite of the fact that the male is still much smaller. (the date on the last pic should read
3-30-2013 oops)

[leliataylor]

Photos taken today of a couple of the fry now 11 days old. They are really growing fast.

[leliataylor]

24 day old comes. They are really starting to get big and actually look more like miniature adults than fry. I have been gradually switching them from pods to BBS as their primary food. I also have about 60 fry born yesterday from the same CB pair.

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[leliataylor]

The difference one week makes in the life of a seahorse. 30 days old today and they now look more like adults than fry. They have lost their transparent appearance, are now hitching throughout the day, are consuming 5-7 day old enriched BBS and I will started frozen training in another week or so.

2013220133

[Mr Cob]

SO AWESOME! Beautiful pics as well.

[CoryDude]

You put so much effort into your horses and it shows. Simply amazing!

[leliataylor]

Thank you both for the encouragement. It has been a few years in the making and I am finally starting to see the growth rate and skeletal development I want. I really think the key for me has been feeding them enriched copepod nauplii and gradually sieving out the larger pods as the fry mature. Even developing my pod culture techniques to raise them in high enough density to maintain the fry has been a challenge. Although I have cultured rotifers the fry simply do not do as well on rots. Always on that experimental learning curve.

P.S. Their initial food is sieved down to the 50 micron level.

[leliataylor]

Did anybody know that comes fry are born with a caudal tail fin? Here are two photos, the first taken on 5-17-2012 of a 1 day old fry and the second taken today of a 6 day old fry. It is hard to get a clear picture of something about the size of a pin point that is moving. I will try to get one of the fry under a microscope to get a clearer picture. All comes fry I have examined are born with this and it gradually disappears as they grow.

[Mr Cob]

wow very cool, I did not know that. Some great pics, makes them look so much larger than they really are.

[leliataylor]

I did get some photos of the tip of a tail under a microscope of a 6 day old and they appear to have a very tiny fin that runs the length of rays. A friend of mine took a pic of a newborn comes and they actually start with 4 rays, although one appears to atrophy within the first 24 hours. I also shot a couple of one of my 57 day old comes. At about 45 days old their tails begin to elongate much rapidly that their bodies.

[leliataylor]

A couple of pics of the youngsters born on 3-21-2013.

[Mr Cob]

so beautiful, that second pic with the yellow is stunning. Nice job!

[leliataylor]

Thanks Rob.

I set up another grow out tank for the juveniles that I am cycling with pure ammonia and Fritz Turbo Start 900. It is a 60 gallon acrylic tank I bought off of Craislist in March of 2012 and it has been sitting on my livingroom floor up until 2 weeks ago. I wish I had set it up sooner, however I had to move my pod cultures to make room for it. It is filtered with a Eshopps CS-125 w/d, 2 PF-800 overflows, a SCA 302 skimmer, Coralife UV, Seachem Matrix, dead rock that is cycling and a 50 micron filter pad. The tank has a return that will run along the bottom of each side and 2 more returns that will run near the top. Young seahorses are so curious and love to explore new things, I thought it would be fun to watch them swim between the two sides and explore their new "big blue". I have ordered some real artificial plants, coral and rock as part of the decor. The youngsters that will go into this tank are 2nd generation CB comes (I never thought I would see this day). If things continue to go well I am going to post a sign on my front gate "Beware Tiger Sanctuary". LOL

[ramsey]

That's a really cool tank. I'm sure it makes a great juvi seahorse tank but when I saw it, my first thought was that it'd be an awesome octopus tank. :)

Edit: do you know the tank manufacturer or is it something custom someone built?

[leliataylor]

It is a Sea Clear Aquatics I bought for $50.00. Original price was $759.00. The people that had it never set it up and they were moving to California, so they just wanted it gone. Yes it would make a cool octopus tank. Especially if you covered the tubes with some threaded caps that have to be unscrewed or other type of barrier and fed the octopus on the other side of the tank. They would figure it out.

[leliataylor]

Ramsey, if I ever decide to get rid of the tank I will give it to you as a octopus tank.

