ughhhh I have some work to do!

jaws789832 · May 25, 2017

So this is kind of my plan. I had a 10 gallon tank partition laying around so I cut it down to fit into the 5 gallon and put it about 1/3 of the tank. I superglued it into place and when that dries I will run a bead of aquarium safe silicon around the edges to seal it up. I debated doing these things because cleaning it will be harder since I won't be able to remove it but I find, in a tank, if something isn't attached I will for sure knock it over and cause more damage that way.

I made the pony side smaller because I wanted to concentrate the brine when I put them in so the pony (or maybe ponies ) have more of a chance of getting them.Plus it leaves me a little more room for filtration if I need it.

That's sort of what the setup will look like. You can see the brine hatchery on the back wall, and the refuge light on the side. The thought is as the brine hatch and exit the hatchery they will swim to the light, I will put a hitching plant over there close and the ponies should get a pretty good meal. Keep in mind the hatchery is for when I am at work. I will throw some decapped eggs in there the night before I go to work and it should give them a good feeding while I am at work for 2 days. When I am home I will continue to hatch brine the conventional way so they will get good feedings then. I will do a 1 gallon water change a week syphoning out the bottom in the pony area to keep it clean. Since its bare bottom that should be easy, I am also going to paint the bottom of the tank a tan color so it looks like sand. The other side will have the HOB (or maybe canister) skimmer, heater, and maybe an upflow scrubber (that I have lying around). When I get it set up I will decide which filter I am going to use. I have a smaller one and a bigger one that the one pictured, plus the 2 canister filters. I am thinking my decision is going to be based on flow. I am not sure how much flow will get through that screen so I want the right amount. I know the ponies don't like a lot of flow so when I get it up and running I will test out the different filters to see which one works best.

This all seems like a good idea to me but if anyone has any other suggestions let me know

monimo · May 25, 2017

jaws789832 said:
I just threw some more brine in and he ate a bunch of them. I kept the tank dark and shined a flashlight close to him and the brine all followed the light so he had a really good smorgasbord. I was happy to see that, but still no sign of the pipe

i hope you fine the pipe is there a lid i rember i used to have a eel that jumps out of the tank

monimo · May 25, 2017

looks good pipe fish need room to live if you plan to keep them later

monimo · May 25, 2017

could you tel lwhat type of pipe fish they are?
OMG I JUST FOUND BRINE SHIRMP FRY IN MY TANK how! i never put live in there odd

monimo · May 25, 2017

here a site to help take care of your pipe fish and sea pony
http://www.petguide.com/breeds/fish/pipefish/
Don't buy seahorses kept with pipefish. They are relatives of seahorses that can carry diseases that a captive bred seahorse has no resistance to. They are likely to carry parasites that are easily passed on to seahorses. The same thing goes for other seahorse relatives.
Decorate with care. Seahorses also need different tank decoration from most fish. Wall to wall live rock would not be a good decoration for them. You should get lots of hitching posts for your seahorses to hook their tails onto. They like that!

Some common hitching posts include:
- brightly coloured poly rope
- plastic and silk plants
- macro algae
- artificial branching corals
Live rock is still an important part of a seahorse's tank. Don't put too much of it, though. Tonga rock is a good choice, because it provides both live rock and a hitching post for your seahorse.
Make sure your tank is the right size. 20 gallons per seahorse is the minimum for a couple of seahorses. 40 gallons per couple of seahorses is for very big seahorse species, like H. abdominalis or H. ingens. The tank should be tall, because seahorses swim vertically. The minimum tank size is three times the tot
Consider your food options. Captive bred seahorses are usually grown on frozen food. They are also often adapted early to eat whatever is thrown into the tank, though this doesn't fully solve the seahorse feeding problem. Many foods available in the market are not suitable for a seahorse's stable diet. Mysis is a popular frozen food for seahorses that is usually expensive and only available from freshwater sources. Brine shrimp is not very nutritious. Small krill is a good food choice, but many seahorses don't like it.al adult height of the seahorse. This should be after you subtract the depth of your sand bed.
Feed your seahorse at least twice a day. It is also important to feed young seahorses more often, about three to four times a day as they grow. oh btw they need to eat alot hope this helps

