Breeding Seahorses

[leliataylor]

Is there anyone else in MAAST that is currently raising or attempting to raise seahorses? I am currently raising northern H. erectus and am attempting to raise H. comes (the comes fry were given to me and survived a 5 1/2 drive from McKinney). I am purchasing a comes male from a friend of mine and will have to find him a mate.

I have found the subsequent generations captive bred seahorses produce stronger fry that have a significantly higher survivorship. I am hoping to establish a captive breeding program for H. comes, now that my erectus are becoming established.

I would love to compare notes with anyone in MAAST that is working with seahorses. They are very prolific and extremely difficult to raise (the species that produce pelagic fry are far more difficult to raise than the species that produce bethnic fry).

[loans_n_fishes]

Cheryl,

I attempt to raise whenever my horses give birth (Erectus/Reidi cross--pelagic). I have yet to be successful :(. I got them to 10 weeks once and then they were all killed by hydroids. ARRRR! However, I will compare notes with you sometime. You will probably help me more than I help you, though.

Oh, I just got a female erectus with lots of cirri from aquadome. She is absolutely adorable!

Angela

[leliataylor]

Congratulation on your new SH. I love the ones with cirri. You do realize the fry you have are either eredi or reitus.

Believe or not, keeping any of the fry alive to 10 weeks is a tremendous accomplishment. I have had difficulty in the past with increased mortality between the 10-12 stage, as well. It is at this point mine are being switched to frozen mysid shrimp. I now keep tanks running fallow so I can move fry if I start to loose more than 1 or 2 within a 7 day period. Although all my tank parameters appear normal, there has to be something going on with the addition of the mysid shrimp. All of you are saying a spike in ammonia with the additional bio-load on the tank. I have not found that to be true. Now to purchase a microscope to monitor bacterial growth. Siphoning the bottom twice a day has also improved their survivorship. Make the transition from BBS to cyclopeeze to mysid shrimp very gradually, over several weeks. The gradual transition has improved their survival.

Hydroids can be a real problem when you are feeding live food. You can treat the tank with Panacur, however you will loose some of the youngsters and over time the hydroids seem to return. Anytime I see hydroids I break the tank down, bleach everything and re-cycle the tank. I haven't seen any hydroids in months.

Are you SH wild caught or captive bred? The majority of SH we see in lfs are wild caught (often times advertised as captive breed) and need to be treated for internal parasites.

What is your nursey tank set-up?

[loans_n_fishes]

All of my horses are captive bred. I always ask to make sure. I am very nervous about dealing with wild horses.

I don't have my fry tank set up right now. In fact, what I have for temporary housing before setting up the tank again is a breeder net hung in the display tank. I do not have babies right now, but expect them any time, so I will need to get things moving! However, it is much easier to deal with moving the babies if I can catch daddy in time for him to give birth in the breeder net. This way, he never leaves the tank (less stress) but the babies are contained and I don't have to go through the panic of shutting off all of the pumps and ladleing the little, next to invisible, critters out. I could NEVER count them well before starting this method because I was too worried about finding them all before turning the pumps back on.

I really liked my set up before and contribute much of my "success" to it. It is a 10 gallon tank with a mesh divider down the center.

On the horse side, it is bare bottom with a dead gorgonian skelton for hitching (when they eventually do), and an air pump going just strong enough to keep the water surface moving. I have to adjust from time to time to keep the little guys from getting thrown out of the water and plastered to the glass. I have always been able to scrape them off before they suffocate, but it is always stressful.

