Seahorse Club
Aquarium & Livestock

Feed Ezy Frozen Mysis

Seahorse Club
Aquarium & Livestock

Feed Ezy Frozen Mysis

Seahorse Club
Aquarium & Livestock

Feed Ezy Frozen Mysis

Seahorse Club
Aquarium & Livestock

Feed Ezy Frozen Mysis

Seahorse Club
Aquarium & Livestock

Feed Ezy Frozen Mysis

Seahorse Club
Aquarium & Livestock

Feed Ezy Frozen Mysis

SEAHORSES HAD BABYS

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  • #1192
    BKSS709
    Member

    MY SEAHORSE HAD BABY TODAY AND I NEED TWO NOW WHAT TO FEED THE FRY AND DO I NEED TO TAKE MY MANDERAN FISH OUT OF THE TANK NOW. i HAVE FROZZEN CYCLOP EEZE HERE RIGHT NOW IS THAT OK TO FEED THEM OR WHAT. THANK YOU BRIAN PLEASE HELP ( PS. WILL THEY BE ALL RIGHT IN THE MAIN SMALL REEF TANK THAT I HAVE RUNNING AND IF SO DO I NEED TO TURN OFF THE MAIN PUMP FROM THE SUMP OR WILL THEY STAY LOW IN THE TANK LIKE THEY ARE NOW )

    Post edited by: BKSS709, at: 2007/05/03 01:20

    #3564
    Pete Giwojna
    Guest

    Dear BK:

    Congratulations on your new brood of babies!

    Were you able to witness the male delivering the newborns? No matter how often I see a stallion giving birth, it never ceases to amaze me. Watching the fry erupt into existence that way is an incredible sight. They are perfect miniature replicas of their parents, able to fend for themselves from the first. It seems a brutal beginning, a ruthlessly rude awakening, to be violently thrust into the world in such an abrupt fashion, but the newborns hit the water swimming without missing a stroke. It’s a thrill to be witnessing such a miracle of nature and always leaves me awed and exhilarated!

    No, the newborn seahorses typically won’t have any interest in Cyclopeeze or any nonliving foods until they are at least a few weeks old. You’ll need to set up at least a couple of brine shrimp hatcheries and feed them with newly hatched brine shrimp. You won’t need to move the Mandarin fish because you will be moving the baby seahorses into a separate nursery tank for proper rearing (see below).

    Don’t panic — the fry are born with a limited yolk supply that can sustain them for the first 24 hours, so they needn’t be fed immediately and that gives you a little time to get your brine shrimp hatcheries going, as I’ll explain in greater detail below.

    No, the newborns will not be okay in your small reef tank. It would be difficult to maintain an adequate feeding density in your main tank, they would be subject to predation from everything from hermit crabs and cleaner shrimp to Aptasia rock anemones and reef-safe fish, the filters would likely "eat" them, and your reef tank would soon be overrun with hydroids, with fatal results to the babies. You will need to set up a separate nursery tank for the newborns and feed them copious amounts of newly hatched brine shrimp (Artemia nauplii) 3-5 times a day, as discussed below.

    When transferring the fry, scoop them up in a small measuring cup or something similar along with a little water. It’s important that the newborns aren’t exposed to the air during the transfers. Or a plastic turkey baster works well for delicately sucking up the fry when transferring them, providing you cut off a bit from the tip of the baster to enlarge the opening at the tip.

    Basic Nursery Tank

    The simplest nursery tank setup is a bare bottom 5 to 10-gallon glass tank equipped with suitable hitching posts, an air-operated sponge or foam filter, and nothing else (Giwojna, Jan. 1997). Add a cartridge of activated carbon to the airlift tube of the sponge filter(s) to provide a little chemical filtration.

    Keep the sponge filters in such nurseries elevated or prop them up off of the bottom. Otherwise they can become death traps for unwary benthic fry, which can become wedged beneath them and trapped. Adjust the airflow through the sponge so it produces a stream of small, steady bubbles. You want to create a slow, gentle flow through the foam filter without generating overly fine or excessively large bubbles (Giwojna, Jan. 1997). Seahorse fry may accidentally ingest fine bubbles, mistaking them for food, while large bubbles can buffet the newborns with harmful results (Giwojna, Jan. 1997). Too much airflow through the sponge filters will leave them prone to "eating" the fry’s food (newly hatched Artemia, copepods, rotifers, etc.).

