Ack! Baby pipefish! Help!

[Linne]

Ok. So I posted my first entry yesterday about how a week ago I became the happy owner of five young pipefish.

This morning one of them decided to give birth and I now have about 15 centimeter long, thread-like baby pipefish. I've moved them into the small nursery (about 2 gallons I think) to get them out of the strong current in the big one and have supplied the newborns with some cyclops. Besides that I'm pretty much lost and confused.

Help???

[Loverotties]

Ask VWD ,Vinny knows alot about seahorses and what to feed babies.I know what you said is to big for them.

[mitchmac]

hope your ready for this ... live hatched mysis 3 times a day lol i did my research for 6 months befor i decided not to go with drawf horses...but newborns should be fed lie hatched mysis 3 times a day ... if not more ! happy feeeding lol they are cute tho arent they ?

[Linne]

eep? How would I get hatched mysids? I have acess to live adults, would I have to breed them separately?? So far it looks like they were snapping at the cyclops I put in the tank. Haven't been able to check on them again since going off to class this morning. Would baby brine shrimp work??
Thanks for the help!

[Loverotties]

I think baby brine is to big also.

[D.J.]

baby brine would be iffy untill they get alil bigger........you may have to order in some live foods for them......unless you have a D*** good pet store there.......you could try brine shrimp fresh hatched....they are smaller than 3-4 day old ones.....you can get "IN TANK HATCHERIES" at some LFS's or online at F&S and some other sites.....

or you can make one out of a coke bottle, air line, pump.......


good luck with the babies........

[Linne]

I bought a coke-bottle hatch system a little while ago so I'll try that! Thanks!

Though I think I may have super-babies or something. Counts at 8 now (the others were ones that were left in the main tank and died before I could cath them) so the number in the nursery has stayed the same. Just fed the older babies their cyclops and saw the newborns actively chasing the stuff and at least one actually gulped a cyclops down. So that definitely made me a little more at ease. I'll do the live brine as well though, they probably need some live stuff in there.
Also, with the cyclops chasing, are they maybe taking off pieces? I saw one of the older babies take down a mysid that was too big for it one piece at a time. They're ambitious little guys!

[Tito the Turtle]

Just ask Metz to borrow a plankton net and collect, bet you the babies' food is in that water. ;D

[Linne]

I-wha-...TITO!? I know you!!!!

Anyway, very good idea. I'll see if they have plankton nets at work as well.

[aquawolf]

Plankton and rotifers might help them have a fighting chance as well. It is hard to keep babies alive when you were not already prepared for them, so please don't take it too hard if this first batch doesn't make it.

I wish you the best of luck with them.

[Linne]

Well the batch didn't make it. Though not through starvation, I found out. All 8 made it the first night but halfway through there second day the headcount was down to 3 and there weren't any bodies. I was confused but not surprised until I noticed that an hour later there was only one left.
Until I glanced up just in time to see one of the two-inch babies eat it.>_<
Honestly should have been expecting that, but I made the mistake of going by online research that cited pipefish as not being too cannibalistic. But I'm sure the older babies were THRILLED that there were these tiny live animals that would fit perfectly into their mouths!

Hoi. Thanks for the help everyone! I still have one more shot as the last of my adult males is still pregnant. Of my three adults I managed to name all males, all of whom were knocked up. I'll be more prepared for this next batch and DEFINITELY have them by themselves in the nursery tank.

[aquawolf]

It is not unusual at all to lose the first batch, especially when you are not prepared for them at all. We had that happen with our seahorses that were all supposed to be females when we bought them.

I wish you the best of luck in being ready when the next male decides its time to give birth.

[Linne]

Well third decided to let them all off while I was in class! My roommate and I noticed his pouch had suddenly swollen a LOT and had moved him into the nursery tank after getting the two little ones out (they're big enough now anyway). Sure enough came back to find him exhausted at the bottom with what is probably 20 babies swimming around. He's the largest so we expected a large batch.
We just got done moving him back into the main tank (he barely struggled at all when I picked him up, poor guy must have been exhausted!). Put some food in for the little ones and tomorrow I'm going to go check to see if they sell zooplankton at the aquarium store.
The last batch was actually the second (the first was born the day I got the pipes and died within two hours. So third time's the charm! At least after these there won't be any more for a while!

[aquawolf]

It figures that he would wait until you were in class to have them.

Best of luck with this batch.