HELP quickly please - BABIES!

sueandherzoo

sueandherzoo

Active Member
There are dozens and dozens of baby seahorses in my horse tank this morning and I have no clue what to do about it!!!! Remember I posted a pic a few days ago asking if he might be pregnant or just eating too much? I guess we have our answer! I woke up and staggered over to the tanks (as I always do) just to make sure everything is alive and well and I saw specks floating all over the tank. I thought a feather duster had exploded or something but upon looking closely they are baby seahorses!
I know some of you will say "let nature take it's course" but being the first time I want to do everything I can to give some of them a fighting chance. But what do I do?!?!?!?
Should I set up a 10 gallon real quick? What do they eat? I'm off to go read but I'll be checking back here often for comments.
Thanks! (I am still in shock!!!!)
Sue
 
teresaq

teresaq

Active Member
if you arent ready they prob dont have a chance. If you have a 10 gal, get it out clean it good, fill with water at least half full from parents tank.
add air line for now. add some small hitches. These are southern erectus right.
if so, they will eat bbs. but since you arent prepared, you prob dont have any ready.
call around to your lfs and ask if they have decapsulated brine shrimp eggs. Mine just got a new product that is decaped brine or live rotifers.
 
reefnutpa

reefnutpa

Member
Fry will usually be ok for up to 24 hours without food. Meaning, start hatching some brine shrimp ASAP! If you can keep the hatch water on the warmer side (76F or so) and the SG around 1.025 they will hatch a bit faster, but it'll still be up to 16 hours or so. Cooler water they can take 24 hours or more. Congrats on the fry! Cute, aren't they!
Tom
 
pete159

pete159

Member
what kind of horse are they?
My reidi once gave birth to about 100 fry.
All were gone the next day.
baby seahorse usually only eat live baby brine shrimp and they must be moved to a separate tank.
 
sueandherzoo

sueandherzoo

Active Member
Hi. I had a commitment this afternoon (probate issue regarding my dad's recent death) but before I went I pulled out my 10 gallon tank, put a few gallons' of water in it (from the adult seahorse tank) put a piece of live rock in there, and a handful of macroalgae. I scooped up a few cups worth of baby seahorses, put them in there, and had to go. :(
After the appointment I started calling all the LFS's I knew of to see if any one had any rotifers or BBS but of course none did. One, however, had BBS eggs, and even though it's a 45 minute ride, off we went. Of course we're in the middle of a huge blizzard here so the commute was nerve-wracking and slow and the store owner wanted to close early but knew we were on our way to he waited for us. So now I'm back at the house (finally) and the fry still seem to be alive (both in the adult tank and the ones in the 10 gallon) so I'm off to start finding the supplies to build a hatchery.
Thanks for the replies - I'm preparing myself for a total loss on this "litter" but how can you not at least TRY?!?!?
Sue
 
cleve_seahorse

cleve_seahorse

Member
Hi , make sure you start brewing your bbs as soon as you get home , and cover any filter intake on your 10g....do you have any "used" aka aged filter media? That can help with the bacteria cycle....also use prime or amquel and test every day for amm ....Good luck on your first batch of fry , but don't be hard on yourself if none survive....alot of us have been there...and I'm sorry about your dad , best wishes to you and yours
 
sueandherzoo

sueandherzoo

Active Member
Thanks for the very helpful (and thoughtful) note. Would you believe we don't have any 2 liter soda bottles in this house?!?!? Ahd the roads are pretty icy here now so I don't want to risk it (nor take the time) to get to a store so for just today I took a clean one gallon jug, filled it half way with tank water, put the package of eggs in, and dropped in an airstone. I then placed the jug on top of the light on my 55 - it'll be nice and warm there.
I have no idea what the concept is behind a brine shrimp hatchery so I will be able to build a better one once I understand it. What is the purpose of the two bottles that most use? And what is the airstone for?
I have freeze-dried Cyclopeeze powder in the house so I sprinkled some in the tanks . . any chance the fry will be able to ingest some of that?
OK, back to work for me - lotsa fishy stuff going on here this weekend, especially since just yesterday I received a big order from swf.com. Little did I know I was going to have even MORE excitment today!
Sue
 
