Raising a baby seahorse or two?

[vlangel]

Hi folks, I am taking an opinion poll...I am thinking of offering my 6 week old captive bred baby seahorses to local hobbyist for $15. By the time they are 6 weeks old they will be completely off newly hatched baby brine and on to adult brine shrimp which multiple lfs' s sell. That is a significant savings from adult seahorses but these little guys still need a lot of special care: enriching and cleaning their brine shrimp, cleaning their nursery and weaning them onto frozen mysis, not to mention that they need fed 3-4 times a day. There is risk but not as much as when they were first born. Would you try it?

 

[Oscaror]

I would in your circumstances but my LFS doesn't sell BBS and it's enough to raise the animal, I don't also wanna raise the food. But I'd do it if I could buy the BBS.

 

[FinzAquatics]

I would probally wait until they are eating prepared foods.. They can be hard enough to get eating as adults after transferring from store to home... I imagine the juveniles would be slightly harder to acclimate to new surroundings and switch to prepared foods at the same time..

 

[vlangel]

Thanks for the input. I have decided to wait until they are eating frozen mysis. They are so labor intensive that I was looking for a way to lighten my work load, but from the different opinions on different forums I have decided that it is too risky for the little seahorses.

 

[FinzAquatics]

Probably a good idea, never hurts to be a little patient.

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Well, what they said about being parents, there's no easy way to do this it will be the best when you are ready for babies. Or in this case baby seahorses.

-Yating

 

[vlangel]

Well, what they said about being parents, there's no easy way to do this it will be the best when you are ready for babies. Or in this case baby seahorses.

-Yating

AMEN to that! Unfortunately I ordered 2 adult females but received a male and female. They were not even in my tank 2 weeks when they mated, LOL, which I guess means they liked their new home. I still have 15 and I do a 4-5 gallon water change every day. They are almost converted to frozen food which helps a lot. Folks who raise seahorses advise waiting until they are sexually mature to sell which is usually around 4 months. I am half way there.

 

[vlangel]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9FKFji64Z5s
Here is the last video I took of them.

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Wow, they caught you out of no where! Hope everything will get better and better from here Congrats on the newborns!!

 

[fishroomlady]

sooo cool! love them, they are getting big!

 

[vlangel]

sooo cool! love them, they are getting big!

Thanks fishroomlady, yes they are getting big! Today when I fed the frozen mysis/brine shrimp a bigger than usual piece was floating around. None of the seahorses wanted to try it until one of the smaller babies decided to give it a go. Just like toddlers, it doesn't look desirable until someone has it! All of a sudden every pony in the nursery wanted that piece of food and the little seahorse was swimming for all he was worth trying to preserve his treasure from the entire herd that now were after their share. It was comical.

 

[vlangel]

The juvenile seahorses are 12 weeks old today! I still have 15 but little Pippy is not growing in spite of me catering to his needs so he may not make it. Every one else is doing great. They are weaned on to frozen food and I am upping the percentage of mysis in the mixture of frozen omega brine shrimp and mysis. This week I may try to increase the amount at each feeding so I can cut the meals to 3Xs a day from the current 4. I am thinking in another month or so the biggest of the juvies will be ready for new homes. That will be my next challenge to place them where they will be well cared for.

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

That is so awesome!!!

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

The juvenile seahorses are 12 weeks old today! I still have 15 but little Pippy is not growing in spite of me catering to his needs so he may not make it. Every one else is doing great. They are weaned on to frozen food and I am upping the percentage of mysis in the mixture of frozen omega brine shrimp and mysis. This week I may try to increase the amount at each feeding so I can cut the meals to 3Xs a day from the current 4. I am thinking in another month or so the biggest of the juvies will be ready for new homes. That will be my next challenge to place them where they will be well cared for.

Sounds like a great news! Care to put more pics up for us?

-Y

 

[vlangel]

Sounds like a great news! Care to put more pics up for us?

-Y

Ok, I will try to get some pics of them. It's trickier now that 11 of them are in a 20g L without a light, just an overhead hanging lamp from the ceiling. There may not be enough light for a good photo. I'll try though.

 

[vlangel]

http://s36.photobucket.com/user/vla.../20150120_142431_zpsd959e5d5.jpg.html?filters[user]=141606855&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0

Ok, I said it was going to be hard to get a good pic but here it is!

 

[vlangel]

Ok, let's try that again.

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

They look great!! They are getting so big!!

 

[Gopi]

Very nice! In another month or so I hope to have my tank ready for horses...

 

[vlangel]

They look great!! They are getting so big!!

They are getting big and are so nosey about everything. Any time I do anything in their tank they all take off en mass to check it out! It's very cute.