    At the same time, however, you want the air stream to break up surface tension and provide adequate surface agitation. This is important not only for efficient oxygenation and gas exchange at the air/water interface, but also to allow the fry easy access to the surface. A newborn’s first instinct is to head to the surface to fill its swim bladder. (Physosymotous fishes have a connection between their gas bladder and the gut in the form of an open tube called the pneumatic duct, and are thus able to fill the swim bladder by gulping air at the surface. Like many teleost fishes, seahorses lose this connection very early in life, so that their swim bladders are completed closed as adults.) In many species, gulping air is the way in which gas is first introduced into the larvae’s bladder, and if denied an opportunity to do so, their development is hampered due to uninflated swim bladders (Silveira, 2000).

    This is the case with seahorse fry. If denied access to the surface to inflate their swim bladders, the fry behave normally while they are small and their weight is still negligible. But over the weeks, as they grow and put on weight, their underdeveloped swim bladders and inability to achieve neutral buoyancy increasingly handicap them. Once they gain a little weight, they sink like rocks. Unable to swim, they are reduced to slithering along the bottom on their bellies and are commonly referred to as sliders. This deficiency does not become apparent until the fry are several weeks old. Needless to say, this hinders their swimming ability and severely limits their feeding opportunities, delaying their growth and development, and rendering entire broods useless. In several cases, the problem was traced back to an oily film on the surface of the nursery tank, which prevented the newborns from filling their swim bladders with air (Silveira, 2000). A protein skimmer will prevent this by removing filmy surface layers and surfactants in general.

    The same sort of sponge filters that work well for dwarf seahorse tanks are also ideal for nursery tanks. Be sure to avoid sponge filters with weighted bottoms or other metal components since they will rust when exposed to saltwater. Sooner or later this will cause problems in a marine aquarium (sooner in the small nursery tanks). Select a sponge filter that has no metal parts and is safe for use in saltwater. The proper units will have suction cups to anchor them in place rather than a weighted bottom.

    The sponge filters I find that work well are the Oxygen Plus Bio-Filters (models 2, 3, 4, or 5) or the Tetra Brilliant foam filters. They have no metal components, making them completely safe for use in saltwater, and just one of these foam filters will do the job on a tank of 5 gallons or less. They do not have a weighted bottom but are equipped with suction cups instead.

    Click here: Foam Aquarium Filters: Oxygen Plus Bio-Filter 2

    http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=6&pCatId=3936

    Avoid the Oxygen Plus Bio-filter 6, 11, and the Multi sponge, which all have a weighted bottom (metal), that rusts when exposed to saltwater. If you want more filtration, you’re better off going with two of the smaller suction cup sponge filters rather than any of the models with weighted bottoms. For instance, for a 10-gallon tank, I’d suggest using two well-established foam filters, one at either end of the tank for the biofiltration, just as you are planning, Alex.

    All you need to operate sponge or foam filters is an inexpensive, diaphragm-operated air pump (whatever is available at a reasonable price from your LFS will do just fine), a length of airline tubing to connect the air pump to the foam filter(s), and a set of air valves (gang valves) to regulate the air flow to the filters. That’s all — nothing to it! The inexpensive Apollo 5 air pumps work great for sponge filters, but whatever air pump you have on hand should certainly do the job.

    Cleaning the foam filters is a snap. Simply immerse them in a bucket of saltwater and gently squeeze out the sponge until it’s clean and releases no more sediment or debris. (I use the saltwater I siphoned out of my aquarium when performing a water change for this, and clean my sponge filters whenever I change water.) Run a bottlebrush through the inside of the tube, wipe off the outside of the tube, and you’re done. The filter is ready to go back in the aquarium with no impairment at all of the biofiltration. Takes only a couple minutes.

    Setting Up & Maintaining the Nursery.

    The nursery tank(s) should be filled with water taken from the main tank that houses their parents, so the delicate newborns can be transferred directly to the nursery without adjusting to any stressful changes in pH, temperature or salinity (Giwojna, Jan. 1997). Cured ”seahorse trees” make good hitching posts, as do artificial aquarium decorations such as small seafans and soft plastic plants with fine, branching leaves (Giwojna, Jan. 1997). Strips, sections, and cylinders of plastic window screen or the plastic mesh sold in craft stores for needlepoint projects also work well. Short lengths of polypropylene rope (the kind sold at hardware stores and marine outlets for boating purposes) are another good option for hitching posts in the nursery. They come in many different colors, can be cut to any desired length, and are buoyant so if one end is anchored and the other end is unraveled, they will wave gently in the current like natural plants. (Avoid nylon rope, however — it bleeds in saltwater and will leech color and who knows what else into your tank!) If necessary, the holdfasts can be secured to the bare glass with silicone aquarium cement or suction cups designed for use in marine aquaria, or secured to a piece of coral rubble to anchor them in place.

