They are finally Here!

[yveterinarian]

This is amazing!  So glad you're giving updates and trying to catch his next birthing on film.

So your older ones are starting to eat frozen..... hmmmmm  I might be interested in a few of them when they're ready to go.  I always held back from getting sea horses because of the food requirement.  Maybe if they're eating frozen by the time they're ready to go.  I might reconsider and have to set up a sea horse tank.

That's the one great thing about captive bred seahorses is that they eat frozen food.  My adults all eat PE Mysis and have since the day I got them.  These little ones, if they survive will definitely be eating frozen when they are ready to sell. 

My first batch of fry were 3 weeks old today! Yippee!!  Finally, my male gave birth to the rest of his fry today and had a further 105 live ones and probably a couple of hundred dead ones.  While I was thrilled to see the live ones, it was sad to see all those dead ones.  So I now have 201 new baby fry and all are happily eating brine in their fry tank.  Tomorrow I start the Formalin dosing to cure them of ciliates.  It's amazing really that they are already scratching due to the ciliates and they are newborns. Luckily I can relieve their discomfort within a few days.

Tomorrow I will start increasing the amount of frozen offered to the older fry to see how they take it.  I'd like to have them switched to frozen totally in another week or so.  After switching them to frozen, I have to start switching them to Hikari Mysis shrimp and ultimately to their final food of PE Mysis.

Sherry, as you know you are welcome anytime.  Now that I finally have my weekends off it is much easier to plan visits.  I would love to see you. 

 

[yveterinarian]

Finished some standpipe covers this morning and moved the 3 week fry into another of the ten gallon aquariums so I can clean the one they were in. I have found with the standpipe cover in place I can have the flow greater coming into the tank which keeps the frozen food churned up a little better and gives them more access to it instead of having it settle on the bottom so quickly. This was an idea given to me by one of the members on Seahorse.org and changes the flow pattern so that it draws from the bottom of the tank instead of the top. This keeps the bottom a little cleaner and the fry don't get stuck to it the way they did when the standpipe was drawing from the top of the tank. I think I will really like this addition. The bottom holes are covered with fine mesh that the brine shrimp can't get through. Here is a picture of it in place:

While moving them I thought I'd keep one aside and capture one of the newborns to take a picture of the difference in size:

I was very happy to come downstairs this morning and only find 1 fry dead in the 3 week old tank. There were no deaths yesterday at all so things are definitely looking up. As you can see from the first picture, I still have lots of fry from the first batch. Some are hiding behind the standpipe cover but it's a fairly good picture of the remaining ones. I forgot to count them today and could have while transferring them. Oh, well, maybe I'll remember next time.

 

[sunnykita]

So Exciting ! what a difference in size! I am so happy that the 3 week olds are doing so well, and your losses are slowing down. Wow ! a day with no losses that's great Yvette. If your schedule allows maybe I'll pop out next weekend if you aren't too busy, I'd love to see how the babes are doing and just chat, it would be great to see you and the family. I love the idea of the standpipe for the tank flow and keeping the food moving instead of settling on the bottom. I'll have to do some searching for a tall tank and one day soon I may have my own seahorses. I know where I can get all the advice I need for caring for them. Have a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day Yvette !

 

[yveterinarian]

Happy Mother's Day to you as well Sherry, as far as I can see next weekend is good. PM me and let me know if you are able to come.

I have been advised to begin separating the 3 week old fry into two tanks now so out of my 5 tanks 3 will be in use.  I'm so glad I thought to put in 5 in a row.  However, I may end up outgrowing all five and have to put in more! I'm not sure yet how whether to add more 10 gallons or link in my 60 gallon cube and divide it down the middle.  I have to put some thought into it before I proceed.  I also have a 75 gallon that I could partition and may give me more room for the growing babies.  The big question will be where to position it so that I can link in to the sump. Ahh, decisions, decisions...

 

[sunnykita]

oh my Yvette, decisions decisions ! how many tanks can the room hold? I will send you a pm closer to the weekend about a visit !

