pregnant male seahorse

[doctorpete]

hey guys, I was wondering if anyone knows anything about breeding seahorses,... i watched my pair this morning and they 'got it on' for the first time! (woo hoo!) he's got a belly full of orange eggs and i don't know what to do with him. any ideas? - it'd be nice to catch some and have a go at raising them. Has anyone got any experience with this? I read that it takes about 2 or 3 weeks for the babies to develop and be born, although after that they'll get munched by hungry mouths wont they?

any help would be appreciated

thanks guys

DP.xxx

[brian waller]

hey guys, I was wondering if anyone knows anything about breeding seahorses,... i watched my pair this morning and they 'got it on' for the first time! (woo hoo!) he's got a belly full of orange eggs and i don't know what to do with him. any ideas? - it'd be nice to catch some and have a go at raising them. Has anyone got any experience with this? I read that it takes about 2 or 3 weeks for the babies to develop and be born, although after that they'll get munched by hungry mouths wont they?

any help would be appreciated

thanks guys

DP.xxx

hi dp,dont panic, while you wait for the ponys to be born,get a 2ftx1ft tank readywith salt water ect ,when the ponys are born useally first thing in the morning, they will come to the top of the tank then you collect them in a glass and put them in the small tank,in the mean time get hold of some brine shrimp hatchers maybe 3 or4 small ones, as you must feed the ponys about every 2hours with fresh hatched brine shrimp, this will do to be going on with, it will get you started, for the first week or two.


brian.

[doctorpete]

excellent, i'm on it, - got myself a 3ft tank by 15/18inch off a mate. - i have one of those hatchery things for baby brine somewhere, i'll look for it, - but i'll need some eggs. - the guy who i got the tank off has a heater too so he's fetching that over, but dont i need to filter it? - as i thought that the filter would just suck all the babies out.

Thanks

DP.xxx

[stevieh]

good luck dp keep us updated

[brian waller]

excellent, i'm on it, - got myself a 3ft tank by 15/18inch off a mate. - i have one of those hatchery things for baby brine somewhere, i'll look for it, - but i'll need some eggs. - the guy who i got the tank off has a heater too so he's fetching that over, but dont i need to filter it? - as i thought that the filter would just suck all the babies out.

Thanks

DP.xxx

hi dp, in a pony tank the best way to filter the water is with a bio-filter and an air pump,but in a 3ft tank you will need 2 bio-filters one at each end.you will need more than 1 shrimp hatcher as you mix the shrimp eggs 2hrs apart, mix a little but often.

brian.

[MR Teee]

DP, I don't know if you have noticed our new sponsor Simply Seahorses.

I will ask Helen to pop in and give you some advice.

[doctorpete]

DP, I don't know if you have noticed our new sponsor Simply Seahorses.

I will ask Helen to pop in and give you some advice.

excellent! THANKS that would be gr8! meanwhile, everything is fine in the stables, lol.
Although, (and this IS funny) my other male is now flirting with my smallest clown because the female wouldn't take any notice of him, and they are sitting in the leather togther - crazy! - thats what rejection does i suppose. if she's not interested, move on! i'll try and get a pic on here. I did video the mating of the seahorses, and the 2 males trying to outdo eachother, but i didn't get the transfer of eggs on camera, (dropped it in the heat of the moment) but there were only a few left hanging out of his pouch, which the shrimp sorted out. (i expect it would sort the young out too if it got the chance, - its huge!)

cheers

DP.xxx

[Simplyseahorses]

hey guys, I was wondering if anyone knows anything about breeding seahorses,... i watched my pair this morning and they 'got it on' for the first time! (woo hoo!) he's got a belly full of orange eggs and i don't know what to do with him. any ideas? - it'd be nice to catch some and have a go at raising them. Has anyone got any experience with this? I read that it takes about 2 or 3 weeks for the babies to develop and be born, although after that they'll get munched by hungry mouths wont they?

any help would be appreciated

thanks guys

DP.xxx

Hi,

Helen from Simply Seahorses - what type of seahorses do you currently have?

Based on our own experience of raising the fry - don't make the nursery tank too big otherwise the fry will not manage to eat the live food. 5/10 gallons is plenty to start with. Sponge Filters are a good idea but not necessary for the first few days - check out the flow of them first if you use them as if the flow is too strong, you will see the babies get sucked on to the sponges and not be able to get off. Rotifers are the best live food for the first couple of days, newly hatched brine shrimp are too big (especially if raising H. Kuda and H. Reidi). It is a good idea to add some phyto plankton to the tank water as this help the fry's digestion system to develop. After a couple of days on rotifers, switch to newly hatched brine shrimp, don't overfeed, it is better to add a little and see how soon the fry eat it all, once the newly hatched brine shrimp had gone through the mouting process, they then become too big for the fry to eat and are of no nutritional value whatsoever. After a couple of weeks it is a good idea to place some newly hatched brine shrimp in a small fish bowl with an airline and keep it somewhere cool, a fridge is best if you can. Add some phytoplankton to the salt water and crush some algae flakes up and again add these to the container with the brine shrimp in, this is the food for the brine shrimp and helps to gut load them before feeding to the fry. The fridge keeps the metabolism of the brine shrimp down and they do not moult their skins as much but they do then become enriched with the phyto. Try and suction any uneaten food off the bottom of the tank using an airline, I would leave the fry for the first couple of days and let them settle. Replace any water with freshly prepared salt water. If you are using a light, place it at the bottom of the tank, if you use it at the top then all the live food automatically goes to the light and your fry will follow - they then run the risk of taking in air whilst eating. They will get little pockets of air in them and will not survive. I use an air line in my fry rearing tank and have it bubbling gently breaking the surface - no air stones. My own fry rearing tank is a large tupperware container that sits in my main tank, I have one air line in it and cover the top of the container with a dark lid making the fry stay in the middle and bottom of the container. Lastly, do not be disheartened if you do not suceed first time - H. Reidi and H. Kuda are the most difficult fry to raise as they do not hitch from birth - out of a batch of 100 - if you got 10 to survive it would be considered excellent. We have read of many different ways to raise fry but when you really get down to it, all the experts will not pass their raising techniques on to you in full detail, they will miss something out - don't know why but even we haven't been able to get them to talk to us. The method we use is the one that works best for us, we have successfully raised H. Capensis and H. Abdominalis using this method and have had rather limited success with H. Reidi and H. Kuda.

If you like a challenge then perserve, because eventually it should pay off - make notes of how you have set your fry system up, if it doesn't work first time, tweak it about, take notes and try again.

Hope this helps and if you need any further advice, please drop us a line on helen@gill4250.freeserve.co..uk

On a final note, I was catching my last batch of fry at 11.30pm on Saturday night with a turkey baster. After a couple of drinks it was actually quite fun - they will give birth at any time of the day! I have sat up until the wee early hours of the morning and got up in the wee hours of the morning only to have missed it either way!

[doctorpete]

wow! so much to take in, - i have 3 hippo Kuda seahorses (2 males & one female) and, as you say, they are among the more difficult seahorses to breed. I'll keep you all updated as events unfold and fingers crossed i may get lucky!

I am truly grateful for your help Helen. i'll go and read up a bit more, then i'll be in touch. gotta dash now, going to the LFS for supplies.

Thank you,

DP.xxx