Dwarf Seahorses

[Larry Mc]

Hi everyone. I just started raising Dwarf Seahorses. So i'm new at this, but not new to saltwater. We just got 8 Dwarfs in the 3rd of this month and got 7 babys with the adults. Yesturday 1 male gave birht to 11 and this morning another male gave birth to 7 more. We lost the first male this morning and I'm not sure why but after giving birth yesturday ihe didn't move around much. I guess i wouldn't either..lol We still have 1 more preg male due anytime now. I hope we don't lose any more.

[Siberman]

Wild-caught horses are often full of parasites. There is an Australian site that sells captive bred but they're a lot more expensive than the normal Floridian retailers.

[Larry Mc]

I hope the new babys will be better suited to the tank then the adults are. I keep the tank well stocked with brine shrimp.

[Larry Mc]

Well we lost another seahorse this morning.She was one of the first female babys.19 days old. i just did a 2gal. water change yesturday. They are in a 5 gal. tank which goes into a 10 gal. with 10 or more lbs of live rock then back in the 5. I guess I'll test my water agian. I just tested it about 3 days ago.

[miniwhinny]

I'm looking into getting some mini seahorses. Can you tell me what kind of water movement and conditions you are keeping yours in. Thanks and good luck with them (got any pics to share?)

[Larry Mc]

I use a foam filter in a 5gal. tank. Then it is siponed in to a small tank hanging on the back of the 5. from there it is sucked into the 10 with a power head. Useing the air flow hole at the top of the power head. then has a balamce line to keep the water level. That way I have more filter but still have small tank for the horses. And in the 10 I have some assorted Mushrooms and a Purple Cactus Gorgoniun and afew loose mushrooms and snails.

[miniwhinny]

Oh they're awesome...I love that first picture. Good luck with them. I'll be following your progress.

[Larry Mc]

Well we lost another baby from the first group. We also lost 7 astrea snails too. They were in the 10gal. tank. The gorgoniun and the mushrooms are all doing fine. Started buy bottle water for water changes and top offs 3 days ago. Not sure what is happening. The 1 male still hasn't given birth yet. They all seem like they are doing fine ..no stress signs. They just swim and eat just like everything is good..... So I don't know what is happening. The snails I haven't figured out?????

[Larry Mc]

The snails were upside down. 5 are still alive, 4 have not moved.

[Larry Mc]

Well we didn't loose any more babys last night. We are going to do water change and get the nitrate down more.I still don't know why we have lost our snails ..Male still hasn't had his babys yet , he is bigggg.

[Larry Mc]

Well I just went in and fed the seahorses. Now the last male just had babys, so we have over 32 new babys . It sure is hard to count them.Of counse I was trying to count them before I had my first cup of coffee.lol .....We had 1 baby stuck in the flow tube net, it is a stocking stretched over a sphon tube. Got him out but I'll probably have to do that several more times. Haven't lost any more horses so far. We still have 4 of the very first babys that are 22 days old and we have 7 adults left.

[aquawolf]

It sounds like things are going pretty well for you.

The Astrea snails are notorious for falling over in our tanks. I guess in the ocean the strong currents help to right them again, but that doesn't usually happen in captivity. The gest you can do is to turn them back over when you see one upside down. I am not sure why they die when upside down for a while, but they do.

Good luck on keeping the babies alive, if you have only had to pull one off the siphon then I would say that you are extemely lucky and have a really good setup for them.

[Larry Mc]

The male is not doing good ,it is floating but still live . Don't know what to do for it . I hope it makes it . He had alot of babys...

[aquawolf]

I don't know how small the dwarfs actually are. There is supposed to be a way to flush out their birth pouch and make sure no babies were stuck in there. If even 1 baby was left behind it will die and rot and then create all kinds of problems for the male. He might actually have a sort of gas bubble that will make him float and he will not be able to swim around.

I am sorry I cannot be of anymore help. You might want to check out seahorse.org and ask questions of other dwarf breeders out there.

I wish you the best of luck with the horses.

[Larry Mc]

Well the male is down at the bottom of the tank finally so maybe he will be alright. I hope. The dwarfs are about 1 1/2inches tall. So they are pretty small to do anything with. I did kind of massage him alittle and got some stuff of him. Here is some pics of him at the top of the tank when he would and then at the bottom on a root. I guess I'll have to wait and see how he does.