 

[yveterinarian]

4 weeks old today! It is so hard to believe! They have been doing so well that I'm thrilled! The younger ones will be two weeks old in a few days and I haven't had nearly the losses that I had with the older ones by that stage. I'm losing maybe 1-2/day of the younger ones as opposed to 14/day of the older ones when they were 2 weeks old. It has now been several days since one of the older ones died so things are looking up. Now I just have to get the older ones to start eating frozen.

Here are some closeups of a 4 week old fry taken today (sorry they're a little grainy - I zoomed in a lot) and a picture with them side by side when they were 2 weeks old and today to show the difference in size.

Note the pinkish coloration of the front of the fry - this is the food it has eaten.  Nice full belly 

 

[sunnykita]

simply amazing ! I am thrilled for you and the fact that the losses continue to decrease ! Best of luck getting the little ones switched over to frozen foods ! Great pics Yvette, I find myself waiting and hoping for updates. Enjoy every moment ! The growth rate is awesome !

 

[yveterinarian]

This morning I moved some of the 4 week old babies into another tank so I could clean the tank they were in and I now have a final count of the original batch of babies my little boy had. In total, he had 472 babies. Of those I have 216 left that are now 4 weeks old. Pretty good for his first batch of fry! Of his second batch of 201 babies I have 160 left. They are now 2 weeks old.
I did a couple of modifications to my stand pipes so that I could increase the flow a bit more to keep the frozen food suspended a little longer and I think it will work well. Tomorrow it's major tank cleaning time

 

[sunnykita]

Great news Yvette! Wow, that's amazing how many have survived, I'm impressed ! I'd say good husbandry and lots of love is doing the trick ! exciting ! Wow that's unbelievable 472 babies !

 

[Jewel]

I've been following your progress and I'm amazed that you've done so well, I can just imagine what you've been through. Well done. Fantastic would be a better word. Congrats

 

[yveterinarian]

Thanks both, it's been great so far. Lot's of learning not to mention fingers and toes crossed! 3 more months to go with the first batch before they are considered old enough to sell so I'm 1/4 of the way there! Further than I thought I'd get on my first try.
Today I'll be cleaning up a different tank for my water changes and getting my 60 gallon cube ready for the ever expanding needs of the babies. Glad I didn't manage to sell it! I was using it for making water but now have a much better use in mind, he,he.

 

[RYOUNVS]

So I got to thinking, what does one do with two HUNDRED some odd babies? I mean, I assume you are going to sell them, is there a demand for that many? I can't think of another nicer way to put this, but is the death toll still expected to be far greater? (Sorry, need to prepare myself for the sadness lol)

 

[Poseidon]

So I got to thinking, what does one do with two HUNDRED some odd babies? I mean, I assume you are going to sell them, is there a demand for that many? I can't think of another nicer way to put this, but is the death toll still expected to be far greater? (Sorry, need to prepare myself for the sadness lol)

i was thinking the same thing.
would you sell to stores like big als or sealife?

 

[mark0933]

There certainly is a market as due to CITIES very few (maybe 1) of the US seahorse breeders will even consider shipping an order to Canada (this is why you very rarely see horses in any aquarium store in Canada, and those you do see are not a good quality generally and perish easily from disease).  There is still a ways to go to get them over to eating frozen mysis, but they are doing really well. 

Having tried unsuccessfully to raise Kuds, Reidi, erectus, fuscus and never had my pot bellies ever breed successfully, I am very happy to see these guys past the 3 week phase.  Might have to consider getting a few of these and try again.

Mark

 

[sunnykita]

Great news Yvette ! good thing the tank didn't sell ! I'm positive that there will be a huge demand for these little ones when they are ready to go. Many seahorses that hit the stores haven't been treated for parasites as Yvette does and I think that accounts for a lot of losses along with buyers not knowing the needs of seahorses before bringing them into their home. I hope the move and tank cleaning goes smoothly Yvette ! Have a great weekend.

