baby seahorses

blaze2 · 11/18/2008, 02:41 AM

i was wondering how big are the babies when they are just born.
and would they accept frozen baby brine straight away. or is there any other thing that you can buy that you don't have to breed yourself that they would eat straight away.

thanx

Paul B · 11/18/2008, 06:15 AM

It depends on the type of seahorse. Most of them need something smaller than shrimp. I use rotifers from Florada Aqua Farms for a couple of weeks then switch to baby brine.
This is a pair I collected transfering eggs

suzimcmullen · 11/18/2008, 06:35 AM

Not a chance.

They are so tiny they remind me of a tiny worm with a head on it and I mean TINY.

What type are these horses? Some of the fry are able to hitch and eat live baby brine and later will train to frozen. Some are unable to hitch and they are even more delicate to raise. But they are all delicate to raise.

I don't know lots. It's taken me a long time to learn to get my dwarf babies to live to adulthood. BUT, they are the easiest to raise.

You'll need to start cycling another tank right away. You can put a sponge filter in this tank the next couple of weeks and then use that sponge in the baby tank. Even then you'll need to do 50% water changes everyday and suction the baby potty off the bottom.

People use small amounts of methylene blue (just a drop or two) to prevent fungus and just a very small amount of formalin to prevent other types of parasite and infection.

If your horses are reidi they will need to start with live rotifiers. So you'll need to get a culture set up with a very good phytoplankton paste to feed the rotifiers a few times per day. Reidi babies are even too small for live baby brine.

There are so many people on seahorse.org that do this all the time. I don't know how many people around here raise the babies. Hopefully someone will tell you a lot more soon.

Suzi

blaze2 · 11/18/2008, 04:32 PM

thanx for your replies i have been reading some things on seahorse.org and some people have said you can start them on live baby brine straight away

blaze2 · 11/18/2008, 04:34 PM

would someone be able to tell me what exactly rotifiers are and what they do. and if you have to make them yourself how do you go about that

suzimcmullen · 11/18/2008, 04:50 PM

rotifiers are extremely smallish bugs, crustaceans I guess that are microscopic. They feed on phytoplankton. You can order them in live from online sources. Then you keep them alive by keeping them feed with a good phytoplankton and changing just very small amounts of water weekly.

Suzi

blaze2 · 11/18/2008, 05:37 PM

how big of a tank should you keep them in and do you need a air stone. And also how much do you feed to the baby seahorses daily
thanx for your replies

suzimcmullen · 11/18/2008, 06:56 PM

I haven't raised any of the breeds that require rotifiers. So I can't answer your questions from experience. I have read that you can just keep a jar of almost any size and an air tube without a stone is supposed to be better. That's what they say about brine too though and I use the stones with good success.

If people on seahorse have said you can raise your babies with brine you must have some horses that start out big enough to hitch. What kind of horses are these?

Suzi

Paul B · 11/19/2008, 05:30 AM

Most seahorses except dwarfs need rotifers for a couple of weeks.
You should put them a small tank. I use a five galon tank because in a large tank you can't keep the food near the horses. As they grow you can put them in a larger tank. You need an airstone but not too much circulation. They are horrible swimmers and a powerhead, besides chopping them up will just push them into a corner. You also need hitching posts. I used pieces of thread with a float at the top and a small weight on the bottom. If you don't provide hitching posts, they will hang on to each other and try to swim in different directions. For the newborns I use a piece of plastic window screen. They fit in the holes and hang on as the food comes to you.
You need rotifers in the tank all the time and when they grow a little, you need baby shrimp all the time. Seahorses are not like other fish. They do not have a real stomach, just a short tube and they can't store any food.
Research the type of seahorse you want to breed to see what it neds as a first food.

Psychographic · 11/19/2008, 02:41 PM

Erectus fry can be raised on BBS.

blaze2 · 11/20/2008, 04:32 AM

when you get to the stage of feeding them baby brine how big should the shrimp be and how do you set up something so you are just feeding them baby brine. because if you put all the shrimp eggs in a small tank most of them will get big and be a waste.
sorry if i'am enoying you with questions
thanks

Paul B · 11/20/2008, 05:27 AM

The shrimp should be new born. And you need a lot of them.
You either buy or build a hatchery. Here is the one I built and it has been in continous operation for years to feed my reef.
Iput eggs on the black side with some airation and slide the door closed between the two sides. The next day they hatch and I slide open the door which leaves a hole about 3/8" between the two sides. I remove the airation and cover the black side.
I put it in a windowsill and in 15 minutes all of the shrimp swim to the lighted side and all the egg shells stay on the black side.
I close the door and lower that tube you see on the left and all the water on the left side with the shrimp comes out while all the eggs stay on the right side.
I rinse the thing out and start over for the next day. It just takes a minute.

blaze2 · 11/21/2008, 02:52 AM

what sort of glue did you use?and thanks for the idea of a little hatchery system it looks great i think i'am going to have to make 2 of them

blaze2 · 11/21/2008, 03:04 AM

this is just perspex isn't it

Paul B · 11/21/2008, 04:57 AM

It's not glue, it's acrylic solvent.

