Lost Ponies of Atlantis Pico

[seabass]

29 minutes ago, asting said:

You're doing pico baby cardinals?

I considered it, but no, they are doing pretty well in the 20 gallon tank.  It would make for quite the display though.

[vlangel]

Yay!!!  I saw copepods today!  I had planned to scrape some off the 30 gallon seahorse tank but didn't know if the cycle was complete enough to support copepods.  Now I know.

[vlangel]

I did almost a 100% WC today.  I am getting some algae so I need to get a cuc in there soon.

[pricewayne]

May be a silly question, but what’s your plan for the baby horses once they start breeding? This has always baffled me when I’ve read into keeping sea horses. Sell to LFS? Multiply your tanks and build a horse horde?

 

🤔

[vlangel]

On 4/15/2019 at 9:12 PM, pricewayne said:

May be a silly question, but what’s your plan for the baby horses once they start breeding? This has always baffled me when I’ve read into keeping sea horses. Sell to LFS? Multiply your tanks and build a horse horde?

 

🤔

Dwarf seahorse fry are easy to raise because they eat the same food as their parents.  I plan to start with only 3 to 5 adults and a 2.5 gallon can keep 25-30 ponies.  I really have no idea how fast they will reproduce but I have read that they often quit bearing after a year or so.  

 

I have found that lfs dont want dwarf seahorses because of the rigors of feeding them.  Perhaps when I show them my auto hatch feeder they would change their mind and I could sell some ponies.  If not I can set up a 2nd tank and separate the sexes to control their population.  I hope it does not come to that but this is new ground for me.

[pricewayne]

3 hours ago, vlangel said:

Dwarf seahorse fry are easy to raise because they eat the same food as their parents.  I plan to start with only 3 to 5 adults and a 2.5 gallon can keep 25-30 ponies.  I really have no idea how fast they will reproduce but I have read that they often quit bearing after a year or so.  

 

I have found that lfs dont want dwarf seahorses because of the rigors of feeding them.  Perhaps when I show them my auto hatch feeder they would change their mind and I could sell some ponies.  If not I can set up a 2nd tank and separate the sexes to control their population.  I hope it does not come to that but this is new ground for me.

Sea horse horde!! I’m picturing dozens of Pico Tanks lining the entry of your home 😉

[vlangel]

On 4/18/2019 at 11:20 AM, pricewayne said:

Sea horse horde!! I’m picturing dozens of Pico Tanks lining the entry of your home 😉

O no, now I am getting scared!!!

[vlangel]

Life happens and since the Lost Ponies pico does not actually have much in it, its been neglected a bit.  HA is growing on the rocks and the seahorse statue.  Also some of the macro algaes look pale.  I doubt they are getting the nutrients they need since I had not really been feeding the tank.  I decided to move my feeder shrimp in the pico so that the ghosties could feed on the HA and the macro algaes could feed on the shrimp poo.  It kills 2 birds with 1 stone for the moment since it gets the feeder shrimp out of a 5 gallon salt bucket that was in my dinette.  I will try to get a pic of the present condition of the tank soon.

[pricewayne]

5 hours ago, vlangel said:

O no, now I am getting scared!!!

I’m sure you can rehome them if the hordes scare too many visitors away 😉

 

No doubt in a year or two I’ll be reaching out for advice on a seahorse tank. Certainly a future project I’d love to commit to (but like, future future - not any time soon... so much to learn... so little time... so many seahorses!)

[seabass]

For some reason this tank makes me think of Sea Monkeys.

[pricewayne]

31 minutes ago, seabass said:

For some reason this tank makes me think of Sea Monkeys.

I love sea monkeys... I have the old school castle dome tank boxed up somewhere. May be time to get that out, actually.

[Ratvan]

3 hours ago, seabass said:

For some reason this tank makes me think of Sea Monkeys.

Dammit that was my contest backup idea

[vlangel]

4 hours ago, seabass said:

For some reason this tank makes me think of Sea Monkeys.

