My New Venture

[yveterinarian]

A few months ago I decided to take the plunge and get some Dwarf seahorses. I did the research and contacted a person in Florida who ships to Canada.
I found out that the minimum order is 100 dwarves when she ships out of country. After much inner debate I decided to go ahead with the order and began my tank build.

I built the stand out of some oak cupboard doors I purchased at the ReStore along with some very thick shelves cut to fit. The cat decided to check it out after I put it together and gave it his seal of approval.

I still have to put on the front doors but the wonderful thing about building with ready made used doors is no varnishing or finishing necessary.

I decided on a split tank setup with a canister filter and a HOB protein skimmer. I placed a piece of acrylic in which I had cut slots every 1/4" for the overflow lengthwise in the tank approximately 3' from the back of the tank

I chose to have fresh marco rock in the back part of the tank and a black sand in the front of the tank as a base. I went with artificial plants and may put some red macro algae in at some point but I haven't fully decided yet. The macro algae has to be quarantined and treated with Panacur to prevent any hydroids getting into the tank. Hydroids can wipe out dwarves very easily.

Side view of the tank. The tubing didn't sit very well from the canister filter when I first set this up but I have since fixed that problem and it sits nicely now.

Front of the tank

The protein skimmer is a RedSea prism rated for 40 gallons and I have it drawing from the back of the tank and discharging in the front to prevent any dwarves being sucked into it. Since dwarves are so tiny there is always the concern that they can go over the overflow so I designed a mesh cover for the overflow made of two pieces of 1/2" wide plexiglass with mesh siliconned onto it. The plexiglass strips will be turned one rotation in towards the centre to keep the mesh close to the plexi overflow.

The Mesh cover. I made two so that one can be cleaned while the other is in place.

In order to hold it in place I cut some clips out of a thicker plexiglass

The mesh in place with the clips holding. The clips are long enough that they capture the plexiglass strips and keep it all tight against the overflow. This will allow free flow of the brine shrimp but not of the dwarves or their babies.

After a month of cycling using the ammonia method the tank is now clearing 8ppm of ammonia every 12 hours and hopefully it is ready for the addition of 100 animals at the same time. It was a real challenge trying to decide how much ammonia 100 Dwarves will produce and no one could really tell me so this is a bit of guess work and I'm hoping it's enough. If not, I have extra water made on hand ready for water changes and lots of Prime to bind the ammonia if any shows up.
Tomorrow I will be starting up the protein skimmer and removing the fake coral from the outflow of it now that the tank is cycled and ready to go.

The order for the dwarves went in a couple of weeks ago and tonight they were packed up and put on the plane at 7pm. They are due to arrive tomorrow. I have the tracking number and will be pacing tomorrow (biting my nails) hoping all clears customs quickly. I have spoken with Canada Customs, CFIA and FedEx to make sure I have everything in place to expedite their journey. CITES papers are filed and the vet check has been done. They are actually being FedEx'd right to my door so all I have to do tomorrow is pace...

 

[Poseidon]

Crazy... The things you get yourselves Into haha, I wish you the best of luck!

 

[sunnykita]

another exciting venture Yvette ! looking great ! I hope you don't have to pace for too long tomorrow, best of luck with the arrival and settling in !

 

[EricTMah]

Very neat set up!


I'll be tagging alog to see the progress

 

[yveterinarian]

Thanks everyone! Yes Brandon, even as a child I never did the easy things. Once I learned how to do something I would go straight for the most challenging thing. As an example, when I learned how to crochet I made a crocheted doily that is 2 1/2' long by 1' wide completely out of sewing thread instead of crochet thread! Just for the challenge!
Keeping seahorses, for me was a very challenging aspect of saltwater fish keeping to start with and moving to keeping Dwarves is running true to form - choose the most challenging aspect of seahorse keeping and go for it!
I woke up early this morning with a headache so I'm now up and pacing after taking some Tylenol. I deliberately have given myself lots to do around the house today to keep occupied - defrost the freezer, clean, laundry etc - I just hope it's enough...I'm now a bundle of nerves

 

[sunnykita]

may your ups truck have wings ! have fun ! why does the doily story not surprise me?

 

[heath]

very exciting, it doesn't have to be said but keep us posted.

I too will be tagging along this journey.

