Hybrid Seahorse fry!! Day 5.
 

So we had another batch of seahorse fry. These are the H. Barbouri x H. Angustus hybrids again. Instead of giving this batch away I have decided to try and raise them myself.

Once I noticed the batch of fry I quickly went out and bought a jar of pickles. Pickles??? The jar works perfect for a little seahorse nursery. Cleaned it out really well and siphoned the 30 or so fry into the jar. I was able to get some phyto and rotifers (thanks Garry) within a couple hours. I set up a small air pump with some rigid airline and added to the jar. The rigid airline works good in keeping the bubbles coming up the side of the jar. They then hit the curved top and create a circular flow. This helps keep the fry off the top of the water. I also added some bunched up fishing line for them to hitch onto.

Added a bunch of the rotifers using a rotifer mesh and a couple capfulls of phyto. The phyto will help keep the rotifers fed and also battle a bit of the amonia. I did a 100% water change on day 3 and will do continue to do them every 2 or 3 days.

Here are a couple pics :mrgreen:

http://i537.photobucket.com/albums/f...6/3499f76b.jpg

http://i537.photobucket.com/albums/f...6/b5ed6c61.jpg

http://i537.photobucket.com/albums/f...6/7c95d7de.jpg

Sphelps also just a batch of these same fry. He took some great close up shots and posted them here if your interested in taking a look:
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...=53606&page=14

Ryan

cute little buggers.....good for you....thats awesome

Cool, they are so tiny. Good luck Ryan I will be watching to see how you are doing.

Cool! They look healthier than mine :lol:

So you feed them phyto? I thought rotifers where the way to go? Oh never mind I decided to actually read your post, :lol:

How are they for size compared to the reidi fry?
If a touch larger, and if they are hitching, you may be able to switch to bbs very soon, if not include them with the rots right now.
How did the last batch work out that you gave away?

Thanks guys! I will keep the thread updated every few days or so.

Ray~ They look to be a little larger than the Reidi fry, but not much. I will track down some bbs asap. The last batch I gave away only made it a couple of days. I don't think they had a sufficient food supply as he was trying to feed them pods.

Don't forget to decapp the cysts before hatching so that the fry don't ingest stray empty or unhatched cysts. They lodge in the digestive tract and cause death by starvation.
If you don't remember how to decapp, e-mail me and I'll refresh your memory.

neat, is temperature important?

Actually most seahorses do better at a lower temp (68-74) so room temp seems to be ok for the fry.

With the reidi fry, the lower temperatures most definitely improved the survival rates.
Again, it comes down to the seahorse susceptibility to bacterial infections and when above the 74° mark, it strongly comes into play.
I have 5 seahorse tanks and have no heaters in any of them. In fact, I'm in the process of moving them all to the same area in order to have one AC unit keep them cool enough in summer.