pics of my girls...

[monalisa]

Maybe I'm just being over-protective, but Navajo has me a little worried. This morning for breakfast and again this evening for supper, she would hunt down mysis and just kind of turn her nose up at it. At both meals, I saw her snick just 1 or 2 pieces and that was it. Good thing Apache, with his new found manlihood, has a big appetite.
She's otherwise looking and acting perfectly normal. Out and about in the tank, her skin looks great and her eyes look bright. Her breathing is normal. IDK...

Another thing that concerns me, and I know that I've posted about this before, is the presence of bristle worms in that tank. I don't mind them in my reef, but I'm bothered with them in my seahorse tank. Tell me again that they're harmless and beneficial to the system.
Lisa

 

[monalisa]

No doubt...Apache is a male and Navajo is a female. There's no doubt that Apache has a brooding pouch developing. I'll take pictures (when I can) to show what the differences between the two, and really the differences at this point are quite obvious. In a strange way, I'm really looking forward to this challenge!! Seahorse fry...YIKES!!
We'll see how it goes.
Lisa

 

[rykna]

Originally Posted by MonaLisa
No doubt...Apache is a male and Navajo is a female. There's no doubt that Apache has a brooding pouch developing. I'll take pictures (when I can) to show what the differences between the two, and really the differences at this point are quite obvious. In a strange way, I'm really looking forward to this challenge!! Seahorse fry...YIKES!!
We'll see how it goes.
Lisa

After looking over the set up for breeding baby brine...it's not hard at all...just 10-15 minutes a day, just every day. I'll send you a link that will walk you through the process from fry to horse.

How is Navajo doing?
Since I'm only 4 hours away I'd be happy to come down and help you set up the system Luke gave me. And I would be more than happy to take a few fry off your hands to decrease you work load

 

[monalisa]

Originally Posted by Rykna

After looking over the set up for breeding baby brine...it's not hard at all...just 10-15 minutes a day, just every day. I'll send you a link that will walk you through the process from fry to horse.

How is Navajo doing?
Since I'm only 4 hours away I'd be happy to come down and help you set up the system Luke gave me. And I would be more than happy to take a few fry off your hands to decrease you work load

If things come to fry business, your offer will definitely be honored!! That link would be awesome, thank you!!
As I stated, Navajo is really perfectly fine so far, except that the mysis just doesn't seem to appeal to her since this morning. I'm watching.
Lisa

 

[rykna]

Originally Posted by MonaLisa
If things come to fry business, your offer will definitely be honored!! That link would be awesome, thank you!!
As I stated, Navajo is really perfectly fine so far, except that the mysis just doesn't seem to appeal to her since this morning. I'm watching.
Lisa
Thanks Lisa

Looking forward to more pics.
You might try adding garlic to the mysis. It suppose to help make meals more tasty, and it helps ward of infection too.

 

[monalisa]

Originally Posted by Rykna
Thanks Lisa

Looking forward to more pics.
You might try adding garlic to the mysis. It suppose to help make meals more tasty, and it helps ward of infection too.
Oh, yeah...I've given my horses garlic soaked foods since day one. This morning Navajo ate MUCH better again. I don't know what got into her yesterday, but she seemed to be back to normal this morning, thank goodness.
Lisa

 

[rykna]

Good to hear

 

[monalisa]

I said that I would post pictures to show the differences between Apache and Navajo...please believe me when I say this was NOT evident until about the beginning of this week, and now it's like...WHOA, HOW could I have MISSED that???? Look at the difference between how the abdomen joins with the tail. Navajo, still being female

has a very readily obvious abdominal shelf, where Apache's just kind of blends down to the tail because of his brooding pouch. No, they don't switch genders, they were just both very immature when I first purchased them.
The first 2 pics are Apache, the second 2 are Navajo. She's kind of hard to get a decent picture of her because she's still hunting.
Enjoy...
Lisa

 

[poniegirl]

He's very handsome!
As for Navajo's finiky eating, my first guess is that you have a good enough pod population that she may just not be that hungry nor interested in mysis. They both look great.

 

[monalisa]

Originally Posted by PonieGirl

He's very handsome!
As for Navajo's finiky eating, my first guess is that you have a good enough pod population that she may just not be that hungry nor interested in mysis. They both look great.
Thanks Michele, that thought has definitely occurred to me. Navajo is always out and about in hunting mode, and there are oodles of pods in that tank. She's just partaking too many hors douvres before her meals. That's fine, as long as she stays happy and healthy.
Lisa

 

[monalisa]

I am in the VERY beginning stages of planning to take out the dead coral from my seahorse tank. At the very least, I would like to remove the piece in the lower left hand side of the tank...but I want to do without causing any undo stress to my little friends.
What if I purchase a piece of LR that is very comparable in size, and just do a quick exchange during a water change? I can, and have, gotten very nicely cured LR from the shop that I go to (about 2-3 minutes from my house).
I'm not necessarily concerned about the horses injuring themselves on the coral, but I have noticed in that piece in particular, their food kind of floats into the crevices and is never heard from again. I'm more concerned what that will do to the water quality somewhere down the line.
Any comments or suggestions regarding this is very much appreciated!!
Lisa