Well it finally happened, 5 years in the making and I finally paired up two comes I raised, for breeding. The much younger smaller male gave a hard snick as he entered the water, as if to say, don't mess with me I am tougher than I look. The female stretched out the full length of her tail and swayed from side to side trying to decide if this little guy was really a male. He has never seen such a large seahorse and she has never seen a male before. After a short time they both changed colors and started following each other around. This evening she has not moved to her usual feeding area since he does not want to leave the security of his rocks and she won't venture more than a couple of inches from his side.

[1seahorse]

awe... love at first sight! lol

[Europhyllia]

really interesting about the tail close up!

[leliataylor]

A quick shot this morning of the pair. He does need to grow some more, however I am expecting him to really take off now that he is in a 55 gallon tank with a huge female.

Karin, comes use their tails very differently than other seahorses. Just one more piece of the puzzle.

[leliataylor]

Well I finally got a shot of some of the youngsters in close proximity to each other. This evening I fed them what I thought was enough food and it was gone in a matter of minutes. Life could be worse. It is so rewarding to see them eating so well and growing.

[Mr Cob]

Doesn't get much cooler than that. : )

Some happy looking babies.

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[CoryDude]

Still mad that I missed seeing your setup when Karin and Lorraine stopped by in late 2011.

[leliataylor]

Thanks Rob, it is really cool to watch them. One of my youngsters decided to float on it's side at the surface, drifting with the current, motionless. It managed to move itself directly behind a small piece of mysis. I was thinking this fish is not going to make it. Then suddenly, a quick snick, they mysis was gone and the youngster swam off normally. I guess this one hasn't figured out you don't have to play dead to catch frozen food.

Cory, if I ever get caught up you are welcome to come by as long as you bring your camera. I have been doing a lot of gradual upgrading of equipment since Karin and Lorraine were here. Every time I think I am where I want to be I decide to try to improve on something else I am doing.

[Mr Cob]

Haha, that's awesome. I enjoyed sharing that with my wife. :)

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[leliataylor]

Well my grow out tank has been occupied and running for awhile now. The youngsters are thriving in the tank and readily swim between the two sides. I am still testing the tank twice daily as a precaution, although no spikes in ammonia or nitrites. I am finding I can feed them on one side and they will move to the prey, this enables me to clean the other side without worrying about sucking one of them up. I am really liking this tank.

[leliataylor]

This morning I observed one of my young comes contorting its body and repeatedly poking its snout against the bottom of the tank. I had moved this seahorse to the grow out tank last week and thought something had gone horribly wrong. As I continued to watch the youngster I realized it had discovered its own reflection.

Here is a sequence of photos showing what this little guy was doing.

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[leliataylor]

The rest of the pics.

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[leliataylor]

Some of the kids in the grow out tank. There are two different age groups currently in this tank.

Where's Waldo? Look at that little guy directly in the center of the first photo. The second picture is one of youngster in the tube.

[leliataylor]

I recently had the opportunity to begin working from home and this has enabled me feed my young seahorses 3 more meals per day. They are all getting fatter and growing more rapidly now. They are now taking whole frozen mysis shrimp and some of them are starting to dance, uh oh!

The first two pics are of a couple of the youngsters I am raising and the third is one of my adult males.

[Mr Cob]

So beautiful, love the pics. Being home makes all the difference. I find the same when I can work VPN during the week. Love when I can feed throughout the day.

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[leliataylor]

Thanks Rob.

Being home to feed throughout the day makes a huge difference in their growth and really reduces my stress level. No more battling rush hour traffic to try and race home to feed fry or worry about a male delivering when I am not there. It also saves me about $200.00 per month (more tanks) and gives me a extra hour and 45 minutes each day to work on tanks, observe the seahorses and collect fry. Yes, I have more fry on the way. Working VPN is becoming the wave of the future.

[Mr Cob]

Just read back on some of your previous posts. How interesting that the young come in growout discovered his own reflection and continued to explore. Such amazing little creatures. I bet that was a blast to watch.

: )

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[leliataylor]

Just read back on some of your previous posts. How interesting that the young come in growout discovered his own reflection and continued to explore. Such amazing little creatures. I bet that was a blast to watch.

: )

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Yes they are a lot of fun to watch. Just watched another one, about the same age, doing exactly the same thing. They really do make me laugh.

