My ponies

[Diana]

I'm pleased to show off our newest members of the family, a pair of captive bred seahorses! After months of preparation and waiting patiently for our ponies, yesterday we were able to finally purchase them. Its been my goal as a fishkeeper to work my way up to keeping seahorses, and with any luck I will be able to successfully raise these two little beauties.

We got them from Big Als in Burnaby.... they had a whole bunch come in almost a month ago. We were very patient and wanted to make sure the tank was set up for over a month before we got them (I set it up mid Febuary). We kept checking in on them at Biggy A's and they were all doing fantastic. They havent lost a single one yet, and there's still tons left in the tank (havin babies I might add!). They are eating brine and mysis, but they prefer PE mysis (I fed them brine at the store and they were gulping it down).

We got them yesterday and I fed them this morning, and they are eating PE. (Anthony, is a feeding station preffered? They are eating the mysis off the sand, is that bad for them?)

I'm not sure which species I have, I'll have to post around and find out.

Without further ado, some pictures!

Full tank (20 gallon "tall"):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/dinostar00/pony3.jpg

Female:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/dinostar00/pony1.jpg

Male:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/dinostar00/pony8.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/dinostar00/pony7.jpg

More pictures: http://www.riftnreef.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=246#246

:D
-Diana

[Deathstar]

Cool looking seahorses :mrgreen: , what kind are they?

Eric

[TheGr8Blade]

:biggrin: Nice pictures! Thanks for sharing them!:biggrin:

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Very nice. Good to hear that you waited for the tanks to be ready & for the seahorses to recover from shipping stress.

Yes, a feeding station is preferred because it'll help to keep the food all in one place & lets you observe the ponies eating everyday. It will also reduce wastage & the bristle worm pop. explosion that usually happens when ponies are overfed.

Can't wait to come see them live one day.

Anthony

[Beverly]

Great pics :biggrin:

Personally, I would have more rock in there, but with only two SHs in the tank, it may not be necessary.

Going from the pics at the SH.org gallery, I'm guessing they might be H. reidi. Here's the gallery for you to look.....

http://gallery.seahorse.org/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=12&g2_GALLERYSID=1df4e20315380e448daf6b93518dd7dd

I'm with Anthony on the feeding station. Here's a page with several designs....

http://www.lostmymarblz.com/hh-feeding-stations.htm

[Deathstar]

Great pics :biggrin:

Personally, I would have more rock in there, but with only two SHs in the tank, it may not be necessary.

Going from the pics at the SH.org gallery, I'm guessing they might be H. reidi. Here's the gallery for you to look.....

http://gallery.seahorse.org/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=12&g2_GALLERYSID=1df4e20315380e448daf6b93518dd7dd

I'm with Anthony on the feeding station. Here's a page with several designs....

http://www.lostmymarblz.com/hh-feeding-stations.htm

Great link, I am going to have to build one of those. I think it is a H. Reidi too.

Diana do you use a skimmer on your SH tank?

Eric

[Diana]

Thanks guys!

Anthony, I'll look into a feeding station asap. I'd like to get them used to using one. :) Your welcome to come by and check them out anytime!

Beverly, thanks for the links! I did check out the gallery but I'm no good at IDing based on pics, but your right they do look like the H. reidi. Do you suggest more LR for hitching or for biological filtration? We are running an eheim canister full of established media to help aid with the bio filtration. :)

Deathstar, I'm not running a skimmer currently for fear of gas bubble disease (im not even sure if skimmers can be a cause). I have considered running one on the tank once a week or so just to get out some of the excess gunk, but dont want to if it will risk health to the ponies.

:)
-Diana

[Beverly]

Diana,

The LR would be more for biological filtration, general look of the tank, plus places for pods to live. But if you're running a canister and cleaning it once a week, you should be good without more LR. You have the added bonus of not having a large bioload, which should help quite a bit.

I had lots of macroalgae in my tank when I kept SHs, and had trouble with air building up in the males' pouches. I'm sure it had to do with all the O2 produced during the day and CO2 at night from all the MA. Have read that skimmers might also be a cause, though I did not run a skimmer, so you not running one might be helpful in preventing GBD.

Very cute SHs :biggrin:

[Raf]

Very nice baby! So a feeding station eh....*get the tools out* :D