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Unread 03/27/2018, 07:50 PM   #8
rayjay
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Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: London, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 3,969
Quote:
Animal Husbandry- the science of breeding and caring for farm animals.
Isn't aquaculture farming?
Just use of the word "farm and farming" doesn't really have any bearing on this. Farm Animals are NOT seahorses in spite of the words "aquaculture farming" I know of NO similarities between breeding/caring for farm animals and breeding/caring for seahorses although I admit that my farm animal experiences were back in the 40s and 50s whereas my seahorse experiences have been in the last 15 years.

Now as for peppermint shrimp, I don't see that tearing apart adult cleaner shrimp has anything to do with seahorse consumption of shrimp larvae.
At least the adult shrimp pieces are sufficiently large enough for some decent nutrition, whereas you would need an inordinate amount of larvae to provide similar amounts of nutrition.
While juveniles may show some interest in smaller foods, adults seldom do and while I've heard of some adults going for small, in my 15 years and with about 5 or 6 different species the only adults I've had that ate small food was H. zosterae.
Now if you are going to raise the peppermint shrimp until they are about 4 weeks old or older, and then add them to the seahorse tank then you have a great additional food supply for the seahorses.
However, trying to culture the larvae in the seahorse tank itself is VERY problematic from what I recall from about a decade ago when reading about rearing peppermint shrimp larvae, as they start with live brine nauplii but normally progress to "dead" foods or flake foods and the density needed would SEVERELY complicate water issues leading to bacteria problems in a seahorse tank.
I may have incorrectly assumed that you were talking about larvae from peppermints IN the display rather than a separate culture.

In reading your reply about needing a heater, if you do, please be sure to protect from burning seahorses that like to latch on.
You say you are in the north and I might be further north than you as I'm in London Ontario Canada and while we basically only have snow piles left the ski hills in the west end of London are still active. Tomorrow is going to be warm at about 7°C (about 44°F) the nights are still below zero (32°F).
Its not as much how cold it is outside but rather what temperature do you keep the home at IMO.
For me, I keep my house at 20°C (68°F) in winter and the tanks stay about a degree warmer due to pump/powerhead heat, and in summer I have the AC set for 21°C (70°F) again with water temps a degree or so higher.
My seahorse fry rearing is done in the basement at temperatures running 18-20°C (about 64-68°F) as the cooler temperatures help to prevent bacteria problems in the fry containers.


__________________
Seahorses. Culture nanno, rotifers and brine shrimp.

Current Tank Info: Seahorses
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