jamescstein Posted May 27, 2018 Share Posted May 27, 2018 Since December of 2017 my wife has been raising Hippocampus Erectus sea horses. We bought a pair from Sacs Systems Aquaculture (http://www.aquaculturestore.com/) . When pruchased both were a dark brown/black color. The female now spends most of her time cream colored and has quite the elaborate cirri with some white patches and the male is usually dark brown with some light brown/white patches here and there, his cerri are also much less pronounced. This is a picture of the two of them together. The adults are currently housed in a 70 gallon tank with a 30 gallon sump. Also in the tank with the horses are 3 dragon faced pipefish. A pair of Yasha gobies, a trio of Tagoroa gobies, a pair of Gumdrop Coral Crouchers and 2 Randalls Pistol Shrimp (may or may not be a pair). Our first release of babies was on February 7, 2018 and have had a release almost every 14 days, 2/22, 3/10, 3/27, and 4/12. We either missed a release or they took a break the last month. The male, is currently holding babies and we really don't know he got the eggs so the next release is anybodies guess. We lost the first batch of about 25-30. The second batch started with around 40 and we still have 18-20 of those left. The 3rd we lost all of them. The 4th we have around 55 of those remaining and the last batch we lost all of them. We've currently got about 75 babies some a month and a half and some 3 1/2 months old. When first released we usually keep the babies in a 1.5 gallon plastic pail with an airstone and cheato. These get fed baby brine several times a day exclusively. Untitled by James Stein, on Flickr As they get older, a month or so, we've moved them into a 20L that has a divider. 1 side is marco algae and the other horses and cheato. There is a air lift pump that moves water from the macro side into the horse side and a hole near the surface with a screen on it for return flow to the macro's. These get get a mixture of baby brine and other 'non-live' foods. Untitled by James Stein, on Flickr We just recently moved, them all into their final growout tank where they are fed mostly non-live food, with the occasional enriched adult brine as a treat. Untitled by James Stein, on Flickr The final grow out tank is a 30 gallon over a 20L. It is a bare bottom tank with cheato, the 20L underneath has various macro algae's in it. This is the setup before it was finished and filled. Return is a cobalt MJ Mini 606 wide open. 20L by 29 stand by James Stein, on Flickr You can read more details on her page on her Marine Breeding Initiative page http://www.mbisite.org/Forums/tm.aspx?&m=100924&mpage=1 This is one of the coolest looking babies we currently have, it is from the 4th batch of babies and is around 2 months old. It is roughly 1in from head to tail. Seahorse baby by James Stein, on Flickr 8 1 Quote Link to comment
WV Reefer Posted May 27, 2018 Share Posted May 27, 2018 1 minute ago, jamescstein said: My wife has been raising Hippocampus Erectus sea horses. We've currently got about 75 babies some a month and a half and some 3 1/2 months old. This is one of the coolest ones. It's one of the younger ones. Seahorse baby by James Stein, on Flickr Very cool. Quote Link to comment
1891Bro Posted May 27, 2018 Share Posted May 27, 2018 17 minutes ago, jamescstein said: My wife has been raising Hippocampus Erectus sea horses. We've currently got about 75 babies some a month and a half and some 3 1/2 months old. This is one of the coolest ones. It's one of the younger ones. Seahorse baby by James Stein, on Flickr 15 minutes ago, WV Reefer said: Very cool. It’s no Fonzie though. 1 Quote Link to comment
Pjanssen Posted May 27, 2018 Share Posted May 27, 2018 Is it your plan to sell them? Quote Link to comment
Christopher Marks Posted May 27, 2018 Share Posted May 27, 2018 That is so cool @jamescstein! I’d love to see more of them and the system they’re in. Quote Link to comment
jamescstein Posted May 27, 2018 Author Share Posted May 27, 2018 @Christopher Marks major update with much more details on the whole setup. Quote Link to comment
jamescstein Posted May 27, 2018 Author Share Posted May 27, 2018 This is a video I shot On March 10th of our Male releasing some babies. 1 3 Quote Link to comment
lobster876 Posted May 27, 2018 Share Posted May 27, 2018 any chance of getting some of these? Quote Link to comment
Christopher Marks Posted May 27, 2018 Share Posted May 27, 2018 Absolutely incredible @jamescstein! 😲 Quote Link to comment
jamescstein Posted May 27, 2018 Author Share Posted May 27, 2018 52 minutes ago, lobster876 said: any chance of getting some of these? The long term goal is to sell the babies. That partiuclar one though will probably wind up in a pair to see what other interesting patterns can come out. 1 Quote Link to comment
jamescstein Posted June 5, 2018 Author Share Posted June 5, 2018 New batch of babies this morning. Untitled by James Stein, on Flickr Here is a question I haven't really found a good answer for. What is the smallest size you think someone would be willing to buy a seahorse at? Not a dwarf, but an Erectus that gets to 6-8 inches when fully grown. 1 Quote Link to comment
lobster876 Posted June 5, 2018 Share Posted June 5, 2018 if you found a person who was willing to grow tanks with the seahorse probably 2-3 inches would be my minimum. Although it all depends on the person and wether or not they are willing to hatch bbs Quote Link to comment
jamescstein Posted June 5, 2018 Author Share Posted June 5, 2018 Well my older ones, are about 1" 1" 1/2 and eating ova, frozen bbs, frozen copepods, and frozen mysid (very small) so no live food needed. Sounds like they have a bit of time left to grow out. Quote Link to comment
jamescstein Posted June 21, 2018 Author Share Posted June 21, 2018 Another batch of babies this morning. Some current picks of the groups and yes, we are having a bit of a green water issue in the tanks. Getting better, you can actually see now. Curren't 'older' horses. Mixed ages - eating prepared foods Untitled by James Stein, on Flickr 2 weeks old - eating brine and copepods Untitled by James Stein, on Flickr Born today - eating baby brine Born today - 6-20-18 by James Stein, on Flickr 4 Quote Link to comment
Reef Diver Posted July 9, 2018 Share Posted July 9, 2018 Love the pictures. This is amazing to see! Quote Link to comment
MrsK Posted July 9, 2018 Share Posted July 9, 2018 This is fascinating. Its amazing that the littles survive in the ocean. Quote Link to comment
jamescstein Posted July 26, 2018 Author Share Posted July 26, 2018 We seem to keep missing the babies. It's been over a month since we've had any, the male is obviously pregnant, just other things must be eating the babies before we find them. Since there is nothing new to report, here is a picture of the progress on the 'mixed' teens group. Untitled by James Stein, on Flickr 2 1 Quote Link to comment
Christopher Marks Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 How has the seahorse breeding project been going over the summer @jamescstein? Hope you're well! Quote Link to comment
jamescstein Posted October 9, 2018 Author Share Posted October 9, 2018 1 hour ago, Christopher Marks said: How has the seahorse breeding project been going over the summer @jamescstein? Hope you're well! It’s been going well. We lost a few batches here and there but we’ve started selling on eBay and to a LFS. We’ve actuallly got babies having babies now. Some of the “teens” are over 6 months old and at least 2 if the males have full pouches. 1 Quote Link to comment
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