They are finally Here!

[yveterinarian]

Well this past weekend was a busy one for my fry system. After much procrastination I decided to bring the 75 gallon tank back into the house and hook it up to the fry system. On Saturday I sterilized it, Primed it to de-chlorinate, built a stand for it, put it in place and half filled it. I moved all of the oldest males into it and began making water to fill the rest. After moving the oldest males I moved the 60 gallon cube and emptied it for cleaning. On Sunday I moved all of the known females into the 60 gallon cube and emptied the 10 gallon tanks and cleaned them all. Now the 60 gallon empties into the 75 which in turn empties into the sump with an overflow box. The arrangement of the tanks works beautifully in the laundry room and I even have enough room left over to do laundry!!

The 75 gallon tank in place

The Aisle created in order to reach the two sumps and the brine shrimp.

The 60 gallon moved to the end of the 75 in order to create space to get to the 10 gallon tanks.

The Aisle created by moving the 60 gallon.

An aisle left over for reaching the washer and dryer.

I have two 10 gallon tanks left to fill now and am just waiting for the water to be made. After that I will move the younger males into them and spread them all out. Approximately 6 per tank. I now have 185 gallons plus the 75 gallon sump (filled to 52 gallons) on the fry system to house 114 of the remaining babies. Hopefully that will be enough water to keep them healthy until they are sold.

One of my adults had babies again this Saturday unexpectedly so I called Ray and he came to get them. He contacted me later to tell me there were 179 babies in this batch. I wish Ray much luck. So far he hasn't had much luck raising the ones he has received from me.

 

[sunnykita]

definitely a busy and productive weekend Yvette ! looks great !

 

[saltyair]

Love the updates.

 

[yveterinarian]

It has been a little while since I updated so I thought I would take some pictures today. Earlier this week I found one little boy hiding in the 60 gallon tank with all the little girls so I pulled him out and put him with his brothers in one of the 10 gallon tanks. I think I was too late though and I'm pretty sure he is pregnant! I checked them all so carefully when separating them all but still some fooled me and developed their pouches later than the others...
Here are some pictures of my little ones now:

It is feeding time and these are my youngest ones. They all congregate at the front of the tank close to the surface waiting for their food

A couple of my little girls. One is growing some cirri

One of my little boys in the 75 gallon

I always find it interesting how they all congregate together even if they have a large tank to explore. They do swim the entire tank and will play in the flow of the power heads but when it comes to resting they like to be together.

 

[Cliff]

Do you mind if I ask a few questions?
I have a 40 gal zero edge tank. I would love a horse but I am afraid there may be too much flow in my tank for them. One side has medium to heavy flow. The other side has low flow. Would they be able to handle the med flow if they swam there? Also feeding is always a challange with the zero edge. Food seems to just flow over the sides if not eaten quickly. I imagine this would be another chalange to keeping horses in my tank also?

 

[sunnykita]

awhhh, your updates and photos never fail to make me smile. I'm no where near ready for the seahorses, but hopefully by summer I'll be good to go. They are adorable !

 

[yveterinarian]

Do you mind if I ask a few questions?
I have a 40 gal zero edge tank. I would love a horse but I am afraid there may be too much flow in my tank for them. One side has medium to heavy flow. The other side has low flow. Would they be able to handle the med flow if they swam there? Also feeding is always a challange with the zero edge. Food seems to just flow over the sides if not eaten quickly. I imagine this would be another chalange to keeping horses in my tank also?

Cliff, you can ask as many questions as you would like If I know the answer I'll tell you, if I don't I'll try to find out.
A 40 gallon could very nicely hold 3 seahorses if you like. They do like to have areas of higher flow along with areas of lower flow so I think they would do fine. The theory used to be that they needed a low flow tank but that has now gone out the window. I often find mine "playing" directly in the path of my Koralia 600 powerhead. They swim directly into the current and are able to hold their own. Sometimes they let themselves get blown down the length of the tank by it then swim back for more. Turnover of the tank should be at least 10-15 times/hour and some of the hobbyists I know keep their tank flowing much faster. The trick is often how you diffuse it into the tank so that they get some low flow areas that they can rest in. If you put some strategic hitching posts into the areas of lower flow they would have a great place to hitch and rest.
When I feed my seahorses I always turn off the return pump for about 15-20 minutes to let them eat then I turn it back on again. I dump the food directly into the water column and love to watch them chase the food. I'm going to try to get a video of them eating today so you can see how fast they can be. Some people create a feeding station for their seahorses out of a dish or shell and carefully place the food in it for the seahorses to eat out of. Scubasteve has done this and they eat out of it very well. I'm not sure if he turns his flow off when feeding them but I do know that it gives him an area to put the food and an easy way to clean out any uneaten food before putting in the new food. I often don't have to take out any uneaten food because I used to have some peppermint shrimp in there with them. The shrimp died this spring and I took the risk of adding my Mandarin Goby whom I have had for the last 1.5 years in my reef tank. The goby was being picked on by my 6 Line Wrasse and was getting quite skinny. He is now fat and healthy and eats all of the leftover food in the tank.
I'm not sure if your Edge has a protein skimmer but they are highly recommended for seahorses because they are very messy eaters. They have very rudimentary digestive systems and are unable to fully digest their food so a lot end up in the water column. The skimmer should be rated at least 2-3 times larger than the water volume of your tank in order to satisfactorily keep up with them.
Any other questions you have, feel free to ask. I just love talking about them!

