Introduction

[DrMark]

Have you bred seahorses before?

Believe me, we have not gone into this venture prematurely. A lot of time and energy was spent on setup and plans. We strive to raise and maintain coral and fish in the absolute best conditions possible in order to maximize survival and health. Brad is an asset as he is the expert on the fish/seahorse/shrimp breeding program. My personal strength is on the coral side, where I devote much of my time. Anyone who has been to my home can attest to that.
I strongly encourage a visit to see for yourself.
Mark

[fishypets]

This is exciting! What types of corals are you guys going to focus on? Aussie? Indo? Will you guys be selling frags of your prime corals or just colonies?

[ReefCube]

im there!

[Richard]

Believe me, we have not gone into this venture prematurely.

That's good to know. I had to ask because lot's of people have tried to start seahorse breeding ventures without realizing what they are getting into.

Since Brad has experience rearing pelagic fry you might consider working with H. comes also. My understanding is that ORA has discontinued it's H. comes breeding program so there isn't anyone currently breeding them commercially although they are still very much in demand. Rearing comes fry is quite similar to rearing reidi fry but should offer a shorter path to profitability since they fetch 2-3x the price of reidi. Also you wouldn't have to compete with the cheap pond/pen raised imports like you would with reidi, kuda, kelloggi's.

I gave my breeding colony of H. comes to fellow maast member Cheryl (leliataylor) so she could continue working with them. I haven't talked to her in a while but she was having some success with them last I heard. So you could contact her as a possible source for cb broodstock if your interested in working with them. Ideally you would start with wild caught broodstock for genetic diversity but obtaining healthy wc comes is pretty difficult.

[DrMark]

If it was just me solo, it would be corals only, maybe work into clowns.
I dont like to fail at anything, hence Brad is in charge of all of that. Failure is bad in this hobby because failure generally means something dies. I take it very hard when anything dies, I work very hard to do EVERYTHING right to prevent that. I never forget that everything we deal with is ALIVE and deserves the very best treatment. Except perhaps aptaisia, majanos, and any type of mushroom...JK. Although I dont like mushrooms a whole lot.
mark

[sharkdoctor]

! what have those mushrooms ever done to you.

[DrMark]

! what have those mushrooms ever done to you.

ha, not what they have done to me, but what they do to my nice SPS coral!!