 

[yveterinarian]

[quote author=RYOUNVS link=topic=8464.msg94089#msg94089 date=1400333126]
So I got to thinking, what does one do with two HUNDRED some odd babies? I mean, I assume you are going to sell them, is there a demand for that many? I can't think of another nicer way to put this, but is the death toll still expected to be far greater? (Sorry, need to prepare myself for the sadness lol)

i was thinking the same thing.
would you sell to stores like big als or sealife?
[/quote]

As Mark says there is a market for seahorses in Canada, especially True Captive bred ones. Back a year and a half ago I had interest expressed by Big Al's in Hamilton, Kitchener and London so I'm hoping that if these survive that the interest will still be there from these three plus there are other stores that could possibly have an interest. I will also sell privately and, of course, keep a few to increase my own population!

Yes, RYOUNVS I could still lose all of them but I have my fingers crossed. I have been told that first batches of babies for any seahorse are often difficult to raise and the mortality rate is high. However, I am cautiously optimistic because I still have so many of them. When Ray tried to raise my other babies he didn't get them past the 5 week mark so these ones are doing great.

I have started shaving Mysis now and have seen some of them snick it up which is encouraging. I will keep offering it every day until they are eating frozen exclusively but it will be a while yet.

The moves and tank cleaning went very well along with the modifications to help increase the flow. However, now I want a larger pump because this one doesn't have the capability to handle the increased flow across all of the tanks. It is struggling with three tanks and once I get all five going it won't keep up. I see a trip to MOPS in my future!

 

[yveterinarian]

I was watching them eat tonight and got these funny pictures. They are a little grainy due to the distance through the water but you'll get the idea

The choke hold - this one is saying "No you can't have my food!"

The three way split - "I want to go this way." "No I want to go this way' "No! Let's all go my way!"

 

[sunnykita]

priceless ! glad the water change went well !

 

[yveterinarian]

The weekend marked several milestones in the fry's development, I think.  I was home for three full days and could devote more time to feeding frozen and allow them the time to eat it before I added brine shrimp. The first batch of babies are now fighting over the frozen food and several are targeting the same piece which is quite funny to watch. I switched from cyclop-eeze to Hikari Mysis on the recommendation of one of the Org members and am having much better luck with them.  I think maybe because the color is similar to the brine shrimp?? If I accidentally miss shaving a piece and a larger piece gets into the tank, I invariably find one or more of them trying very hard to snick it up or sometimes I see one of them hitched to the piece and carrying it around like a prize!

There are still some very small fry in the older batch that aren't much bigger than the 2 week old batch.  I have been debating putting them in with the younger batch so they will get more opportunity at brine shrimp but haven't fully decided.

I hadn't tested the water parameters for a few days so it was with some trepidation that I tested on Saturday and wonderfully enough all parameters were perfect! I wasn't sure if they would deteriorate once I started adding frozen but all is good so far.

The 2 week old babies are still experiencing low losses and currently I have about 120 left.  Much better survival rate over the first batch.  I think I should have separated the first batch into 2 aquariums at birth so the stocking density wasn't so large.  Maybe I wouldn't have had so many loses in the beginning. My problem was in not counting them originally and underestimating (big time!) how many there were.  From now on, no matter how long it takes, all batches will be counted.

I am still seeing some of the fry scratching so I have decided to do a longer formalin treatment.  I will be adding every other day for 2 weeks now instead of 6 days to see if I can finally eradicate those pesky ciliates.  Fingers are crossed.  During this time I will also be adding some Stability to help keep the biofilter going strong.

I added a larger protein skimmer to the system and already it is pulling out much more than the other one was. It is so nice to have some of this extra equipment lying around for when it is needed.  I cleaned out the 60 gallon cube ready for use but it isn't needed quite yet.

It may be my imagination, but I am starting to see some of the fry with a bit of white markings showing on them in the pattern of the adults.  It is very faint but there all the same. On Thursday they will be 5 weeks old! Time has definitely flown by. It is so hard to believe! I am hoping that by the time they are 6-7 weeks old they will be eating frozen food exclusively.  I have been told their growth rate will pick up quite a bit when eating the frozen so I'm interested to see what the next couple of weeks will bring. 

 

[sunnykita]

great update Yvette, it must be simply amazing watching them feed and grow !