 

[yveterinarian]

My baby gave me babies this morning and it is so rewarding to know they are happy and healthy enough to breed in my system. Since I had to turn off the power heads this morning to stop them pulverizing the fry I decided it would be a great time to remove them all and give them a good cleaning. That, of course led to the thought that it would be a great time to completely scrub the tank especially around the area where the power heads were and the floor of the tank. That, of course, led to cleaning the outside glass... Two hours later I am finally done just in time to eat lunch and head to work. Very productive time spent though. Once the water clears again the main tank will look beautiful. I was able to see what size my large power head was because I had forgotten. It is a 1400 instead of a 600 as I had previously stated. So they can definitely tolerate a larger flow.

 

[sunnykita]

very informative as always ! thanks Yvette !

 

[yveterinarian]

After a year of trying to catch my seahorses giving birth I finally did it this morning! One of the babies I raised myself gave birth to his 4th brood this morning. Forgive the dirty glass, it was tank cleaning day but he beat me to it.

Of course mama was waiting close by and the minute he was done having those babies they were flirting up a storm!

I also received a text from a gentleman who bought a pair of my seahorses to say that they gave birth two days ago. It is always nice to hear that they are healthy and happy enough to have babies.

 

[sunnykita]

that was simply amazing to watch ! looking good Yvette !

 

[scubasteve]

mine havnt had babies that i know of but then again with the amount of caulerpa i have they could have been there lol i know my boys do disappear in it for a day or two deep in it...... guess im gonna have to thin it a bit and yes i do shutoff the return during feeding but have ditched the feeding tray one the boys decided it was a buffet lazy boy and made a mess so now just dump it in like you. mine too seem to like the stronger flow and play in the powerhead quite frequently. i just wish they would stop changing so much so i could tell who is who right now all i can tell is i have 2 boys and a girl and being a first time sh care giver 0 losses is amazing.... i say its all that great stock yvette raised

 

[heath]

wow, that is amazing...

 

[yveterinarian]

Four warning fry this morning...

Here are some more pictures of my little ones. They are changing colors again. There are 6 males who have changed a beautiful pale color in one of the 10 gallon tanks. I couldn't figure out why they all changed then realized that they were in a tank that had a lot of white in it. It is one of the ones that I had to fix the bottom and used white silicone to glue a layer of plexiglass in the bottom. It is really amazing how much decorations can influence their coloring.

The boys

One of the girls in the female tank.

It appears two of the boys in the display tank are pregnant so I anticipate many more fry tomorrow or the next day.

 

[sunnykita]

simply amazing ! I so love your updates !

 

[yveterinarian]

Thanks Sherry I just wish I could get those really, nice crisp pictures that others get. On my viewfinder it looks perfectly in focus and then they all look slightly out of focus once I get them onto the computer.

 

[barebottomcouple]

simply amazing ! I so love your updates !

I agree one of the best threads here thanks yveterinarian

 

[yveterinarian]

simply amazing ! I so love your updates !

I agree one of the best threads here thanks yveterinarian

Thank you both so much. I'm glad that it is of interest to others because I just love my seahorses. If I could, I would fill my house with different seahorses.

 

[curiousphil]

It is very fun to watch this project evolve

Do the males turn into the dark colour? I noticed in your video that the dark coloured ones were much larger and just assumed they were a different species until I read your comment above about colour change.

 

[yveterinarian]

The males seem to stay black and white or go to brown and white. (The exception in my system are the 6 males I have that have all gone pale yellow in one of my ten gallon tanks) The larger ones in the video are the older males and all the smaller ones you see in the video are my babies that I raised. Next year they will all be as big as those larger males. The females get to be as long but aren't as deep in the chest as the males are. When the males are flirting they change color and can get to the pale yellows. Often times a mated pair will change to match each other in color when they are flirting.