One of my favorites is watching the youngsters lay on their sides on the bottom. They will remain almost motionless as they very slowly sneak up on a frozen mysis, once close enough they snick and the shrimp is gone in a split second. At this age they don't understand it is not necessary to use stealth to capture frozen food. There is a whole lot of learning involved in growing up seahorse.

[leliataylor]

It appears a couple of my males are planning on giving me some Christmas presents this year. Nothing like going into the new year with nurseries full of baby seahorses. If things continue to go well I should be able to begin raising my third generation of captive bred comes in the fall of 2014.

[leliataylor]

Eye candy. My largest male that should deliver tonight or tomorrow night.

[leliataylor]

And the grape became a raisin.

[leliataylor]

One of the juveniles I raised from 2013 in his new 40 gallon tank.

[leliataylor]

Things are still progressing nicely. They are now taking frozen as their primary food source and have started to grow more rapidly. These juveniles now look and act like young adults. Some of them are developing a pouch. Uh Oh! The male in the center of the pics with his back turned has taken a shinning to the lighter colored female hitched above him. The male on the far right is looking for trouble. The female on the far left is hiding.

[ST3PH3N]

Very cool.


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[Dean]

Very cool! Who doesn't love seahorses. Do you have a lagoon style seahorse DT? I'd love to see pics if so. That will be my next project after I my 65 LPS/SPS reef gives me time to concentrate on a new project. (No time soon LOL) I can imagine various types and colors of macro with some NFS gorgonians. A nice pair of sea horses, couple of pipe fish, and a scooter blenny pair. Those ruby red scooters are really cool. Anyway, thanks for sharing.

[leliataylor]

This species actually prefers a lot of rock. They have a long slender tail, torso and snout that is designed to get into tiny places. I call them "rock crawlers" because they will insert just the tip of their into a hole in the rock and begin stretching out the length of their body and tail as they use their snout to inspect holes in the rock in search of food. They will then drag their tail across the rock until they find another hole for their tail. They remind me a lot of hummingbirds feeding in a patch of flowers. They are also very good swimmers and can handle a lot of flow.

Here are some photos of some I the seahorses I am raising. These are the future of my third generation of captive bred comes. The first picture is some of the same seahorses from 6 months ago, the 2nd and 3rd are of a couple of the males and the 4th is one of the females.

[leliataylor]

They don't seem to have quite mastered the art of dancing together yet, although I am sure with more practice they will figure it out. It sure was funny watching them try though.

[leliataylor]

It has been awhile since I gave a update. I now have 2 pairs of youngsters I raised from last year that are acting like like teenagers in the backseat at drive in movie. I also have several others that are staying out of the competition. Hopefully my F3 generation of CB comes. Setting up more tanks to house them.

[CoryDude]

Are the teenagers the same pair from your last post? If so, it takes them a moth to become familiar in the ways of making love? How much rock are you running in their tank and do you move the pair to a tank of their own?

[leliataylor]

It is hard to say who is who right now as they all keep moving around. Right now they are all in a 60 gallon grow out tank filtered with a Eshopps CS-100 loaded with rubble rock, the tank is barebottom and has about 25 lbs of LR.

I am setting up two more tanks to be able to separate the one's that have paired up into their own tank. I have a 55 gallon cube that is almost cycled and a 65 gallon DSA tank that is in the design process. All my adult tanks have 29 gallon sumps (guess what happened to all my old 29's) loaded with rubble rock, SCA skimmer, UV and filter socks. The tanks are set up using dry rock and sand.

Some pics of the tanks I am working on.

[leliataylor]

A female shot today and a fry hitched to the same plant from 8-17-2013. Also a pair hitched to a artificial coral from today and a youngster on the same piece from 7-21-2013.

[leliataylor]

Last but not least the male that will be moving into the cube.

[leliataylor]

A couple of pics of some of the fry I raised from last year. They are starting to breed and are blowing my mind.

[leliataylor]

One of the pairs I raised from last year produced fry again 2 days ago. This is their 3rd attempt at producing fry. In their first two attempts the fry were very small and he barely looked pregnant, normal in young pairs. With this round of fry he was obviously pregnant and his fry were much larger. At only 2 days of age the fry have doubled in size. I did order more pods, phyto and formalin for them last week. If all goes well I should be able to start them on enriched BBS if a few days. Crossing my fingers.