nanafish · 11/26/2008, 05:10 PM

I have tried to use the little hatcheries that go inside the tank and I have no success with them. Is it the eggs perhaps that are old? Where does one get fresh stuff? How do you know they are fresh? Are these the same little shrimp that you can get in the pet store ? Are They are little juicy pink plump shrimps that the adult seahorses love to eat?

gatorolsen · 11/28/2008, 12:00 AM

Northern erectus do not hitch at birth and need rotifers
but Southern erectus can hitch at birth and will take bbs at birth

quick and easy hatches

take a small wide mouth glass or jar

clean out a 2 liter soda bottle and cut bottom flat portion off

invert bottle into jar or glass

run airline tubing down to bottom of inverted bottle - so it is in the cap area

add bbs eggs/cysts - if you can decapsulated better for fry as they will not ingest the cysts

run air pump to tubing to keep cysts bubbling up

if in warmer temp (I keep mine on patio) 80 degrees or so will hatch in 24 hrs - colder temps takes longer

when I want to harvest I simply turn off air pump and place flashlight shining on side of tank - come back in a few min. and siphon out what you need

I usually keep 2 of these running so I can alternate newly hatched w/ up to 48 hrs old unless you want to enrich and grow out the babies - I am too lazy and it is easier to just keep cycling to have newly hatched available

good luck
Gatorolsen

JHemdal · 11/28/2008, 07:50 AM

Gatorolsen is correct - you can raise southern H. erectus on live baby brine from birth. However, I've found that even with Selco enrichment of the shrimp, I've had poor survivorship at around the 14 to 21 day mark. By adding live mysid shrimp larvae at that time (even a few) it gets the seahorses over the hump and they do much better.

Jay

suzimcmullen · 11/28/2008, 07:54 AM

Why not copepods? Tisbe pods are supposed to swim more. But I feed all kinds of pods, anything I can get and my dwarf babies start eating the pods right away.

I have 2 southern erectus horses. But they haven't started mating yet.

11/18/2008, 02:41 AM	#1
blaze2 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 57	baby seahorses i was wondering how big are the babies when they are just born. and would they accept frozen baby brine straight away. or is there any other thing that you can buy that you don't have to breed yourself that they would eat straight away. thanx

11/19/2008, 05:30 AM	#9
Paul B Premium Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Long Island NY Posts: 15,549	Most seahorses except dwarfs need rotifers for a couple of weeks. You should put them a small tank. I use a five galon tank because in a large tank you can't keep the food near the horses. As they grow you can put them in a larger tank. You need an airstone but not too much circulation. They are horrible swimmers and a powerhead, besides chopping them up will just push them into a corner. You also need hitching posts. I used pieces of thread with a float at the top and a small weight on the bottom. If you don't provide hitching posts, they will hang on to each other and try to swim in different directions. For the newborns I use a piece of plastic window screen. They fit in the holes and hang on as the food comes to you. You need rotifers in the tank all the time and when they grow a little, you need baby shrimp all the time. Seahorses are not like other fish. They do not have a real stomach, just a short tube and they can't store any food. Research the type of seahorse you want to breed to see what it neds as a first food. __________________ I used to get shocked when I put my hand in my tank. Then the electric eel went dead. Current Tank Info: 100 gal reef set up in 1971

11/21/2008, 04:57 AM	#15
Paul B Premium Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Long Island NY Posts: 15,549	It's not glue, it's acrylic solvent. __________________ I used to get shocked when I put my hand in my tank. Then the electric eel went dead. Current Tank Info: 100 gal reef set up in 1971

11/26/2008, 05:10 PM	#16
nanafish Premium Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: ohio/Col. Station 44028 Posts: 629	I have tried to use the little hatcheries that go inside the tank and I have no success with them. Is it the eggs perhaps that are old? Where does one get fresh stuff? How do you know they are fresh? Are these the same little shrimp that you can get in the pet store ? Are They are little juicy pink plump shrimps that the adult seahorses love to eat? __________________ Just think how much deeper the ocean would be if sponges didn't live there! Current Tank Info: 60g Reef Snowflake Clowns, Gobies etc.

11/18/2008, 06:15 AM	#2
Paul B Premium Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Long Island NY Posts: 15,549	It depends on the type of seahorse. Most of them need something smaller than shrimp. I use rotifers from Florada Aqua Farms for a couple of weeks then switch to baby brine. This is a pair I collected transfering eggs

