New seahorse fry

autochek · 09-05-2005, 07:36 PM

I just posted on the General board hoping JennM would respond but then I remembered Ray has seahorse expertiese also. There are about 100 brand new Erectus fry in this pic that were born today. Fitting to have them on LABOR day. LOL I did get cought without a fresh hatch of brine though. All I could do was add some home made Phyto and some small particulate from a thawed cube of brine. Should I add any Cyclopeeze in there also? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
I gotta say, it was a pain in the *#s getting them all out with a baster.

Sprayin70 · 09-05-2005, 07:58 PM

They are awsome. Good luck with all those little guys.

Flipturn88 · 09-05-2005, 08:54 PM

Three things...

One - Congrats!

Two - You want significant flow to agitate the surface of the water. This prevents the fry from hanging out at the surface and snicking up air, which leads to their death.

Three - At this stage, only rotifers and (newly hatched) live baby brine will be eaten. I wouldn't try cyclopeeze for another month or so. Also, watch your water quality in a tank/bowl of that size; with frequent feedings and a high density of fish, things can get out of hand pretty quickly.

Good luck!

Kayla

autochek · 09-06-2005, 04:20 AM

Thanks Kayla I have a fresh batch of brine brewing and 3 other hatchers ready. Looks like daily hatching is going to be alot of work. I have an airline glued into one of the rounded sides about 3 inches down. Creating a counter curent type in flow in the bowl keeping them in suspension.
I'm hoping there are some rotifers in the plankton also. But I really don't know what the heck rotifers are. LOL
So far they've made it thru the night.

Ray1214 · 09-06-2005, 09:46 AM

Well to add to Kayla's comments , rotifiers are a small critter that eats phyto plankton. Odds are you don't have any in the phyto and I started my cultures from a culture from Florida Aqua Farms.

BBS, is a really good start but I have had seahorse and pipefish fry eat the bbs eggs as long as they are decapsulated. Also your hatch rate will be a lot higher if you use decapsulated eggs.

Remember with seahorses, you almost have to have the fry swiming with the live foods and we did a water change (About a cup or so with the smaller tanks like that) every time we fed.

Ray

autochek · 09-06-2005, 02:37 PM

Thanks everyone for the advise. I went home on lunch and so far I think all have survived for the first 24 hours. I will do everything I can to try and get a decent survival rate. I have 4 different hatcheries ready to go into aaction for a fresh supply of BBS dailey. How long will I need to do this before trying to get them on frozen?

Flipturn88 · 09-06-2005, 03:29 PM

About a month.

Ray1214 · 09-06-2005, 03:59 PM

Yes, at least a month. Caution: Remember once the Baby brine shrimp are passed instar 36 (36 hours old) you will need to gut load them. Just enough spirallina or phytoplankton to turn the water a bit cloudy is enough. It doesn't take a lot.

I would start gutloading in the 24 hour range if you do not use them up before them. With that many babies, I would think 1 2-litre hatchery a day would not be uncommon. I would refer to Kayla's expertise since she has had way more experience with Erectus Fry than I have though. Kuda's typically have smaller broods but larger fry and baby dwarf seahorses eat right along with the parents with really no ill effects, so I kinda was lucky.
One thought, you may want to get one or two other small tanks/bowls ready, since I am guessing that fish bowl may run out of room rather quickly. Lisa's current hatching setup is a 10 gal tank with a tank divider seperating out the spongefilter and heater. After our experience with the baby pipefish, she has realized that a spongefilter is a good idea but the babies had a hard time with the turbulant water that the bubbles from the filter can create, especially when they are hunting a tasty morsel of food. However I think the sponge filters will create the water motion on the surface like Kayla had suggested.
I did always keep on hand a batch of mixing saltwater at all times. And one other thing we noticed, by accident, we got a batch of infusioura type critters and the baby pipes ate them. We left a 3 gal tank in the window sill (we are moving all of our tanks to redo the flooring in our fish room) and it sat for about 3 days and had nothing but old tank water and a piece of live rock. All of a sudden the water turned bright green, and if you looked really close you saw little white specks in the green water. I used an eye dropper to see what the babies would do, and they seem to eat something (I am thinking rotifiers or rotifer like critters).
This was a trick I used with fresh water fish fry but didn't realize it worked for saltwater as well. I had thought to perhaps try microworms but not sure how they will fare in saltwater.

Ray

autochek · 09-07-2005, 02:08 PM

My head is swimming with all the great info listed here. I got green water in the windows at the house and 3 2 litre bottle s brewing now. If a neighbor gets a peek in the front window, they will think I'm running a Meth lab with all the equipment.

milhouse74 · 09-07-2005, 02:38 PM

Between that and the halide "pot lights" the DEA should be at your house in no time.

Ray1214 · 09-08-2005, 10:01 AM

I am only trying to grow plants to honor Canada's Flag.........

autochek · 09-11-2005, 06:39 AM

Well the whole batch is gone

. I was not prepared for the level of work and live food needed to keep them going.I have purchased more tanks and pumps so I will be better prepared when it happens again. I think it should be soon. The large male was chillin on a rock smoking a cigarette when I got home friday.