    If you can obtain the fine-bladed or feathery varieties, live Caulerpa will help maintain good water quality by removing excess nitrates, as well as providing natural hitching posts that help benthic seahorse fry feel right at home (Giwojna, Jan. 1997). These marine plants grow from woody holdfasts and don’t need to be anchored in a sand or gravel substrate, so they’ll do fine in a bare-bottomed nursery (Giwojna, Jan. 1997). However, live Caulerpa is more difficult to keep clean and sanitary, and for this reason, many breeders prefer artificial hitching posts for their nurseries such as those described above (Mai 2004b).

    In addition, hydroids and miniature jellyfish (the free-swimming hydromedusae stage of the hydroids) are often present on live marine plants, and they can easily be accidentally introduced to the aquarium along with the Caulerpa. Ordinarily, this is not a problem for the greater seahorses, but hydrozoans can wreak havoc when they become established in a nursery tank. Not only will they compete with the fry for food, their stings can be lethal to the babies or leave them susceptible to secondary infections (Vincent, 1995c), and hydroids are sometimes responsible for mass mortalities in nurseries.

    A brief quarantine period for Caulerpa and other marine plants, during which they can be treated with fenbendazole granules for several days, is therefore strongly advised. Fenbendazole is an inexpensive deworming agent used for hoses and other large animals, and treating the quarantine tank with 1/8 teaspoon per 10 gallons is guaranteed to eradicate hydroids before they can gain a foothold in your nursery tank (Liisa Coit, pers. com.).

    Good lighting is also essential for the nursery tanks. The fry must be able to see the tiny organisms they live on clearly in order to feed efficiently. Use ”Daylight” fluorescent tubes or the equivalent and leave them on for a minimum of 14-17 hours a day, since the fry need to eat for at least 14 hours everyday (Vincent, 1995c).

    Since the nursery tanks have limited filtration, daily water changes are needed in most systems to maintain water quality and keep up with the metabolic wastes and oxygen demands of several dozen baby sea horses and the thousands of brine shrimp needed to feed them (Giwojna, Jan. 1997). When the fry are well fed, defecation is amazingly rapid, with each newborn producing an average of one fecal pellet every 25-30 minutes (Herald and Rakowicz, 1951). The best way to perform the necessary maintenance is to use a length of airline tubing to siphon off the bottom of the nursery tanks a minimum of twice a day (morning and evening are ideal for this; Giwojna, Jan. 1997). Replace the water that was removed while siphoning with freshly mixed saltwater that has been pre-adjusted to the same temperature, pH and salinity as the rearing tank. Change about 10-20% of the water each time you siphon the bottom, so that a total of at least 25-50% of the water in the nursery tanks is exchanged every day (Giwojna, Jan. 1997).

    Blacking out the top 2/3 of the aquarium and using side lighting or bottom lighting are techniques that are often used to help keep pelagic seahorse fry away from the surface, but there are many other (and better) nursery tank designs such as kriesels/pseudokreisels and in-tank nurseries that are more efficient at preventing surface huggers and floaters.

    The link below will take you to an article that discusses how to set up a basic nursery tank and culture the live foods you need to feed the newborns in more detail:

    Click here: Seahorse.com – Seahorse, Sea Life, Marine Life, Aquafarm Sales, Feeds and Accessories – Nutrition – Feeding & Rearing the Fry

    <http://www.seahorse.com/FAMA_-_Freshwater_and_Marine_Aquarium_magazine/Horse_Forum_-_Nutrition/Nutrition_-_Feeding_%26_Rearing_the_Fry_-_Part_IV/&gt;

    You may find the following three online articles on rearing seahorses to be especially helpful:

    http://www.syngnathid.org/articles/raisingFry.html

    Fry Development Cycle – From Egg to Horse

    http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles/fry.shtml

    http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles.shtml#propagation

    For starters, here are some tips on hatching and enriching the baby brine shrimp you’ll need to feed the newborns, BK:

    Hatching Out Brine Shrimp (Artemia)

    Many commercially made hatcheries are available or you can easily improvise your own from 2-liter soda pop bottles or quart jars. Fill the jars or bottles about 4/5 full with saltwater or brine solution and equip each container with an airstone connected to a length of rigid airline tubing that reaches all the way to the bottom. An inexpensive vibrator air pump with a set of gang valves with put out enough air for the entire battery of hatching containers. Add 1/8-1/4 teaspoon of brine shrimp eggs to each container and adjust the valves so the airstones bubble vigorously, keeping the eggs in suspension at all times. Shine a light directly on the hatching bottles and keep them illuminated 24 hours a day. A temperature of 80-82 degrees F is optimum for hatching brine shrimp.

