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Ok, my fry are 6 weeks old tomorrow. I still have 17, only one died in the past month or so. But half of them are looking scary thin. I have tried the cyclop-eeze and they don\’t want to eat it. I put little bits of mysis in the tank but no one seems interested. Then I dump in the brine and they eat away and can have it all down in less than an hour. Part of the problem, I think, is that I can\’t just dump in a ton of cyclop-eeze or mysis to make it look like snow in the tank, and that seems to be what they want. Is that what I should try? And just have everything ready to do a major water change? I\’m just getting so worried about them, that all my hard work over the past 6 weeks has been for nothing. But they can\’t live off brine for much longer, can they? The brine are so tiny and they have to eat so many just to have the energy to swim around and eat them!
Advice?
Dear Carrie:
Just be patient and persistent and sooner or later your efforts should pay off and most of the fry will make the transition from live Artemia nauplii to frozen foods successfully. As we have already discussed, shaved frozen Mysis and frozen Cyclop-Eze produce the best results for most home hobbyists when they are weaning Mustang and Sunburst (Hippocampus erectus) fry.
Just as Big Kahuna described, the bars of frozen Cyclop-Eze work well because they will shed copious amounts of the bite-size frozen cyclops. The frozen Mysis that works best for most hobbyists is Hikari in frozen blocks rather than trays. The Hikari Mysis is much smaller than Piscine Energetics Mysis relicta and that makes it easier to shave off bite-sized pieces for the young seahorses.
When it comes to shaving the Mysis, a technique that works well for many home hobbyists is to use a potato peeler to shave off bits of the Hikari Mysis from a frozen block, and then use a single edged razor blade to further mince the frozen bits the potato peeler has removed.
Try offering the minced Mysis exclusively for their first feeding of the day when the youngsters are the hungriest. Watch the juveniles closely to see if any of them begin to pick pick at the minced Mysis or pick it up from the bottom. If they still aren’t having any of it, siphon up the uneaten frozen Mysis after about half an hour and offer them newly hatched brine shrimp soaked in Mysis juice so that they have something to eat, and intermingle some freshly minced Hikari frozen Mysis or Cyclop-Eze in with the bbs.
Periodically repeat the above procedure and all should go well. In the meantime, newly-hatched Artemia nauplii or enriched second-instar Artemia should be adequate to keep the seahorse fry healthy and growing.
Best of luck weaning your six-week olds onto minced Mysis, Carrie!
Happy Trails!
Pete Giwojna
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