 

[monalisa]

A friend of mine who manages the LFS that I frequent came over today to (finally) take a look at my tanks. She groomed Leo (my sheltie) this evening and I told her about Apache and that he's actually a male. She said she couldn't believe that I actually still had my seahorses yet because she had always heard that they were almost impossible to keep. I invited her over to see them, and she really enjoyed seeing them.
Anywho, during the course of the conversation, I told her that I need more LR for both the sh tank and my reef. Well, as luck would have it, she has a friend who's breaking down a 37gal (like mine) and has about 30# of LR (with a LOT of really nice purple coraline) that he wants to sell for really cheap. I got his phone number and called him before she was up the street.

Hopefully I'll hear back soon...I'm hoping that I can get that rock to replace the dead coral, plus add a bit to my reef and have some for Beth's tank as well. Hope I hear from him soon.
Lisa

 

[rykna]

AWESOME!!!!

 

[rykna]

I'm not necessarily concerned about the horses injuring themselves on the coral, but I have noticed in that piece in particular, their food kind of floats into the crevices and is never heard from again. I'm more concerned what that will do to the water quality somewhere down the line.
Any comments or suggestions regarding this is very much appreciated!!~ Lisa
In my opinion it's all about water flow. I noticed the very same problem in my horse tank. You are very wise to remove and/or clean the dead coral. Not enough flow was another downfall of my horse tank. I am going to be purchasing a new wave2K before I even begin the think about getting another seahorse.
The problem i ran into is that in order to get water movement is you also get suction from the intake valves...which can very easily trap a seahorse.
I'm making plans to design a tiny spray bar for the mini horse tank. I have the very same problem there.

 

[monalisa]

I've come up with a solution to the mounting problem I've had with the mini-jets. I've heard back of mounting powerheads onto the mag floats. I'm going to give that a go.
Anyone know anything about doing this? Does the magnet affect the powerhead at all?
Lisa

 

[rykna]

It may, the little pump inside is a magnet. But I'd give it a try. Worse cause scenario the magnet will keep the pump from pumping. I got some magnets from Micheal's, a big craft store, that are awesome. Very tiny, but very strong. I glue on to the mini jets and then use the other one on the outside.Good luck

 

[monalisa]

The Red slime is cyanobacteria, it comes from an overload of the system with phosphates and nitrates, first try getting your nitrates and phosphates under control. There are several ways of doing this. First of all dont over feed, remove extra food right away.
Secondly do you rinse your food before putting it in the tank? Another thing I learned, is that it is better to thaw your mysis in cold saltwater and rinse in cold saltwater helps reduce the amount of gunk that goes into the water.
Last suggestion is you could add more bacteria to your water we use this product and it is wonderful Bacteria It will add good bacteria to the water which compete for waste.
The very last suggestion which we have also used and works wonders and is not harmful to anything at all is from Boyd Enterprises it is called, Chemi-clean.Chemi-Clean Two doses will clear the slime and then add the proline bacteria. You can also add more macro algae to the tank to out compete for nutrients as well.
I just found this information and I really thought that I would like to put it in a place where I can find it readily. I've consistently thawed the mysis in cold tank water, but it never dawned on me to rinse as well. I will from now on. In that case, at which point is the garlic added? Adding more macro algea to my tank, that I can do too. I cringe at the thought of adding any artificial additives/chemicals though. Any comments on this info is greatly appreciated!!
Lisa

 

[monalisa]

I got home tonight and went to feed my seahorses and found that one of my 2 Whisper 40 filters had stopped working...off to the LFS. My hb is going to see if he can get the filter working so I have a back up...hopefully.
The frozen mysis that I've been giving my ponies is a brand called Bio-Pure. I really like that stuff because it states on the packaging that the mysis is vitamin enriched and free of parasites. I purchased some San Francisco brand today when I picked up my new filter, and it doesn't say anything like that on the package...that worries me.
Anyone have any recommendations for what brand of frozen mysis to go with...are they really all the same?
Lisa

 

[rykna]

I just found this information and I really thought that I would like to put it in a place where I can find it readily. I've consistently thawed the mysis in cold tank water, but it never dawned on me to rinse as well. I will from now on. In that case, at which point is the garlic added? Adding more macro algea to my tank, that I can do too. I cringe at the thought of adding any artificial additives/chemicals though. Any comments on this info is greatly appreciated!!
Lisa
Luke mentioned rinsing the baby brine for the ponies just before feeding them to remove any food enrichment that would add excess nutrients/waste to the tank.

 

[bronco300]

thats rinsing the brine because the water that the brine is in is terrible from the shrimp waste,leftover junk, etc...and would make the tank pretty bad quickly.