11/18/2008, 06:35 AM	#3
suzimcmullen Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Midwest Posts: 890	Not a chance. They are so tiny they remind me of a tiny worm with a head on it and I mean TINY. What type are these horses? Some of the fry are able to hitch and eat live baby brine and later will train to frozen. Some are unable to hitch and they are even more delicate to raise. But they are all delicate to raise. I don't know lots. It's taken me a long time to learn to get my dwarf babies to live to adulthood. BUT, they are the easiest to raise. You'll need to start cycling another tank right away. You can put a sponge filter in this tank the next couple of weeks and then use that sponge in the baby tank. Even then you'll need to do 50% water changes everyday and suction the baby potty off the bottom. People use small amounts of methylene blue (just a drop or two) to prevent fungus and just a very small amount of formalin to prevent other types of parasite and infection. If your horses are reidi they will need to start with live rotifiers. So you'll need to get a culture set up with a very good phytoplankton paste to feed the rotifiers a few times per day. Reidi babies are even too small for live baby brine. There are so many people on seahorse.org that do this all the time. I don't know how many people around here raise the babies. Hopefully someone will tell you a lot more soon. Suzi

11/18/2008, 04:32 PM	#4
blaze2 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 57	thanx for your replies i have been reading some things on seahorse.org and some people have said you can start them on live baby brine straight away

11/18/2008, 04:34 PM	#5
blaze2 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 57	would someone be able to tell me what exactly rotifiers are and what they do. and if you have to make them yourself how do you go about that

11/18/2008, 04:50 PM	#6
suzimcmullen Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Midwest Posts: 890	rotifiers are extremely smallish bugs, crustaceans I guess that are microscopic. They feed on phytoplankton. You can order them in live from online sources. Then you keep them alive by keeping them feed with a good phytoplankton and changing just very small amounts of water weekly. Suzi

11/18/2008, 05:37 PM	#7
blaze2 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 57	how big of a tank should you keep them in and do you need a air stone. And also how much do you feed to the baby seahorses daily thanx for your replies

11/18/2008, 06:56 PM	#8
suzimcmullen Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Midwest Posts: 890	I haven't raised any of the breeds that require rotifiers. So I can't answer your questions from experience. I have read that you can just keep a jar of almost any size and an air tube without a stone is supposed to be better. That's what they say about brine too though and I use the stones with good success. If people on seahorse have said you can raise your babies with brine you must have some horses that start out big enough to hitch. What kind of horses are these? Suzi

11/19/2008, 02:41 PM	#10
Psychographic Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 439	Erectus fry can be raised on BBS.

11/20/2008, 04:32 AM	#11
blaze2 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 57	when you get to the stage of feeding them baby brine how big should the shrimp be and how do you set up something so you are just feeding them baby brine. because if you put all the shrimp eggs in a small tank most of them will get big and be a waste. sorry if i'am enoying you with questions thanks

11/20/2008, 05:27 AM	#12
Paul B Premium Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Long Island NY Posts: 15,549	The shrimp should be new born. And you need a lot of them. You either buy or build a hatchery. Here is the one I built and it has been in continous operation for years to feed my reef. Iput eggs on the black side with some airation and slide the door closed between the two sides. The next day they hatch and I slide open the door which leaves a hole about 3/8" between the two sides. I remove the airation and cover the black side. I put it in a windowsill and in 15 minutes all of the shrimp swim to the lighted side and all the egg shells stay on the black side. I close the door and lower that tube you see on the left and all the water on the left side with the shrimp comes out while all the eggs stay on the right side. I rinse the thing out and start over for the next day. It just takes a minute.

11/21/2008, 02:52 AM	#13
blaze2 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 57	what sort of glue did you use?and thanks for the idea of a little hatchery system it looks great i think i'am going to have to make 2 of them

11/21/2008, 03:04 AM	#14
blaze2 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 57	this is just perspex isn't it

11/28/2008, 12:00 AM	#17
gatorolsen Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Crystal River, Florida Posts: 409	Northern erectus do not hitch at birth and need rotifers but Southern erectus can hitch at birth and will take bbs at birth quick and easy hatches take a small wide mouth glass or jar clean out a 2 liter soda bottle and cut bottom flat portion off invert bottle into jar or glass run airline tubing down to bottom of inverted bottle - so it is in the cap area add bbs eggs/cysts - if you can decapsulated better for fry as they will not ingest the cysts run air pump to tubing to keep cysts bubbling up if in warmer temp (I keep mine on patio) 80 degrees or so will hatch in 24 hrs - colder temps takes longer when I want to harvest I simply turn off air pump and place flashlight shining on side of tank - come back in a few min. and siphon out what you need I usually keep 2 of these running so I can alternate newly hatched w/ up to 48 hrs old unless you want to enrich and grow out the babies - I am too lazy and it is easier to just keep cycling to have newly hatched available good luck Gatorolsen

11/28/2008, 07:50 AM	#18
JHemdal Moved On Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Ohio Posts: 1,971	Gatorolsen is correct - you can raise southern H. erectus on live baby brine from birth. However, I've found that even with Selco enrichment of the shrimp, I've had poor survivorship at around the 14 to 21 day mark. By adding live mysid shrimp larvae at that time (even a few) it gets the seahorses over the hump and they do much better. Jay

11/28/2008, 07:54 AM	#19
suzimcmullen Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Midwest Posts: 890	Why not copepods? Tisbe pods are supposed to swim more. But I feed all kinds of pods, anything I can get and my dwarf babies start eating the pods right away. I have 2 southern erectus horses. But they haven't started mating yet.