[Dean]

I would enjoy some pictures. :) Do you put the fry in one of those small round tanks with a bubbler like I have seen with the large scientific breeders?

[leliataylor]

Essentially my nurseries are built on the same design as the commercial breeders, but on a hobbyist scale. Each one of my nurseries consists of two round circular tubes (Koi show bowls) that are drilled from the bottom with a standpipe and outer sleeve. One side acts as a nursery and the other a fuge. Both filter into a modified Eshoops WD-125. The first layer is a coarse filter pad, the second layer is a 50 micro filter filter pad, the third is bioballs, the 4th is a combination of rock and sand that I bleached and cycled. Once the water is forced through the rock and sand bed it runs into a fuge type filter where the skimmer and UV go to work (skimmers are rated for 165 gallon tanks). During the first two weeks the only water the enters the nursery is from the UV. The fuge portion of the system also consists of more sterile/cycled rock and aquacultured macro. Essentially I am running over 60 gallons of water to maintain a 20 gallon nursery. Because of the massive amounts of zooplankton required to sustain seahorse fry it is easy to trash a system overnight. Add to this the massive amount of ciliate production from all the live food and the potential for introducing hydroids from BBS, both of which are lethal to SH fry, the potential for disaster immanent. To add to this probiotics due aid in the reduction of ciliates and have some efficacy in out competing pathogenic bacteria.

I will post some pics of my nurseries ASAP.

[Triggerman]

Great read and pics!

Curious to what your overall survival rate is on the fry?

[leliataylor]

My overall survival varies by species. When I was working with erectus I had about a 90% survival rate. They have been bred in captivity for multiple generations and produce large benthic fry that are actually easy to raise. Although, when I first started raising seahorses I thought they were hard. They can be raised in standard glass tanks, with a divider to keep them out of the filtration. They are large enough at birth to consume 3-4 day old enriched brine shrimp and hitch within hours after birth.

My attempts to raise ingens was a failure. They produce a 1000+ extremely tiny fry that remain pelagic for 2-3 weeks. The fry really need tiny pod nauplii such as parvocalanus. Not one of the easier pods to culture. I would feel bad except even DanU and TamiW were unable to raise any ingens to adulthood.

My success with comes has been about 10% at this point. They do much better when fed pods as their first food. Up until this year I have been working primarily with wild caught comes and have have one pair that is a 1st generation CB reproduce. The fry from my second generation CB seahorses are larger and growing more rapidly. I have found each subsequent CB generation becomes easier to raise.

One of the major difficulties in raising species that produce tiny pelagic fry is providing enough suitable live food to sustain them. Newly hatch brine shrimp are too large for many of these species and rotifers are too small. Even the folks at Algagen came to the realization that they were unable to raise pods fast enough to sustain large numbers of reidi fry.

[leliataylor]

Here are some pics of nurseries.

This is a pic of the "muck bucket" nursery.
Pros: Each tub can be purchased at Tractor Supply for under $20.00 and they are easy to cycle.
Cons: Because of they are taller and have a narrow base they are more difficult to clean and require lower flow to keep the fry from getting stuck to the filter sleeve.

A top view of the Koi Show Bowl.
Pros: Easier to clean, fry are easier to view and they will handle a higher flow.
Cons: 3-4 times more expensive than the muck buckets and they can be difficult to cycle.

My Frankenstein plumbing. The 50 micron filter pad sits below the drip tray and there is rock below the bio-balls.

Outer sleeve with dbl layer of openings, covered with 670 micron mesh.

Newborn fry in the nursery.

[leliataylor]

A side view of one of Koi Show Bowl nurseries and some older fry in a nursery.

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[Dean]

That's a very well thought out system. Very impressive. Not to mention the high level of dedication. Where do all of the offspring go when you get them to a point that they just need standard seahorse care?

