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So I’ve been researching dwarf seahorses since January and began this project in March I had a horrible tank stall, but I am now cycled and recently bought a CUC of snails. Its a 5 gallon tank. I’m culturing copepods in a ten gallon tank to feed them ,and I also have shell-less BBS which I will be enrichining with microalgae. First question, the copepods are VERY tiny, how do I go about collecting and feeding them to the ponies? Also does anyone know where I could get a seahorse tree? I can’t find anywhere around here that sells it, nor online. Thanks guys.
Post edited by: dylan5359, at: 2011/08/04 02:04
Dear Dylan:
If you are culturing your own copepods, sir, the usual procedure for harvesting the pods of various sizes and ages is to strain the water from your culture container through one or more screens with a suitable mesh size. In other words, Dylan, you need to obtain screens and sieves of proper size from places that provide equipment for aquaculture and mariculture.
For example, suitable screens can be purchased from Miami Aquaculture Inc. (see the following link):
http://www.miami-aquaculture.com/screen.htm
I would recommend about of 38 micron screen for harvesting copepod nauplii in the first or second instars and a 110-125 micron screen for gathering large pods.
Florida Aqua Farms (https://www.florida-aqua-farms.com/) also used to offer a variety of plankton collector’s and plankton screens that would be suitable for harvesting copepods from your culture tanks, sir. The plankton socks can be used for collecting wild plankton from the ocean, if you live near the shore in a suitable area to consider harvesting wild plankton.
The seahorse trees that work so well for dwarf seahorses are very hard to come by, Dylan. Back in the day, you used to be able to get them from the collectors in Florida that provided the wild dwarf seahorses. The seahorse trees are actually the dried skeletons of dead gorgonians that have washed up on the beaches and lost many of their branches. They are safe for aquarium use and the dwarfs love to use them for hitching posts and perches.
Nowadays, your best bet to obtain a seahorse tree would be to contact one of the old dwarf seahorse vendors and see if they can possibly provide one for you.
The only one I know of offhand that is still around from back in the day is Aqualand, and they might be worth a try. You can contact Aqualand as follows:
Aqualand
<http://www.seahorseworld.com/>
Best of luck culturing an harvesting copepods, sir!
Respectfully,
Pete Giwojna, Ocean Rider Tech Support
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Ocean Rider, Inc. is an Organic Hawaiian-Based Seahorse Aqua-Farm & Aquarium that Follows Strict Good Farming Practices in Raising Seahorses and Other Aquatic Life.