    The eggs will begin hatching after 1-24 hours, and the emerging nauplii should be harvested and used as soon as possible after incubation while they still retain their full nutritional value. (The yolk supply lasts about 6-8 hours after hatching, and the food value of the nauplii deteriorates steadily as the yolk sac is consumed. Once it has been exhausted after about 8 hours, the nutritional worth of the nauplii drops drastically.)

    However, before they can be used as food, the nauplii must first be separated from the indigestible egg shells. Otherwise the empty shells may be accidentally ingested by the seahorse fry, which has been known to cause intestinal blockages and death.

    The brine shrimp nauplii can be separated from the eggs simply by turning off the air for a few minutes and allowing the water to settle. The unhatched eggs will sink to the bottom of the hatching jar while the empty egg shells will float to the top. The nauplii can then be concentrated in the center of the jar by darkening the room and shining a flashlight on the jar’s midsection. (Brine shrimp are attracted to light and will be drawn together in midwater where the light is focused.) Harvest the nauplii by using a siphon or turkey baster to suck up the concentrated mass of shrimp. The shrimp-laden water can then be strained through a plankton screen or fine-meshed brine shrimp net.

    Return the strained water to the hatching container, add more eggs, and readjust the aeration. The same hatching solution can be used for a week’s worth of hatchings before it has to be replaced.

    Alternating the hatching container from which you harvest each day’s supply of nauplii will assure that you have a nonstop supply of newly hatched brine shrimp available at all times.

    If you’re still uncertain about how to proceed, the information at the following link should make everything perfectly clear:

    Click here: Brine Shrimp Technical Information 1

    http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/brineshrimpdirect-faq-1-2-13.html#hatching

    Whether or not the babies will stay at the bottom and orient to the substrate or will be surface huggers depends on the type of seahorses you have, BK. Species such as Hippocampus erectus, H. reidi, and H. kuda produce young that go through a free swimming pelagic phase and will be drawn to the surface of the aquarium, whereas species such as the dwarf seahorse (Hippocampus zostrae), H. capensis, and H. barbouri produce benthic babies that settle down from the bottom right from birth.

    Be sure to search this forum for additional information on rearing the babies as well. There is a rectangular window in the upper right-hand corner (just above the page numbers) on the forum with the words "search forum" in it. Just type the word or phrase you are looking for into that window and press "Enter" on your keyboard, and the results of your search will pop up in just a few moments. For example, if you type in. For example, if you type in "baby seahorses" or "nursery tanks" or "fry feeding schedule" or "rearing seahorse fry," you’ll find lots of discussions with tons of useful information on raising baby seahorses.

    Best of luck raising your seahorse babies, BK!

    Happy Trails!
    Pete Giwojna

    #3568
    BKSS709
    Guest

    WHAT ARE THESE LITTLE BUGS ON MY GLASS THEY LOOK WHITE AND ARE VERY SMALL THEY SEEM TO ONLY BE WHERE THE GLASS HAS NOT BEEN CLEANED AND THERE ARE MILLIONS OF THEM IS THIS A NATUAL FOOD FOR THEM AND IN THE MORNING THE TANK IS LIKE A CLOUND OF LIFE TILL THE LIGHTS COME ON THERE ARE COPEPODS BY THE THOUSAND ALLOVER TWO PLUS LITTLE WHITE THIN WORM LIKE THING TWO AND MY MORE IS THIS ANYTHING THAT THEY WILL EAT. BRIAN

    #3569
    Pete Giwojna
    Guest

    Dear Brian:

    It’s hard to say exactly what the little white bugs are on your aquarium glass. My best bet is that they are copepods of some sort but it’s difficult to determine whether or not your baby seahorses will have any interest in them or not. The newborns will most likely simply ignore the bugs on the glass since they typically only eat free swimming prey of the right size that moves in the right manner to trigger a feeding response. If the little white bugs are clinging to the glass and not swimming in the water column, they probably won’t stimulate the babies feeding response.

    I don’t think you’re going to be able to sustain the babies on the natural microfauna that may be growing in your tank for long, if at all, sir. Your best bet is to set up a separate nursery tank as we have previously discussed and then provide the newborns with 3-5 feedings of newly hatched brine shrimp on a daily basis. It’s time to get your nursery tank up and running, crank your brine shrimp hatcheries up into high gear, and hope that the pods you have noticed can sustain the babies until the first batch of brine shrimp hatches out.

    Good luck!

    Happy Trails!
    Pete Giwojna

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