monimo · May 25, 2017

Tips

You can buy seahorses that are kept with captive-bred fish like gobies
Warnings
- Never buy wild seahorses
- Seahorses should be kept at lower temperatures. They are very sensitive to bacteria.
- Be aware of shared systems at aquariums.
Things You'll Need
- Tank
- Seahorse food
- Tank filter
- Hitching posts

jaws789832 · May 25, 2017

Remember this is a Dwarf seahorse. It only gets about an inch. they are also ambush hunters and won't usually take frozen. That is why for them, almost the smaller tank the better. When you drop in 10,000 brine shrimp into a 20 gallon tank its just a drop in a bucket and the chances of 1 swimming by the ponies nose is pretty small. But when you put 10000 in 1-2 gallons the odds get way better. I was almost thinking a 5 gallon was too big, and was almost going to go buy a 2.5 gallon. But then I thought the stability of a 2.5 gallon would be real hard for me to manage with my schedule. That's why I opted for the 5 with a partition. Just to give you an idea of the size of this thing. That's a penny I am holding on the tank. Seabiscuit is probably less than 1/2 inch from the glass in this shot and attached to a standard ziptie. the edge of the acrylic on the box he is in is 3/16th of an inch. this thing is tiny and would get lost in a large tank.

here is the whole tank he is in with the acclimation box inside the tank

the Pony is in the same spot but you can't even see him in the FTS. I have to put my nose right up to the glass to find him LOL. Still no sighting of the Pipe though so I am thinking he is either in one of those LR on the bottom of the tank, in which case he will be fine because there are sooooo many pods in this tank for him to eat, or he got sucked over the overflow in which case he is dead and even if I tried to get him out it would be nearly impossible because he too was real small and there is no way for me to maneuver anything in the back of this tank to get him. I am hoping 1 day he emerges from the rocks all fat and happy but its out of my hands now and my efforts will go towards the pony

monimo · May 26, 2017

maybe you should try hand feeding them i think you can train them

jaws789832 · Jun 11, 2017

Seabiscuit is still doing great and has about doubled in size. He is still in the qt tank, but the cycle on his new home is coming along great and i am hoping will be complete real soon.
Still no sign of the pipe though so I am afraid he is a casualty.
I have a pretty good system of feeding live brine and my wife is going along with it while I am at work but I cant say for how long she will be willing to do this so I am diligently working on a feeding system for when I am at work for 2 days. I tried the Toms in tank hatcher and feeder with limited success. Seems there is a flaw with this, as they will hatch just fine but very few swim out of the device when the air is off. They just stay in the hatching chamber until they die off. The fact that the thing is opaque they just swim up in the hatching chamber towards the light. They should design it so the hatching chamber is all dark causing the only light to come from the exit to entice them to swim out.
I have designed a couple of prototypes DIY and they are in the testing mode right now. My plan is to use a two prong system.
1. In the morning I leave for work I will fill up a quart bottle with freshly hatched brine shrimp. Over the course of that first day my controller will pump air into the bottle causing the brine to flow out a hose into the tank. This should cover the first day. My only concern is adding a quart of brine water to a 5 gallon tank will affect the salinity of the tank, thats why I asked in another thread id brine can survive in ro/di and if so for how long (up to a day would be great).
2. For the second day, the morning I leave for work I will put some decapped hatching eggs in my DIY in tank hatcher. I will leave it bubbling for about 30 hours at wich point the pump will shut off and hopefully the hatched brine will swim out providing a steady meal for the second day. This is the beat plan I can come up with for a 2 day feeding automation.
The 5 gallon tank goes through about a quart a day in evaporation, so on the first day the ato wont kick on much. I will do a water change every week before I go to work so the slimey water that gets added with the brine shouldnt have too much of an impact on water quality, plus the little tank is over filtered with a canister, a tunze in tank filter and a tunze skimmer. Plus the way I designed the in tank hatcher will act as a sponge filter as well to a certain degree.
I am hoping all this works out because I want to get seabiscuit some friends but only time will tell.
Anyways that is a not so quick update on the status of my unexpected guests

Giraffe0621 · Jun 23, 2017

any update on Seabiscuit?

jaws789832 · Jun 23, 2017

He (if he is a he) is still doing great. Still in the acclimation box in the qt though. I was hoping his new tank would be cycled by now but this one seems to be going slower than most. Ammonia is finally coming down but but slower than any other tank I have set up.