[leliataylor]

Thank you. I have spent several years developing systems that will work for comes fry. My mentor, DanU, has helped me emmensely and although I do not use exactly the same system he does it is a small scale hobbyist version of his. His nurseries are 90 gallon tubes, where my are only 20 gallons. He filters down to the 1 micron level and the best I have achieved is the 50 micron level. That being said, one problem we have all encountered is getting some of the youngsters to mature into males. Last year was the first time I was able to get more males than females. Prior to this I only was able to get one male. At this point I am keeping everything I raise until I am sure I have a viable breeding population and just keep setting up more tanks. This may change by the end of this year as more of the pairs I have raised begin to reproduce.

I knew my 3rd generation of CB fry, that were born 3 days ago, were exhibiting a accelerated growth rate over any comes fry I have raised before. I put some in a glass to get a good look at them and what I saw made me want to cry. At only 3 days of age they are as large as my 6 day old 2nd generation fry from last year and have full GI tracts. They are also exhibiting more pronounced spine development.



The first and last pics are of my 3rd gen CB comes born 3 days ago. The second is a 3 day old born last yr and the third is a 6 day old from 2013.

[leliataylor]

I am really trying not to get too excited because they still have a long way to go. So far I have only lost 3 and only have 1 floater. As of yesterday I was able to look in the nursery and see their full GI tracts without using a macro lens. It is really hard for me not to check on them constantly because I can not believe what I am seeing. I have never seen this rate of growth or this degree of survival in comes in the past.

[leliataylor]

Well it finally happened, my wild caught pair of comes I have had for 2 1/2 years delivered roughly 200 large beautiful fry. What amazed me is these fry began to hitch at 1 day old and are the same size as my 3rd generation CB fry. In the past my comes fry have remained pelagic for 18-21 days. I actually placed some plastic filaments in the nursery for them to hitch to and they all are doing it. This is causing us to question what makes the difference in a adult pair that allows them to produce larger benthic fry, when all they previously produced were pelagic fry. Fry survivorship is typically much higher with benthic fry.

[Dean]

That is so cool. Congratulations on your success.

[leliataylor]

Thank you, it is very exciting to finally see this pair produce such nice big youngsters.

Here is a photo I took Sunday while I was rearranging fry in the nurseries. It shows a 40 day old fry next to one of the newborns. They do grow fast.

To give you a size reference the plastic filaments in the previous photos were removed from a piece of 670 micron mesh. The larger fry in this photo is slightly over 1/2" long.

[leliataylor]

The difference 16 days makes. The fry in the first photo was taken some time ago in a glass of water, the second photo is of a 16 day old in the nursery I took yesterday. They don't even look like the same species, yet they are both from the same pair.

[leliataylor]

Three days is the life of a comes fry. I am trying not to get too excited, however the fry I am currently rearing are exceeding my expectations. They are continuing to exhibit accelerated growth rates, full GI tracts and increased survival rates.

The first photo is of a 8 day old fry shot on Friday. The next two photos are of the same fry from the same brood taken today.

[Davie118]

Good to hear Cheryl! :)

~Greg

[leliataylor]

Thanks Greg. I compared some pics of fry the same adult pair produced in June of 2013 and the difference is like night and day. I keep waiting for the bubble to pop. This was a smaller brood than he usually produces, however the fry showed significantly larger size and more spine development. All the fry headed to the top of the tank at birth (no sinkers) and there were no partially developed embryos.

[leliataylor]

Quick update. These fry have started actively swimming into the flow and remaining stationary about 8" from the return. Once the prey starts to drift by they take off in pursuit of the food. Exactly what I was wanting to see. Almost time to increase their flow.

[Davie118]

Woot! Go seahorses go!

~Greg

[leliataylor]

Greg, you made me laugh. Swim little fry, swim.

I did double the amount of flow today to flush the nursery and it didn't even phase the fry so I am going to leave them in higher flow. They should start to settle in the next 4 days and begin to hitch occasionally. It looks like their parents are expecting again and I am really hoping for another nice strong brood. Currently I have two more cycled nurseries in need of fry.

The fry system they are in has maintained stable water parameters with no spikes in ammonia, nitrites or nitrates. It is one of the experimental systems I built that consists of a round 20 gallon nursery, a 30 gallon grow out tank and a 29 gallon sump.

[leliataylor]

Some of my older fry are starting to take shaved mysis bits. Yipeeeeeeeeeee!

