woohoo got some new friends in today

[jawfishray]

...no pics, as they are under moonlight and resting right now, but tomorrow I will take some shots of them...them being a pair a seahorses!
Yahhhhhhhh for me!
4.5" measured with tail curled, big H.erectus. One dark phase and the other a muted yellow/gold/black banded. Very cool and man were they hungry.
I received them from the local high school marine science lab. They had them as rescued members from a dredge while on a field trip. The teacher was feeding brine every couple days, yikes!
So I took my lack of pods in stride and made a dive to get some.
While in route to my beach dive I came across a most unusual item, a plastic laundry basket. It had been at sea for some time, as it was fully encrusted with fine tube worms, goose neck barnacles, pink barnacles, 3-4 different matting algea, and best of all pods by the thousands.
It had been ashore for a short period of time, as it was still very wet but starting to dry at the top. So I broke out the buckets and started picking through the muck.
When it was all said and done I had hundreds of adult pods, thousands of juvie pods, dozens of juvie crabs (tear drops with eyes), hundreds of the long alien looking shrimp whose name escapes me (some thing like an inch worm body type with little waving arms), and dozens of other micro fauna that escaped my notice until presented to the system (baby bristle worms, red marine worms, etc).
It was a major pain in the ass to gather those guys but in the end I have more than enough to start my colonies, more than enough for the pipefish and seahorses (along with all the other happy tankmates) to eat right now, and there was no shipping costs lol.
I have the remaining 4lbs of sludgy muck algea scrapings setting outside overnight so that I can secure the next batch tomorrow.
So far the seahorses and my pipefish are getting along great, everyone is full and happy.
Just wanted to share
Ray Boemler
www.peanutbutterjellyfish.com

 

[jawfishray]

<<It was a major pain in the ass to gather those guys but in the end I have more than enough to start my colonies, more than enough for the pipefish and seahorses (along with all the other happy tankmates) to eat right now>>
Well I sit corrected...these guys were hungry. I found out that they had been in the care of the high school for a couple weeks...so they did me the favor of consuming every single example of micro fauna that I can see.
Well spank me very much!

At the very least, I know they are full for now. So it looks like I am off to secure some more food....en infinitium:nervous:
Have good one all.
Ray

 

[jawfishray]

Alrighty!
If anyone is interested in the care and feeding issues involved with seahorses read on, if not then pass this by as boring.
After collecting hundreds of pods, micro shrimp/crabs, and other mini yummies...these apparently near starving seahorses consumed all within their fine sight.
So it was off to the races to get enough food to keep them fat, dumb, and happy.
I was challenged with online sources. Various breeding programs. And other assundry means to bring the food to me, and thusly them. I was unsatisfied with the available items based upon timing, accountability, and choices. So it was back to the clean waters.
Glass shrimp, arrow shrimp, grass shrimp, and other minis in aplenty...along with a handful of 2" gulf shrimp, most excellant sand sifters and clever little buggers. And hoped for the best.
Well a full day cruises by and the seahorses (2), gulf pipefish (1), and the bay pipefish (2) were quite interested in the various sized shrimp entrees...but no real action.
Then this morning, BAM! Ping, the lighter of the two H. erectus, blasted a 3/4" shrimp in half and then sucked out the soft bits in three or four more hits.
So all is well. I have endless supplies of healthy shrimps that these guys were eating before I got them...local food for local fish.
Here are a couple images from my seahorse/fuge tank.

 

[jawfishray]

Yes my old blennie, Ernie, who passed on a month or so back lived in the same fuge.
The seahorses really brought some life back to the fuge. I also caught a baby, 2.5", flounder who is living in my other fuge.
One more seahorse image.
Ray

 

[jawfishray]

The lighter of the two seahorses, the one in the center of the photo is Ping the darker phased one is Pong...they match the name as they constantly go back and forth as if playing or watching a ping pong match.
Ping was a golden/brown when I first got him, back after he settled in he took a more tannish color with the occational shift to white stripes when hunting.
Pong gets even darker when cruising for food.
The pipefish, un-named but not unloved, in the photo is my green and white banded gulf pipefish. Very healthy and quite the little guy. Almost always hangs out next to either ping or pong.
The bay pipefish are a bit odd in shape compared to the gulf variety...more "S" shaped with a fatter belly and a quite pronounced dorsal fin that easily 5x bigger then the gulf type's fin.
Actually the shape of the "gulf" pipefish is most likely a better representative of a sargasso pipefish. I guess the color threw me off as they are normally the classic sargasso colors gold/tan/brown/black. He had gotten much more green since I collected him, perhaps it has adopted a color closer to the fuge surroundings.
:yes:
Have great weekend all!
Ray Boemler
www.peanutbutterjellyfish.com

 

[jawfishray]

Kinda easy really.
They like a soft sandy or silty bottom without alot of sharp edges, as they have delicate bellies. The are complete pigs. They will eat anything they can find, catch, or steal from another tankmate.
They grow fairly fast, but are a blast to see cruising around. And best of all, they are sand diggers. All helps with the sifting process.
Ray

 

[reef_magic]

my ***** has some flouinders, and they told me they can get super big, a little bigger than one foot. they should be housed in tanks of 125gal.......

 

[jawfishray]

In my ongoing efforts to feed these hungry buggers, seahorses and pipefish, I have resorted to gutloaded Orchestia agilis. I caught about 200 hundred today, gutloaded with Ocean Nutrition formula two with spirulina pellets, and then added to the tank...it was great.
Ping and Pong, the seahorses, sounded like machine guns....thup thup thup thup thup thup thup thup thup thup...regardless of ifs and could be's...they absolutely loved this food item.
So now armed with a constant food source I can work on securing other items to mix up the menu.
For those interested I have an image of my little flounder climbing a piece of seeding macro flora covered coral, hunting after a small shrimp...so much for staying on the sand bottom huh?
Ray

 

[jawfishray]

Presenting,
Flounder hunting the Shrimp...
by Ray

 

[jawfishray]

Just caught the little buggers, as they are fast and always on the move it is hard to catch them. The gulf pipefish is much more relaxed. The two bay pipefish I have a green phase and burgundy phase. They both have complimenting bands. The burgundy did not carry into the photo, sorry.
But here you go anyway.

 

[jawfishray]

Everyone is eating frozen food now! Thank god. I was getting worried that they were not getting enough to eat; my seahorses, as the pipefish were always pigs and would eat anything.
Whew, frozen m. shrimp are on the menu today. :yes:
Ray