Pregnant Seahorse

[tranvictor]

Hello Out There:

Let me start by stating that I have a pair of seahorses (about 4 months now). The guy who sold them to me told me that there was a male and a female.

I have a few questions:
a. How do I sex sea horses?
b. How would I be able to tell if the male is pregnant?
c. How long is the gestation period?

One of my sea horses has a pronounced bulge in its abdomin, I don't think it is sick. All activities are normal, so I think it may be pregnant. I hope I am hometo witness birth of baby sea horses. Anybody know how I mighty care for baby sea horses?

Vic

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Males have a pouch, females don't. You'll need to raise rotifers, baby brine shrimp (daily) & phytoplankton to feed the rotifers to raise most species of seahorses because the babies are so small.

Highly recommend you do a lot of research now, before the babies come. seahorse.org is a good resource.

[tranvictor]

Seahorse Fanatic:

Do you know of any other sites I might be able to get info from? Seahorse.org isn't getting back to me really quick like.

Can you offer up any advice regarding breeding food, something I am not super excited about?

Do you know of any sea horse breeders in Calgary that may want some babies (assuming my horse is pregnant)?

Vic

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Look up how to de-encapsulate brine shrimp eggs. Then google brine shrimp hatchery. Hopefully you'll get babies that are big enough that they don't need rotifers. If you do need rotifers, it's a real PITA to grow & keep from crashing. You'd have to get a starter culture somewhere, maybe the LFS. What species of seahorses are they?

Hate to say this, but should have done all this research before getting into seahorses. They're cute, but high-maintenance fish. Getting them to have babies is not so hard, but raising those babies is often frustrating.

Anthony

[howdy20012002]

http://www.reed-mariculture.com/zooplankton/rotifer/
these guys are an excellent source for food stuff that you will need to raise the babies
I would love to have the babies up here..however, you would need to ship...
good luck
Just so you know, the chance of survival rate is almost zero for people to raise the SH babies.
Neal

[tranvictor]

The horsies were sold as H. Reidi's. I didn't not figure that they would breed that readily. To bring the babies up to Edmonton may not be a bad idea.

I'll keep you guys posted. Unfortunately I am leaving town again and won't be back till mid September, hopefully my girlfriend will keep me updated.

Vic