Alto's Dwarf Seahorses

[sillycupid]

DO IT!

 

Do you hatch brine shrimp daily or do you grow them out? Currently I hatch them daily but am planning on growing my own phytoplankton to raise them to adult hood. Not too fond of water changes so I'd rather feed them live food than bottled pollution.

[ZephNYC]

DO IT!

 

Do you hatch brine shrimp daily or do you grow them out? Currently I hatch them daily but am planning on growing my own phytoplankton to raise them to adult hood. Not too fond of water changes so I'd rather feed them live food than bottled pollution.

 

 

what I do is hatch every other day and store them in the refrigerator. Baby brine are only good for 24 hours, but if you refrigerate them they are good for 3 days. THeir metabolism slows down and the yolk sack last longer. I used cryopreserved- frozen phyto for my brine shrimp and my reef tanks. Theory is it is second best to live, far easier to use, and comes in all verieties and combos. I have grown live phyto, and will again soon, but I have very large requirements (clams) so frozen makes life easier.

If you ever try culturing rotifers for baby seahorses you will need so much phyto you would go crazy trying to keep up with live. Frozen to the rescue.

[metrokat]

here are a couple of pictures of my yellow dwarfs. They just had 2 babies. Last pic is one of the new babies.

Congrats grandaddy.

[TheKleinReef]

here are a couple of pictures of my yellow dwarfs. They just had 2 babies. Last pic is one of the new babies.

 

 

 

 

 

Not to hijack, but do you have a thread for this? Or some more cool pics. Not a lot of people have seahorse tanks and I have yet to see a fts of one (granted I haven't looked too hard).

 

But alto: good luck with your seahorses! I'm going to try and keep up with this thread!

[ZephNYC]

Not to hijack, but do you have a thread for this? Or some more cool pics. Not a lot of people have seahorse tanks and I have yet to see a fts of one (granted I haven't looked too hard).

 

But alto: good luck with your seahorses! I'm going to try and keep up with this thread!

 

A couple of members have asked me this, so i think i will. I am in the process of connecting my dwarfs inline with my large seahorse system ( brazilian yellows and oranges and erectus that I have raised also), so they can share the chiller, skimmer etc.

[altolamprologus]

DO IT!

 

Do you hatch brine shrimp daily or do you grow them out? Currently I hatch them daily but am planning on growing my own phytoplankton to raise them to adult hood. Not too fond of water changes so I'd rather feed them live food than bottled pollution.

I use the brine shrimp hatching dish from brineshrimpdirect.com so one batch of eggs continues hatching for a couple days. When I get the horses my plan is to hatch every few days and let the extras grow out a little bit for when I'm waiting on the next batch to hatch. I do grow brine to adulthood for my other fish, but dwarfs can't eat brine that big so it won't be for them.

 

I feed my brine and copepods on reef nutrition phytofeast live. It's more expensive than growing your own, but I don't have the time or space to do that and it's just as good and isn't full of excess nutrients like dead feeds are.

 

Do you decap your brine? I'm not going to risk hatching regular brine eggs but I currently suck at decapping. I think I may be using too much bleach

[Felicia]

what I do is hatch every other day and store them in the refrigerator. Baby brine are only good for 24 hours, but if you refrigerate them they are good for 3 days. THeir metabolism slows down and the yolk sack last longer.

Do you not ever enrich the baby brine shrimp? From what I've tea enrichment seems to be necessary for long term health of the seahorses and newly hatched brine can't be enriched until their about 24 hours old. Then it's another 6-12 hours to enrich before you can fee them to the seahorses. That would make the baby brine more than 24 hours old when they are used as food.

 

 

Alto, the book on dwarf seahorses I bought has a very detailed explanation for decapping brine eggs. I'll type it up sometime today and pm it to you. You can compare with what you're doing and see of maybe there's something different that will make it work better.

[ZephNYC]

I use the brine shrimp hatching dish from brineshrimpdirect.com so one batch of eggs continues hatching for a couple days. When I get the horses my plan is to hatch every few days and let the extras grow out a little bit for when I'm waiting on the next batch to hatch. I do grow brine to adulthood for my other fish, but dwarfs can't eat brine that big so it won't be for them.

 

I feed my brine and copepods on reef nutrition phytofeast live. It's more expensive than growing your own, but I don't have the time or space to do that and it's just as good and isn't full of excess nutrients like dead feeds are.

 

Do you decap your brine? I'm not going to risk hatching regular brine eggs but I currently suck at decapping. I think I may be using too much bleach

 

 

i dont decapp...nope

[altolamprologus]

Do you not ever enrich the baby brine shrimp? From what I've tea enrichment seems to be necessary for long term health of the seahorses and newly hatched brine can't be enriched until their about 24 hours old. Then it's another 6-12 hours to enrich before you can fee them to the seahorses. That would make the baby brine more than 24 hours old when they are used as food.

 

 

Alto, the book on dwarf seahorses I bought has a very detailed explanation for decapping brine eggs. I'll type it up sometime today and pm it to you. You can compare with what you're doing and see of maybe there's something different that will make it work better.