On the "wild side" I have a rectangular rubbermaid type lunch container full of live sand (I am now buying the live sand in a bag to avoid some of the nasties). Keeping it in the container really helps when cleaning the tank. I just lift it out and siphon the bottom of the tank. In fact, most of my cleaning is done on this side of the tank. (This minimizes the sucking up factor that is almost impossible for me to avoid when there are a couple hundred babies the size of mosquito larvae on the other side.) I had some chaeto (wrapped in bridal veil to keep the babies out and any amphipods in) on this side, too. I really liked how things stayed balanced with these two components, but this next time, I think I will soak the algae in a panacur solution first just because I am paranoid. I also had some nas. snails that did a great job of keeping the wild side and sand clean. I also put a couple on the baby side to keep things a little spiffier. However, with the panacur treated algae, I think I will exclude these guys this time around. This side also has one air pump for circulation and another air pump attached to a HOT bbs hatcher. I LOVE this thing! It is so easy to just add the eggs 2X per day. The bbs can pass through the divider, but the babies can't--generally. I will say that invariably some babies take a walk on the wild side, and this is why I no longer use any powerheads no matter how weak. The algae is a great place for some of the bbs to hide for a while. It is also nice to add a bottled culture of copepods to the wild side. They will hide in the algae and multiply, but also swim over to the babies. I add a capful of DT's live phyto to the wild side once or twice a day to keep the pods and bbs full of nutrients. I am going to be buying the decapsulated bbs eggs this time around to cut down on the chances of hydroids. I also like to hang an ammonia alert in the tank, too. I am relieved to say I have not had an ammonia problem yet--even with all of the food.

I clean the baby side as little as possible and only suction enough of the wild side to get the gunk off the bottom. About once a week, I do a 50% water change and wipe the sides of the tank. I used to use the water from my display tank for water changes, but am now only using freshly mixed saltwater.

I typically feed mainly bottled rotifers for the first 2 weeks about 4X per day, but start hatching the bbs into the water by the 2nd or 3rd day. The rotifers are SLOWLY phased out. By the way, the rotifers I buy are actually the bottled DEAD rotifers that can be kept in the refrigerator. I was worried the babies would go for nothing but live, but most seem to take to it readily. It is also a good idea to add a bottle of pods to the wild side at this time. I keep hatching the bbs by adding eggs to the hatcher once or twice a day. Doing these things provides a continuous supply of food for the babies whenever they need it. I know some people warn about over feeding, but I have never noticed this problem myself. I add some frozen cyclopeez to the tank as soon as the babies are big enough to swallow them (around 2-3 weeks). Most take to them quickly and the others tend to come around over time. I have yet to make it into the successful phasing to frozen mysis stage, but that would be my next/final food. I hope to avoid the live mysids/older bbs stage altogether by using the nutrient laden cyclopeez. I always overlap foods. I assume it to be better for them to have it available and not need it than to need it and not have it.

Oh, I also hang a light off the side of the tank instead of over it so they won't be attracted to the top and suck air. I leave the light on 24/7 and always have it mainly on the babies b/c the pods and bbs seem to be attracted to it as well.

[Aquarium masters]

There is another product I have heard of to get rid of Hydroids. It is called Hydrox. I haven't had an issue with Hydroids so I haven't used it. I heard of it on a seahorse group and the people there talk very highly of it. PM me if you want more info.

[leliataylor]

I am glad you mentioned Hydrox. It is pre-packaged for aquarium use and apparently works very well. My understanding is the primary ingredient is panacur. I have never used it, however I know people that have and there have been no issues.

Hi Angela,

Yes, do panacur your macro. Although it provides a great place for pod propagation, it also can be a source of hydroids and api's. Panacured rubble rock can also be used on the"wild side" to enhance filtration. Are you using additional filtration i.e. cycled sponge filter, HOB filter or cannister filter? If you cover the intake with coarse sponge filter media it will allow you to maintain a cycled tank and will prevent the fry from getting sucked into filter when they take a walk on "the wild side". With a cycled tank you can simply siphon off the detritus each day, replace the water and eliminate the need for large water changes.

Do you have a bare bottom tank siphon/cleaner? The newest version comes with a tiny brush and a small opening which makes it easy to clean the fry side of the tank, without sucking up the fry.

Erectus are capable of eating small strain BBS at birth. Reidi on the other hand typically require rotifers. How large are your fry at birth? They may be capable of eating BBS at birth.

Let us know when you get fry and best of luck.