They are finally Here!

[yveterinarian]

After over a year and a half of waiting since my last batch of fry I woke up this morning to find these little darlings!!

I'm not sure but there appear to be a couple of hundred seahorse fry in this batch.  I decided not to count them but will probably keep a tally of the ones that don't make it so I will have a better estimate later. The father is approximately 1 year old and the mother is only about 9 months old so I was very surprised to see this many fry.  They are approximately 12mm long and very healthy looking.  I spent about 2 hours this morning fishing them out and putting them into the fry setup that I built last January.  It is so nice to finally be able to use it.    Here is a link to the setup I built if anyone is interested in reading about it. http://www.thefragtank.ca/forum/index.php?topic=3910.0
Now comes the hard work with multiple feedings per day of newly hatched brine shrimp and lots of water changes.  Since this is a first batch of babies for this couple, most likely most of the fry won't make it but I look on this as the beginning of my learning curve towards raising healthy fry. I'll try to keep this post going with photos as the fry grow.  My fingers are crossed...

 

[Poseidon]

That's awesome!!! Best of luck!

 

[monizb]

That's amazing

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk

 

[Marz]

One of the coolest thins I have seen!

 

[sunnykita]

Woo Hooo ! Big Congratulations Yvette ! it's been a long time coming, I'm excited for you ! wishing you the best of luck raising these little guys ! Can hardly wait for the updates !

 

[reeferkeeper420]

Thats awesome!!! I also like that random chickens face in the bottom left hand side..kinda goes with the pic lol

 

[EricTMah]

AMAZING!

Good luck with raising them.  I've always wanted sea horses

 

[RYOUNVS]

That's awesome! One of my favourite posts so far! Very cool!

 

[Petercar (RIP Dec 2017)]

canada corals has a nice jellyfish tank  that be good for seahorses

 

[yveterinarian]

Thats awesome!!! I also like that random chickens face in the bottom left hand side..kinda goes with the pic lol

LOL, I didn't really notice because I'm so used to seeing the stickers I put on that wall.  It's actually one of the cartoon fish from "Finding Nemo".  I have the stickers plastered all over that wall.  There's even a seahorse one which is why they ended up on the wall in the first place. ;D

 

[yveterinarian]

Day one and I have only lost one.  However, I had a huge setback in that my brine shrimp didn't hatch so I couldn't feed them today.  I started a new batch this morning and two tonight using different eggs and my fingers are crossed.  It is so frustrating because they have always hatched for me before.  I should have tested the eggs a few days ago I guess.  My fingers are crossed for tomorrow.  All the babies were still actively swimming tonight at 9 when I checked on them.  I'm hoping their egg sac will last until tomorrow so they won't be too adversely affected but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[yveterinarian]

Here are a couple of pictures I took yesterday.  One is of the babies in the fry tank.  If you look closely you can even see some hitched on the string between the beads! (Hint: look at the pink beads) The other is one of a baby beside a ruler to give an idea of the size.

 

[yveterinarian]

Yipee the food hatched!! They have now had their first feeding and I think I could see some eating but it is so hard to tell since everything is so tiny.  They are still swimming strongly today, thank goodness. 

 

[curiousphil]

Thats so awesome Yvette, thanks for sharing this with us!  I'm excited to see them grow.

 

[mark0933]

Hey Yvette are they reidi or erectus? 

Mark

 

[sunnykita]

very exciting stuff ! happy dance for you !

 

[yveterinarian]

Hey Yvette are they reidi or erectus? 

Mark

Hi Mark - they are Erectus.

Today I actually saw them snicking up the brine shrimp! Granted, I had to have a magnifying glass, but it was so cool.  I only lost 10 fry today.

 

[sunnykita]

that's fabulous news Yvette! good that they are eating for you and the brine are hatching as they should now !

 

[MrHermit85]

Congrats!!! I still remember reading your build way back when, fascinating little creatures! I hope the fry do well!!!

 

[yveterinarian]

Thanks all.    Today I got out the super strong magnifying glass to watch them eat.  Many of them deliberately came over to the front of the tank to see me and boy can they move!  I had all of the flow turned off to maximize their chances of getting food and they could make it across the tank in a couple of seconds! For something only a centimeter long that's quick!  I could also see their little eyes looking at me.    I got out my camera to take a picture thru the magnifying glass and the battery was dead  :'(  It's charging now then I'll try to get a picture to post.  Only lost 20 today.  After losing 20 today and 10 yesterday it still looks as if I have as many as I started with so there must be more than 200 there (my original estimate).

My little boy is beginning to look fat again so there may be another batch of babies in another week and a half.    I may get more than I bargained for with this...