[Justin]

Can you take some pics of your setup? Glad to see you today, I hope the mushrooms will do well for you.

[leliataylor]

Thank you Justin. Love the aquascaping on your tank. I got everything in the basket glued down to a big rock last night and there were a couple of red ones also. There was also a frag with 3 heads that looks like a green button protopaly. Very pretty and all 3 heads are fully extended.

Here are some pics of my smallest fry system. It consists of a 30 gallon acrylic pentagram growout tank, a 20 gallon round nursery tub and a 29 gallon sump. I have two other fry systems. One has a 35 gallon acrylic cube, 2-20 gallon tubs and a 29 gallon sump. The third system has a 55 gallon growout tank, one 20 gallon nursery, a 20 gallon acrylic frag tank and a 46 gallon sump. If things go well I will add a 2nd frag tank into this system. Right now they each have a skimmer, UV, lots of rock in the sumps, K1 media reactors, macro, 100 micron filter socks, sponge filters, oxydators, LED lights (blue at night and blue & white for daytime) and are dosed daily with probiotics. There is a ball valve on the returns to the nurseries so that I can adjust the flow based on the age of the fry. The outer sleeve in the nurseries are covered with 670 micron mesh for newborns and ultimately window screen is used on the sleeves once the fry are large enough.

Here are some pics of the smallest system. The other two are too large to really photograph.

[leliataylor]

I am so thrilled. My comes fry that range from 35-40 days old are already taking frozen food and growing like little weeds. During my first attempt to raise this species it took me almost a year to convert them to frozen. They grow so much faster once they begin taking frozen mysis.

[leliataylor]

Some of the kids and yes they do stay yellow at this age. If you look closely they are just now starting to get their chocolate tiger stripes. Once they get to the juvenile stage the males will darken and the females will stay yellow or cream colored. As adults both sexes will turn yellow or gold as they court.

[leliataylor]

I have decided to do a experiment. In the past I have always worried about nitrites, ciliates, hydroids, etc. in my nursery systems. After reading everything I can find on the subject of the impacts of nitrates, Ca, Mg, dkH, etc. on larval fish there is very little long term information. I have decided to set up a seahorse nursery utilizing similar water parameters that are more ideal for SPS propagation. Nobody seems to have a clear handle of of their optimal environment, other than they need massive amounts of copepods and a pest free environment. Imagine setting up a nursery system that is free of nitrates, with a stable dkH, Mg and Ca. A environment that is full of pods and is pest free, similar to what is currently being done in coral propagation. Wish me luck, I am already working on the experiment. Any suggestions, input, criticism, etc. would be greatly appreciated. PS I think I need some pest free Cheato. Please keep om mind H. comes (tiger tail seahorses) are a reef dwelling species.

[Justin]

It should be a nice little experiment. Keeping the nutrients at a low level may impact the size of the population of pods you have. They will need some kind of food source and I have noticed that my sumps tend to keep quite a bit of detritus that the pods and other fauna feed on. Looking forward to hearing more about the progress of this tank.

[celticstarb]

That will be an interesting experiment. I would love to see how it turns out. It will be interesting to see how their growth rate compares to the ones raised in the "traditional" manner. Are you going to vodka dose the fry tank?

[leliataylor]

Justin, I know I need to keep plenty of food available for the pods and plan to set up a phyto drip system to provide them with additional food. I know the phyto will drive my skimmers nuts, however the vodka dosing is already doing that. All my nursery systems have a larger tank plumbed into the same sump and they tend grow a lot of pods. What I want to achieve is more pristine water conditions with a abundance of food for the fry. The biggest hurdle comes with the filter socks I use, pods will get flushed into the socks and get trapped. I have been experimenting with some other systems without filter socks and have amphipods and copepods everywhere. One option would be to set up a pod/fry system without filter socks and utilize a different system with filter socks once the fry are larger to collect the uneaten BBS.

David, I have been experimenting with vodka dosing on one of my fry systems and it definitely is staying cleaner. The the most noticeable difference I am observing is in the seahorses. They are consuming larger amounts of food, their activity level has increased and some of the fry are rapidly looking like juveniles. I hope to improve the survival of neonatal fry with the pod/fry nursery system by improving water quality and providing a abundance of suitable sized prey.