The pic on the packaging is a bit Atlantis looking.  Actually baby brine shrimp are what used to be referred to as sea-monkeys, and that is what the dwarf seahorses will eat.  Seeing the cute little sea-monkey family on the package and then putting them in the 'lion's den' so to speak seems kind of heartless!😯  I am glad my packaging of cysts is plain and straight forward. 😉

[vlangel]

I cleaned it up some but there is still lots of HA on the codium and other macros.  The xenia is looking good as is the purple photosynthetic sponge.  The jury is still out on the zoas.

[pricewayne]

2 minutes ago, vlangel said:

I cleaned it up some but there is still lots of HA on the codium and other macros.  The xenia is looking good as is the purple photosynthetic sponge.  The jury is still out on the zoas.

When’re you thinking you’ll add the horses? 🤓

[Chris's Fishes]

Great idea for a tank! Can't wait to follow.

 

Also interesting tidbit on the Codium - I can't find a good resource on specific Codium species, but I'd guess there are several common to the aquarium trade. Mine grows little nubs in very tight fashion all along a single branch, and ends up looking like a thick tumbleweed. It refuses to attach to anything, too, even when pushed into a crevice for several months. Grows relatively quickly under good conditions.

 

If this goes well for you, I can see a ton of people trying to emulate the tank!

[vlangel]

2 hours ago, pricewayne said:

When’re you thinking you’ll add the horses? 🤓

We have a week vacation end of June the beginning of July so it probably won't be until after that.

[vlangel]

9 minutes ago, Fisker said:

Great idea for a tank! Can't wait to follow.

 

Also interesting tidbit on the Codium - I can't find a good resource on specific Codium species, but I'd guess there are several common to the aquarium trade. Mine grows little nubs in very tight fashion all along a single branch, and ends up looking like a thick tumbleweed. It refuses to attach to anything, too, even when pushed into a crevice for several months. Grows relatively quickly under good conditions.

 

If this goes well for you, I can see a ton of people trying to emulate the tank!

I also can see more folks getting into keeping dwarf ponies if this works out.

[pgrVII]

Looks good Dawn, I cant  wait to see the ponies! The tank looks big!

[vlangel]

10 hours ago, pgrVII said:

Looks good Dawn, I cant  wait to see the ponies! The tank looks big!

Thanks Patrick, my other tanks are the priority so this one hasn't gotten the love it deserves but some of my outside commitments are ending so I should be freed up somewhat to do a better job on it.  Hopefully the ghost shrimp will eat some of the hair algae too. 😁

[pgrVII]

23 minutes ago, vlangel said:

Thanks Patrick, my other tanks are the priority so this one hasn't gotten the love it deserves but some of my outside commitments are ending so I should be freed up somewhat to do a better job on it.  Hopefully the ghost shrimp will eat some of the hair algae too. 😁

It'll be super cool,hopefully the shrimps help! My cleaner just steals food😂 (not surprising )

[vlangel]

The feeder shrimp performed their magic and the macro algaes are much cleaner, with less HA.  I rewarded them with carnivore diet and emerald entree which they happily devoured.  I also added some green grape caulerpa which I hope vines up the seahorse statue.

[Ratvan]

16 minutes ago, vlangel said:

The feeder shrimp performed their magic and the macro algaes are much cleaner, with less HA.  I rewarded them with carnivore diet and emerald entree which they happily devoured.  I also added some green grape caulerpa which I hope vines up the seahorse statue.

I'll be following along to see where I went wrong with mine 😁😁

[MetaTank]

On 4/24/2019 at 1:41 PM, vlangel said:

The feeder shrimp performed their magic and the macro algaes are much cleaner, with less HA.  I rewarded them with carnivore diet and emerald entree which they happily devoured.  I also added some green grape caulerpa which I hope vines up the seahorse statue.

Looking forward to seeing this one come to fruition! If you could get the caulerpa to grow up the seahorse statue, that would be brilliant

[vlangel]

I added a tiny nassarius snail to help with the sandbed.