 

[yveterinarian]

Well, after a very long day and several glitches I now have my dwarf seahorses.

I ended up having to drive to Toronto to get them as customs wouldn't release them to FedEx without me there due to various paperwork issues. They finally arrived home with me around 7 tonight. All survived but one and I also have 6 newborn fry!

They were packaged very well and arrived in great shape.
Here are some pictures:

A few of the dwarves in the shipping bag. There were three bags in the container along with a cooler pack to keep the water cool.

Acclimating

In their new home. As a perspective, the grass is about 3" tall. All the little specks are the brine shrimp that they eat.

See the little fry at the bottom? It's about the same size as the Erectus fry but these seahorses have much smaller broods. I believe up to about 10 maximum.

Some are a little skinny but I'm hoping they will fatten up in a little while.

Now to relax a little and take a deep breath. The worst is over and they are here. Only one seahorse didn't survive the journey and I feel that was terrific. They are truly tiny little guys and I'm sitting here looking at the tank and would never guess there were 100 seahorses in there. They look lost in there. I can definitely see how a much smaller tank is needed for less dwarves.

 

[J_T]

They look so awesome!

If there is anything I can help with, perhaps a larger Brine raising system, etc, let me know.

 

[TORX]

Absolutely amazing. I am completely jealous.

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Tapatalk

 

[sunnykita]

Fabulous news Yvette, good thing you were available to make a run to customs, that could have been a nightmare in the works. The photos are great, they look like they will and are settling in quite nicely ! Best of luck, will be waiting with baited breath for the updates as they come, Enjoy

 

[yveterinarian]

They look so awesome!

If there is anything I can help with, perhaps a larger Brine raising system, etc, let me know.

Thank you very much. To tell you the truth, I don't know what other kind of system would work as well for me as my pop bottles but if I think of something in the future I'll definitely contact you.

 

[yveterinarian]

Thanks Torx and Sherry, it was a nightmare at first because the shipper put the original paperwork inside the box and copies on the outside. Also FedEx needed Power of Attorney papers signed by me to release the box to them so they could accept the delivery into Canada even though it was shipped FedEx. The customs people denied the shipment. The FedEx representative called me and suggested I come to Toronto to help them sort everything out so off I went. I had taken the day off of work luckily. When I went to the customs office they told me there was a fine for trying to present the incorrect paperwork and it would cost a fortune to have an officer go to open the box to get the papers! Luckily the shipper had emailed me and told me she put the papers inside so that I knew where the papers were but it took the efforts of a very nice customs officer to call and find an officer who was willing to go and get the papers without charging me. I waited in the customs office for 2 hours before they brought them to me. It was smooth sailing from there.

 

[sunnykita]

Oh Yvette, that could have gone bad in so many ways, there must have been an angel on your shoulder yesterday. Glad to hear that it all worked out in a positive way !

 

[Sewerat]

They can be such dinks at times. Why would it cost you to have them open the box to get original paperwork when if they feel like opening a box to look inside they do. I'm betting they opened it to look inside at what was being shipped anyways.

 

[jeffopentax]

They can be such dinks at times. Why would it cost you to have them open the box to get original paperwork when if they feel like opening a box to look inside they do. I'm betting they opened it to look inside at what was being shipped anyways.

They think they're god. I guess as far as who and what comes into the country, they kinda are!

 

[yveterinarian]

The biggest problem was that the originals needed to be on the outside of the box by Canada law and weren't. When I emailed the shipper to tell her she said the US wildlife and fisheries department won't let her ship them on the outside of the box because two shipments lost the papers and couldn't be admitted. So we have two countries with different policies and no one wants to budge. At the end of the day I was just happy that they didn't fine me for false paperwork (which they said they could do) and charge me for sending an officer to open the box. I lucked out that there happened to be an officer over at that FedEx building when the customs officer called.

 

[EricTMah]

Customs are never fun when dealing with live animals.

Glad to hear you didn't lose more because of the delay. Good thing you were ready to head down there to clear it up.

 

[sunnykita]

some times even though customs can and will be asses, it pays to be thankful for the small things, and yesterday was one of those days. I'm glad it worked out fairly smoothly once you talked with them. It could have been much worse.

 

[scubasteve]

glad it worked out and nice looking dwarves