sueandherzoo

sueandherzoo

Active Member
Good news and bad news..... much as I expected, most of the seahorse fry are gone, but I'm amazed that some are not! It's hard to count and tell exactly how many are left (they blend in so well with the sea fans I have for them to hitch on) but I would guess there are maybe 10 in each tank (the adult tank and the 10 gallon nursery)
I'm not expecting that they will last much longer and the BBS probably won't hatch till at least 8:00 p.m. tonight but this is certainly a learning experience! For those of you who have never seen newly-hatched fry, here's a photo of them in the measuring cup I used to move some of them from the adult tank to the nursery.
Darn, makes me want to cry every time I look at that photo - such perfect little miniatures of the adult - an absolute thing of beauty.
 
sueandherzoo

sueandherzoo

Active Member
I'm starting to get attached to the darned things and I'm trying so hard not to because I don't expect them to make it through another night. However, if by some miracle a couple DO survive I have room for them in my horse tank. It's a 46 gallon bowfront with only four horses in it. If in the future I decide to try raising the fry (after doing a lot of research and set up) I will keep some and maybe sell the rest to a few local LFS's, but ONLY if they are experienced in seahorse keeping! I really think it's going to be a long time, though, before I am successful enough to raise a quantity worth worrying about. I am by no means getting my hopes up. Here's a close up of one of the little fellas - they have fully developed fins and everything! (Not sure why that surprises me but it does)
 
sueandherzoo

sueandherzoo

Active Member
Unbelievably I still have all (or most) of the ones I scooped out of the adult tank Saturday morning. (I think 18? Too hard to count since they are so tiny and so wiggly!) I hold my breath and mentally prepare myself every time I go peek in their tank and they keep thrilling me by still being there, so then of course I pull up a chair with a magnifying glass and just stare at the little wonders. I am so in love, but cautiously. And the worst part is when I am at the office I MISS THEM! Insane I tell you, but in a wonderful way. :) They have survived just about 4 days . . .3 days longer than I ever expected to have them.
OK, I've been away from the tank long enough - I need to go gaze some more. :) Thanks for asking -- it's great to have people around who understand and share this insanity.
Sue
 
dingus890

dingus890

Member
Hope they are all doing well. Are they eating the BBS? They are amazing how they look like tiny versions adults. They look kinda like dwarfs.
 
nwdyr

nwdyr

Active Member
My cuz and I tried to raise them about 20yrs ago , talk about limited resources! anyway we were not very successful only had brine back in those days. As soon as I saw your pic's my heart skipped....memories. He and I were just as bad , back then the wives were yelling at us for spending EVERY min of our free time down in the basement by that tank. Wouldn'T change a thing! the wife is gone but I still have a tank !
Good luck
 
reefnutpa

reefnutpa

Member
By this time you should be able to see orange bellies if they are eating the bbs - in addition to little tiny orange specs of poop on the bottom of the tank.
It is IMPERATIVE that you siphon all debris off the bottom of the tank at least twice a day - morning and night. The fry rearing tank needs to be kept impeccably clean. Trust me on this ;) I use a 1/8" diameter rigid tube attached to an airline for this. Takes a few minutes to siphon the barebottom tank, but it's something that needs to be done.
Congrats on getting them to day 4! That's an accomplishment. Newly hatched bbs should be their diet for now. Don't try frozen or 'dead' foods for a few weeks. In most cases, those that die off within a week or 10 days die from nutritional issues (ie: not eating or not eating nutritious foods).
Best of luck and keep posting updates! I have a bunch of fry/juivies at the moment ranging from 5 days old to almost 5 months old. My 9 month olds are starting to pop out their own fry now. UGH. Time to seperate the sexes as I need a break for awhile.
As nerve wracking and time consuming as it is, it's worth it in the end!
Tom
 
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