[kaba]

Hey everybody -- Thought I'd post a link to a couple pics of my tanks.

Oh, and no hassles about the fake corals in the seahorse tank, okay? Seahorses need hitching posts, and bright colors make for more colorful horses (they readily change their appearance to match their mood and surroundings). Half of the horses in the pic are adults that I've raised from fry, and one of my horses just had 200 more fry this morning, so the BBS hatcheries are bubbling away again...

My 72-gallon is the work-in-progress reef tank. It was formerly a FOWLR, then a seahorse tank, and I just started turning it into a reef tank -- rearranged/added more LR, upgraded the lighting, etc. -- about 2 months ago. I currently have trumpet, brain, alveopora, xenia, frogspawn (thanks to Scott), and ricordea, as well as various polyps and shrooms.

http://homepage.mac.com/chip_and_karen/tanks/PhotoAlbum13.html

 

[clyde]

looks good

i like the angel


your homepage reminds me to update our mac.com accounts in a few weeks.. heh

 

[Energy]

Beautiful tank Kaba. Do you run a refuge on it? I have a 150 gallon refuge which I toyed with the idea of putting in a seahorse but I'm afraid it will eliminate the bug population.

 

[Todd]

Very nice Karen! Think I'll have to learn more about seahorses.

 

[JnS]

very nice

how long have you had seahorses?
we have always wanted some, but people say they are real hard to keep alive.

 

[Stoney Reef]

it is a nice addition to round out the club to have a resident sea horse expert!

 

[Crevalle]

Seahorses are awesome. I'd love to see some pics of the babies they just had Karen.

 

[kaba]

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

clyde -- Good to see another Mac user.

Energy -- No refugium, but plenty of macros in the tank. Yes, horses typically would make short work of 'pods.

Todd -- Thank you, and good luck with your 90-gallon search.

JnS -- Thank you. I've had horses for about 1 1/2 years now. My current fry are second generation. CB horses are much healthier and much easier to feed (frozen food as opposed to live) than WC, which can be very difficult.

Stoney -- Thanks!

Sam -- I'll post a pic of the fry...

___________________________

This is called a fishbowl nursery (for obvious reasons ). The thing with seahorse fry is that they must be kept off the surface of the water when they are very young, or else they can snick (ingest) air and won't be able to expel it. If they do snick air, they end up floating on the surface and more than likely will die since they are unable to eat. The fishbowl nursery has an air line affixed halfway down one of the curved sides. The bubbles from the air line create a circular water motion in the fishbowl which keeps the babies off the surface.

There's your seahorse trivia for the day...

 

[kaba]

And here are 5-week-olds from a previous brood...

 

[Stoney Reef]

Almost looks like you have the bowl in the fridge! Great info on the air tube! I would have never known that!

 

[Toyfreek]

Great Pics,
Do they call them ponies?
I thought they were cute when they were big I have never seen them so little before, very cute little guys.
Thanks,
Matt

 

[JnS]

very nice!

now are those stangs or dwarfs?

 

[Crevalle]

That is fantastic! Very cool.

 

[kaba]

Stoney -- Yea, I suppose it does look like they're sitting in the fridge, doesn't it? :funny:

Matt -- Yes, some people call them ponies. My current fry are now about 1/2" long. They were approx. 1 cm at birth.

JnS -- These are erectus horses, AKA Ocean Rider 'Mustangs.'

Sam -- Thanks.

 

[otolith]

Kaba, what do you do with the brood? Sell/trade them to other seahorse people?

What type of feeding schedule do you have them on? And do you feed frozen foods? even for the fry?

Just curious and very interested in seahorses. Have a 42hex that would make a great seahorse tank...

Derek

 

[kaba]

Hi Derek -- Seahorse fry generally have quite a high mortality rate, and they are very susceptible to pathogens and hydroids. I've been able to keep all my babies so far that I've raised to adulthood, and this latest brood is second generation -- fry from one of the babies I raised. I took a break from raising fry for a while and separated my males and females, but they're back together again so I may have an overabundance in the coming months.

The young fry are fed BBS enriched with Selcon. At around 6 weeks or so, I begin to wean them onto chopped Hikari mysis, and then PE mysis as they grow larger. All my adults eat frozen PE mysis once or twice daily. The fry (depending on their age) eat 3 or more times daily. Raising them is quite labor-intensive, because in addition to the frequent feedings, they are in a nursery without any biological filtration, so they get twice-daily water changes.

Hope that answers your questions.

 

[Toyfreek]

Wow and I thought raising baby Bangaii cardinals was labor intensive. Waaaay easier that sea-Ponies
Thanks for the info,
Matt

 

[Gary S]

Wow, I have never heard of anyone around here raising seahorses. That is really cool, I've always wanted to try it. Maybe someday we could talk.

Gary

 

[kaba]

Matt -- It gets especially labor-intensive when you have a guy (yes, guy) giving birth every two weeks! Multiple nurseries, multiple water changes, multiple daily feedings...

Gary -- Sure, I'd love to talk with you some time.

 

[JnS]

Kaba,
you have any reccomended sites to look at information on these guys?