brokereefer617 Posted December 29, 2014 Share Posted December 29, 2014 Wow just read your entire thread amazing work.. You comment how tidy my tank is pffff job well done on your end. ? hats off to you and your commitment to raising baby sea horses, great job Link to comment
vlangel Posted December 29, 2014 Author Share Posted December 29, 2014 I totally skipped a water change last week altogether!! Well, not to rush the Holidays to be over but it will be good to back to the routine. A normally well maintained tank can endure a missed water change on occasion so I am sure you will be fine. Link to comment
vlangel Posted December 30, 2014 Author Share Posted December 30, 2014 Wow just read your entire thread amazing work.. You comment how tidy my tank is pffff job well done on your end. hats off to you and your commitment to raising baby sea horses, great job Thanks for such a kind comment. I feel like my tanks are so ordinary but my strong suit is consistency with maintenance, (no doubt a result of maintenancing tanks for a lfs for years). That discipline has served me well with raising the baby seahorses. Link to comment
vlangel Posted December 30, 2014 Author Share Posted December 30, 2014 Today some of our kids have left so now I can just sit and observe my baby seahorses a bit rather than just meeting their needs. I am actually surprised by how much they have developed this week. They have grown perceptibly and they are starting to take on more adult proportions and are growing into their heads. They are 70-75% on frozen food now which is great. They now are down to 3-4 meals a day as opposed to 4-5 which is also great. When they are hungry they start swimming around but once they have been fed and are mostly satisfied they go to their favorite hitching posts. Like all baby animals they play and swim more than their parents and I see them swimming into the bubbles of the airline tube to go for a thrilling ride through the water column. It is so much fun watching them. Link to comment
vlangel Posted December 30, 2014 Author Share Posted December 30, 2014 Latest video taken this morning. They are 9 weeks tomorrow! Link to comment
hey Posted December 30, 2014 Share Posted December 30, 2014 Latest video taken this morning. They are 9 weeks tomorrow! looking good, I admire your level of dedication in raising these guys. Link to comment
markalot Posted December 30, 2014 Share Posted December 30, 2014 Wow, not having a frame of reference they look fully grown. Link to comment
Pinner Reef Posted December 30, 2014 Share Posted December 30, 2014 They're growing so quick! I was laughing at the one who hitched on to the other's nose. Link to comment
vlangel Posted December 31, 2014 Author Share Posted December 31, 2014 looking good, I admire your level of dedication in raising these guys.Thank you Hey! It has especially been challenging over the Holidays with our chilren/grandsons home. Wow, not having a frame of reference they look fully grown. They're growing so quick! I was laughing at the one who hitched on to the other's nose. I think that is so funny too and it always makes me laugh also. When they are trying to steal food from one another, that is funny too. Wow, not having a frame of reference they look fully grown. I will try to put something in their tank next time to give a point of reference. There is still quite a size difference amongst them. There are 2 of the littlest that I don't if they will make it. They are not eating the frozen food as well and I am not really set up to separate them. Link to comment
hey Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 HAHA, my sons wreaked similar havoc on their grandparents home too. Hope your holidays were great too. Link to comment
vlangel Posted December 31, 2014 Author Share Posted December 31, 2014 HAHA, my sons wreaked similar havoc on their grandparents home too. Hope your holidays were great too. It's been awesome and we loved it, but it is exhausting! Link to comment
vlangel Posted January 2, 2015 Author Share Posted January 2, 2015 So today after I finished doing a WC and doing some maintenance chores I sat down in front of the tanks and ate some shrimp and cocktail sauce. It occurred to me that doing that was quite a contradiction considering I had just finished giving the peppermint shrimp some food. What can I say? If they are in my tank I nurture them but if they are on my plate I eat them and enjoy it! Link to comment
kimberbee Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 Eek!! How could you??? (kidding) Link to comment
vlangel Posted January 2, 2015 Author Share Posted January 2, 2015 Eek!! How could you??? (kidding)I don't know, I just couldn't stop myself! Ha ha!!! Link to comment
vlangel Posted January 2, 2015 Author Share Posted January 2, 2015 It's been bugging me for a week that 1 of my RBTA is stinging the daylights out of my duncan frag and an sps frag so with our holiday cheer all over I decided to address that issue. Actually as much as I love nems, I am sorry I got one because it has divided twice so the 3 of them take up the whole upper right side of the bowfront! I worry about them being sucked into the koralia on the right and stinging corals on the left. I am tempted to take the stoney stag horn they are attached to out of the tank, shoot a power head at them and try to encourage them to leave the staghorn. However today I just shifted some things so that my corals are not being stung. Link to comment