The way I see it, a mix of freshly hatched brine with some older, enriched ones and the occasional feeding of live copepods is the best way to make sure they get all the nutrition they need. If I could, I would feed them almost entirely copepods, but that would require a garage full of cultures and I don't have that kind of space.

 

Thanks, I appreciate it. I looked at several websites that all had the same basic procedure but I can't seem to get it right. 5% hatch rate is that best I've done. I know it's not the eggs because when I don't decap, I get close to 100% hatch rate

[Jacob042426]

order your horses today! saltcritters is having a sale! 32% off!

[altolamprologus]

order your horses today! saltcritters is having a sale! 32% off!

I'm not getting them from saltcritters and I want to wait until I have more macros in the tank so they have more hitching posts

[sillycupid]

This is how I decapsulate my brine shrimp eggs. Make sure you use a timer! Time flies while your waiting and distracted. I decap 1 table spoon of brine shrimp eggs using 1 cup of water and 2 cups of bleach. It takes exactly five minutes for me.

 

Where are you getting them from Alto? I plan on getting 10 from ccritters.

[altolamprologus]

This is how I decapsulate my brine shrimp eggs. Make sure you use a timer! Time flies while your waiting and distracted. I decap 1 table spoon of brine shrimp eggs using 1 cup of water and 2 cups of bleach. It takes exactly five minutes for me.

 

Where are you getting them from Alto? I plan on getting 10 from ccritters.

Thanks so much! I think my problem is that I was hydrating them in tank water instead of freshwater. I'll try that exact method tonight.

 

I'm getting mine from seahorse corral. They're a family breeder that really seems to know how to take care of their fish so I prefer them over a distributor. If you haven't ordered your already, you should get captive bred instead of wild

[Felicia]

The way I see it, a mix of freshly hatched brine with some older, enriched ones and the occasional feeding of live copepods is the best way to make sure they get all the nutrition they need. If I could, I would feed them almost entirely copepods, but that would require a garage full of cultures and I don't have that kind of space.

Sounds like a good plan. I was planning to hatch a batch, and store some in the fridge for a few days while also transferring some to another container for enrichment. That way I can have both fresh hatched baby brine and enriched slightly older brine to feed from one hatch. That should cover a couple days of feeding for each hatch.

[patback]

If I could, I would feed them almost entirely copepods, but that would require a garage full of cultures and I don't have that kind of space.

Why not use a large garbage can like people use for holding their mixed water? If you have the willingness to try it out, I think a 30 gallon trash can filled with chaeto and a pourus rock on the bottom would be more than enough. If not, it could be supplemented with an occasional brine shrimp treat.

[altolamprologus]

Why not use a large garbage can like people use for holding their mixed water? If you have the willingness to try it out, I think a 30 gallon trash can filled with chaeto and a pourus rock on the bottom would be more than enough. If not, it could be supplemented with an occasional brine shrimp treat.

I wish I had the space. I'm in 900 square feet with 2 other people, 8 aquariums, 14 copepod cultures, a guppy culture, 3 birds, and a rabbit.

[ZephNYC]

I wish I had the space. I'm in 900 square feet with 2 other people, 8 aquariums, 14 copepod cultures, a guppy culture, 3 birds, and a rabbit.

 

 

hey, that sounds like me. I have 22 aquariums, a dog, a bird, a rabbit and a turtle.

[Jenna Ann]

1,000 sq ft, 3 tanks, 4 cats, 1 dog (2 when I'm puppy sitting), 3 kids and a husband. LOL

 

Alto, those Dwarf Seahorses are amazing!

[sillycupid]

hey, that sounds like me. I have 22 aquariums, a dog, a bird, a rabbit and a turtle.

 

How much do you spend on water and salt a month?

[ZephNYC]

How much do you spend on water and salt a month?

 

LOL...please dont make me figure it out. I go through 400 gal of new salt per month minimum....but thats not the killer. Con ed bill is a grand a month from all the halides and far more in the summer when the chillers kick in. And Im about to set up another 125 reef in my living room.

[Euphyllia]

hey, that sounds like me. I have 22 aquariums, a dog, a bird, a rabbit and a turtle.

 

Dat shizz be cray!

[Felicia]

Man, you guys make me feel so normal with my 600 square feet, 1 30 gallon, 1 3 gallon, 1 cat, and myself. That's all! Oh I guess I forgot my 2 mason jars for brine hatching.

 

Alto, are you ordering seahorses today?

[yoshii]

I wish I had the space. I'm in 900 square feet with 2 other people, 8 aquariums, 14 copepod cultures, a guppy culture, 3 birds, and a rabbit.

You forgot the King Snake, did you ever find it btw?

[Euphyllia]

You forgot the King Snake, did you ever find it btw?

 

Dafudge... You lost a venomous snake in a house?

[Whys]

Non-venomous. But still, a danger to other snakes in the house. Tho in truth, one of the saddest stories I've ever read involved an escaped boa.

 

Alto, 900 sq. ft. total and all that? Is this you?

 

 

If we ever find a decent piece of land for building, I'm having a small lab attached to the attached garage. 150 sq. ft. with a utility sink, just for me and my experiments! Mostly I'm excited about the sink. I don't have one in my current basement.