My babies! (H. Erectus Seahorses)!

Reef lvr · Jan 29, 2011

That is so cool!!! Good luck wit the baby's!!! I had some chesapeake bay seahorses from a local waterman's crabpots, they were very cool and seemed to be pretty hardy too..Guess not hard to keep when they used to a dirty bay..lol

skinz78 · Jan 29, 2011

Very cool! Last night my buddy was showing me his new Solana tank he just got and telling me all about the seahorses he planned on getting. He has 3 mated pairs coming.

BrooksReef · Jan 29, 2011

Just a quick update:

All the babies are still alive -- that means... DAY 4 WITHOUT ANY DEATHS!!!!!!

Blueshorts · Jan 29, 2011

Very Awesome! Beautiful babies and congrats!

gflat65 · Jan 29, 2011

Awesome. These guys just keep on giving, too

. Within hours of birthing, the male is ready for more eggs

. Is this your second brood with these parents, or overall? How many are left from the first brood (first brood 2 weeks old?)? I'm trying to learn from my mistakes with these guys right now, too

.

I missed the birthing this morning (only four left in the adult's tank when I checked on them-nearly an hour before they have birthed the last two times...). They are in the new kreisel, so I'm hoping for better luck than my last two attempts. Each iteration (two total before this mornings) has given me better results, but still none have made it past 12 days. I was looking forward to a kreisel full of babies, but oh well. Valentine's babies will be cool

.

BrooksReef · Jan 30, 2011

gflat65 said:
Awesome. These guys just keep on giving, too. Within hours of birthing, the male is ready for more eggs. Is this your second brood with these parents, or overall? How many are left from the first brood (first brood 2 weeks old?)? I'm trying to learn from my mistakes with these guys right now, too.

I missed the birthing this morning (only four left in the adult's tank when I checked on them-nearly an hour before they have birthed the last two times...). They are in the new kreisel, so I'm hoping for better luck than my last two attempts. Each iteration (two total before this mornings) has given me better results, but still none have made it past 12 days. I was looking forward to a kreisel full of babies, but oh well. Valentine's babies will be cool.

Hi glfat! I am happy to see that you are giving it a go, too!

In my tank right now, I have two males. Each has given me one brood. So this is my first time from each parent. From my first brood, I had about 80? So far, I have lost 25 from that brood. However, the ones that are left are easy to pick out from the second brood (the 1st brood is much lighter skinned). That being said, they are all eating a TON and none have overinflated swim bladders.

I found that with my first brood, the die-off was greater for a few reasons:

1) I did NOT have my 29g set up for them. They are enjoying a bigger area to swim in, and better water quality.
2) I think I was giving them too much water flow. I had two air pumps in there with them in a 5g bucket, which was just tossing them around. That probably caused them to get their swim bladders over-inflated, making them unable to hunt for food.
3) Every two days, I changed them from one 5g container to another. The hassle from that probably was a tad stressful on them.

BrooksReef · Feb 3, 2011

Just a quick update for everyone!

They are all doing well still! Over the course of the past 4 days, I've lost 3 babies. Two of which were the smallest of the bunch, and the other looked to have an overinflated swim bladder.

Pictures to come!

subielover · Feb 3, 2011

Sounds like you are doing a great job with them. Looking forward to seeing how the babies do for you.

sprinklerdudes · Feb 3, 2011

I think sea horses are just plain cool, love the pictures, maybe I 'll give it a try one day

gflat65 · Feb 3, 2011

Are you feeding BBS? If so, what are you gut loading them with?

We're down to one (of 5) from the last brood. Still not happy about missing the birthing (wanted to see my new kreisel in action with 100+ babies

. The one is looking good right now, and seems bigger than others I've tried to raise to date. Next brood expected next Saturday/Sunday.

BrooksReef · Feb 3, 2011

gflat65 said:
Are you feeding BBS? If so, what are you gut loading them with?

We're down to one (of 5) from the last brood. Still not happy about missing the birthing (wanted to see my new kreisel in action with 100+ babies. The one is looking good right now, and seems bigger than others I've tried to raise to date. Next brood expected next Saturday/Sunday.

I am using BBS enriched with Dan's Feed (from seahorsesource).

I've noticed that the lower the current in the water, the more that have been surviving. The thing with a kreisel is that they are always moving, which could be a reason for their swim bladders to over inflate and ultimately lead to their deaths. What I do is put a lower-powered air line in with them to keep the surface broken so they don't get stuck. It provides the necessary flow for them, keeps them off of the surface, and allows them to swim freely about the tank. This also allows them to hunt freely as well.

jonzee2006 · Feb 3, 2011

are you training them for the olympics lol they look great and there is like a zillion of them. now you have a zillion grandkids

aalvarado87 · Feb 3, 2011

that is awesome is it anything like breeding clownfish pretty intense stuff? But i must say that is freaking awesome your my idol i thought fish breeding was cool but this blows it out of the water. Im digging the zip ties do they actually cling to them? do you have any pictures of the eggs or do they lay eggs?

BrooksReef · Feb 3, 2011

aalvarado87 said:
that is awesome is it anything like breeding clownfish pretty intense stuff? But i must say that is freaking awesome your my idol i thought fish breeding was cool but this blows it out of the water. Im digging the zip ties do they actually cling to them? do you have any pictures of the eggs or do they lay eggs?

It is fairly difficult, I can say that. However, I couldn't make the comparison to clowns as I've never raised them myself. And thank you! I really appreciate the encouragement I'm getting!

Some do cling to the zip ties, however I've removed them. They much prefer the plastic plants I've now got in there for them.

They do not lay eggs, per say. The female has the eggs, then transfers them to the males which hold them in their pouches until they are born as live fry.

skinz78 · Feb 3, 2011

Congrats on not loosing more than 3, from what I hear that is pretty unheard of to loose so few.

m and m · Feb 3, 2011

Isn't very hard to breed sea horses, it was hard to keep them alive until reccent right? I have always wanted to try a pipe fish but I hear there just as hard.

BrooksReef · Feb 4, 2011

m and m said:
Isn't very hard to breed sea horses, it was hard to keep them alive until reccent right? I have always wanted to try a pipe fish but I hear there just as hard.

Oh breeding them isn't hard at all. You don't even have to do anything! They just keep going at it... over and over and over until you're overwhelmed with babies! Haha!

hawkfishman · Feb 4, 2011

so cool

BrooksReef · Feb 5, 2011

WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Today is really a good day to celebrate!

A) For my birthday, my parents let me have one of the spare offices/bedrooms to convert to a dedicated FISH room!!!
B) All of the Seahorses are able to swim freely without getting caught in surface tension -- NO MORE FLOATERS!
C) The best of all... THEY ARE ALL EATING FROZEN CYCLOPEES!!!!!

BrooksReef · Feb 8, 2011

All fry are doing very well.

My big guy (Bart) is about to explode again. I am anticipating him giving birth any day now.

I have been VERY busy recently setting up the fish room, and I just finished it today. I set up a new tank in a beautiful armoire we bought. The tank is a 37g tall tank (30x12x22 LxWxH).

I will post pictures in the morning!