markalot Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 It's been bugging me for a week that 1 of my RBTA is stinging the daylights out of my duncan frag and an sps frag so with our holiday cheer all over I decided to address that issue. Actually as much as I love nems, I am sorry I got one because it has divided twice so the 3 of them take up the whole upper right side of the bowfront! I worry about them being sucked into the koralia on the right and stinging corals on the left. I am tempted to take the stoney stag horn they are attached to out of the tank, shoot a power head at them and try to encourage them to leave the staghorn. However today I just shifted some things so that my corals are not being stung. I've been extremely lucky with my RBTA that it almost never moves or stings anything ... so far. It's getting BIG, deceivingly big. I measured it the other day and fully extended it would fill nearly half of my 29 gallon. Since my clowns refuse to find it I will probably get rid of it someday. Link to comment
vlangel Posted January 3, 2015 Author Share Posted January 3, 2015 I've been extremely lucky with my RBTA that it almost never moves or stings anything ... so far. It's getting BIG, deceivingly big. I measured it the other day and fully extended it would fill nearly half of my 29 gallon. Since my clowns refuse to find it I will probably get rid of it someday. My clown's love of mine is one reason I am hesitant to remove them. Baby, my clown did not have a nem of his own until I bought the RBTA and I'd feel mean taking it/them away from him. I am kicking around overhauling the bowfront when the baby seahorses are grown and gone. I need to isolate it from the other tanks so as to not stir up toxins that could harm the seahorses. I'd love to use less rock but I firmly believe all that mature rock is the bedrock to the stability my tanks experience. Now with seahorses it seems even more important so I will have to ponder this a while longer. I've been extremely lucky with my RBTA that it almost never moves or stings anything ... so far. It's getting BIG, deceivingly big. I measured it the other day and fully extended it would fill nearly half of my 29 gallon. Since my clowns refuse to find it I will probably get rid of it someday. I am glad your nem has been a good citizen even if it has grown, and after all, growth is your fault, not the RBTA, right? LOL, just kidding! Link to comment
vlangel Posted January 3, 2015 Author Share Posted January 3, 2015 http://s36.photobucket.com/user/vlangelbike/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20150103_134845_zps38789478.jpg.html'>Here's a pic of the baby seahorses with a ruler taped to the aquarium. That green plant is 6-7" tall to give you an idea also. Link to comment
vlangel Posted January 3, 2015 Author Share Posted January 3, 2015 I checked phosphates and nitrates the first time in awhile...Oooh, it was a bit of an eye opener about just how much bioload seahorses put on a system. The phosphates were .25ppm which for my tanks is excellant since I use straight tap water. I am running chemipure which I know is helping. What I found disturbing was the nitrates, (that for years was below 5ppm) is now 10-20ppm and that is with doing a 4-5 gallon water change every single day. I am definitely going to have to plan to move some of the babies into the 20 gallon long in the basement. I can't risk the system for the babies. Link to comment
kimberbee Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 I checked phosphates and nitrates the first time in awhile...Oooh, it was a bit of an eye opener about just how much bioload seahorses put on a system. The phosphates were .25ppm which for my tanks is excellant since I use straight tap water. I am running chemipure which I know is helping. What I found disturbing was the nitrates, (that for years was below 5ppm) is now 10-20ppm and that is with doing a 4-5 gallon water change every single day. I am definitely going to have to plan to move some of the babies into the 20 gallon long in the basement. I can't risk the system for the babies. Yikes!! Link to comment
vlangel Posted January 4, 2015 Author Share Posted January 4, 2015 When I fed the juvenile seahorses as they were all hitched on the same fake plant, they all leaned toward the turkey baster at once and knocked the plant over. It loses something in the telling but it was very funny to watch! :-) Link to comment
vlangel Posted January 4, 2015 Author Share Posted January 4, 2015 Yikes!! I guess I will set up the 20L next week. I am thinking of keeping 4 of the most robust ponies in the 10g attached to the main system but the rest will go in the 20. I will need to use a heater as the temperature was down in the low 60s without one. I guess that means I need a tank divider also to keep the juveniles from hitching to it. Link to comment
markalot Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 So much work Dawn! Good luck. Link to comment
vlangel Posted January 5, 2015 Author Share Posted January 5, 2015 Thanks Mark, I started on the work today. I decided that I can care for the juvies better if they are upstairs with my other tanks. My water source is much more accessible there and the 20L will need lots of water changes as it only has a little LR and a HOB pump. Years ago I bought the 20L to sit on a stone planter, next to our stone fireplace so that's where it's at. I still need to buy a divider so the little ponies are confined enough that I can feed them efficiently. Now they may not need a heater either. Wish me luck! Link to comment
vlangel Posted January 5, 2015 Author Share Posted January 5, 2015 Well I've been pondering an overhaul on the LPS bowfront tank but have decided against it. Although the artist in me loves the look of a more minimalist aquascape I have decided with seahorses I need the benefits of the density and amount of my live rock. I have some very large dense rocks in the bowfront that provide not only nitrifying bacteria but probably denitrifying bacteria as well. Those benefits are just too valuable to sacrifice in the name of artistry. Link to comment
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