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Dear Pete,
Here is my current update on my first batch of Sunburst babies. A week and a half ago, I had to go out of town for 4 days and my local aquarium store very kindly took care of my 75 babies. We set up a bio tank for a fun display. They received a huge amount of attention. A \"Seahorses not for Sale!\" sign had to be put on the tank because so many people wanted some. (They had no idea what they would have been getting into. Ha!) I did lose about 25 of the babies when those that fed the seahorses didn\’t realize that when they turned off the flow, as they fed the brine, many of the babies were being sucked back into the wet/dry section. I bought the bio tank and brought home the babies. (I had to take apart everything in the back and clean out the grizzley remains.) I never did tell them because I didn\’t want them to know after having done me such a nice favor. It was a good lesson learned and they were so kind to take care of my babies for me. So… I still have 50 young seahorses that will be 6 weeks old on Sunday. They are doing very well eating the cyclopeeze, but with the large number that I have, I\’m not sure all are eating enough, so I\’m still giving \"fresh brine snacks\" every day.
Daddy is extremely pregnant and by the looks of him, he\’ll be having at least 100 in the next two weeks. I\’m glad I have my empty bowls so the fry can move right in. Before my seahorse pair ever arrived, I did ask about what one would do with them if they had lots of babies. I think I had better pose that question again. Thanks for all the good info!Aloha, Lisa Aiea
Dear Lisa:
It’s good to hear that so many of your Sunburst juveniles made it through their respite at the pet store in good shape. It was very accommodating of your LFS to look after the youngsters for you while you were away, but it’s unfortunate that some of them ran afoul of the filtration system.
It’s encouraging that so many of the six-week old juveniles are already accustomed to eating frozen Cyclops, but it’s a good idea to supplement the Cyclop-eze with regular feedings of newly hatched brine shrimp, just as you are doing, for the sake of the young ones that are lagging behind and still largely dependent on live foods.
In order to accommodate successful home breeders like yourself who are in danger of getting overrun with seahorse fry from their prolific ponies, Ocean Rider allows hobbyists to freely disburse their fry any way they see fit up until they reach the age of 30 days. If they are overburdened with a baby boom, the best bet for most hobbyists is to adopt the newborns out to surrogate parents who live within driving distance. Of course, this works best if they have a friend or neighbor or know a fish guy down at your LFS who are interested in rearing and can take the excess fry off your hands. It is more difficult to ship seahorse fry to interested parties long distance and the newborns often don’t tolerate long-distance shipping well.
But for the hobbyist whose only other recourse is to euthanize the fry and sacrifice the entire brood, shipping newborn fry overnight is still preferable to the alternative. However, shipping is definitely a better option for fry that have grown a little. Seahorse fry that are 2-4 weeks old are tougher and withstand shipping much better than newborns. (This is true when it comes to disease treatments as well; once fry have reached the age of 2-4 weeks, the can generally tolerate the same medications/chemotherapeutics and treatments as the adults.) So once your fry have reached as 2-4 weeks, you can ship them off to surrogate parents if need be and clear out your nursery tanks just in time for your seahorses’ next brood.
If there is an Aquarium Society in your area, Lisa, you can bet that they will have members who would love to get their hands on some of your Sunburst babies and take a crack at rearing them when the next brood is delivered.
Best of luck with your Sunbursts and their progeny, Lisa!
Happy Trails!
Pete Giwojna
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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.