If those pics come out they were taken about a week ago. The third will be his new home when it finishes the cycle

Giraffe0621 · Jun 23, 2017

He's a lucky dude to have shown up in your mysis bag! I'm guessing he may have gone unnoticed for some. Keep the updates coming -- awesome to hear he's doing well

jaws789832 · Jun 23, 2017

Yeah once he gets in the new tank I hope to get him some new friends. That in itself is a little nervewracking because the reputable venders seem to have quit selling the dwarves and the only ones I can find are probably wild caught which I try to avoid

jaws789832 · Jul 15, 2017

OK here is an update on the dwarf tank. Things are all set up and running smoothly. The tank finished its cycle over a week ago and I went ahead and ordered some buddies for seabiscuit. I also came up with a pretty good way to feed them over the course of a couple of days while I am at work. Been testing it out for about 3 weeks and it seems to work great. I can make the brine last about 3 days, but on the 3rd day the pickin's are a little slim.

To the left of the tank there is a container that has 2 tubes running to it. 1 of the tubes is for an air bubbler that gently keeps the live brine in motion. the other tube goes to a pump that is in the filter sider of the tank. I also drilled a hole in the container and added a bulkhead. 4 times a day the pump kicks on for 1 minute. this overflows the water and some brine into the seahorse section. the bubbler keeps the brine in motion going up and down so not all of them are swept into the tank. On the morning I leave for work, I put a good amount of live brine and some phyto for them to eat, and when I get home 2 days later there is still some brine left alive in the feeder. the water stays pretty clean because its getting fresh water 4 times a day. My filtration seems to be keeping up with the nasty brine water just fine so far. Its actually working so good its how I have been feeding all the time, not just when I am at work. On the right side of the tank divider is the filtration compartment. I have a tunze skimmer and filter in there. I had to play around with the positioning of the filter because it was causing too much flow and the ponies were getting blown around. I also added a bubbler on the pony side because the surface on that side of the divider wasn't getting skimmed well enough and was getting sort of a crust. All this was played around with before the ponies were bought and the live brine has been going in for about a month now. I figured they would help with the cycle, sort of a ghost feeding.

How many ponies can you see in this picture. There are 13 in the tank total, and I think I could count 10 in this shot. I bought a 10 pack, which came with 12, I lost one during shipping

but gained a baby once I put them in, plus seabiscuit. The are all eating well and a real joy to watch.

That's seabiscuit. He was almost completely black before I put her in the tank and now she appears to be changing colors. The picture isn't very good because she wasn't cooperating for the camera and the colors are way off. The areas that look purple in the picture are actually black, and the whiter areas are a darker greyish. She is harrier than all the other ones though so I hope she fits in with her new stable mates. So far the all seem to be getting along fine.

That's the baby of the group. On the day they came in I broke out my magnifying glasses and was looking in the acclimation tank and saw her hanging onto papa for dear life. I was real careful placing them in the tank and they stayed clung to one another for a few days. Then one day she ws gone. I broke out the macro lens for my camers and looked all over and finally found her. she has about doubled in size and eats like a champ. She is still real tiny though and it takes me a little while to find her every day.

JALIASC · Jul 15, 2017

Wow it looks like you are doing an amazing job!

vlangel · Jul 15, 2017

I am sorry that I missed your updates but I am very impressed with the tank you came up with along with a feeding system for your dwarf seahorses. Especially considering it was a rescue attempt. You have done a stellar job. Well done!

Devaji · Jul 16, 2017

yes I just read the whole thread...what a journey! as you know I was/am thinking about a set up like this.
a 5 gal AIO type of think. deciced not to go it but now after reading your thread just maybe...haha

can you PM where you got your ponies from PLS

Critterheaven · Jul 17, 2017

Very cool set up! Amazing what you have done for someone who accidentally got in to it!

jaws789832 · Jul 17, 2017

Thank you all. That's one of the down sides (or an upside I guess) of someone like me getting into a hobby. I feel life is precious and will do everything I can to save every critter I come across. Heck at first I even didn't like killing aptaisia, but I got over that quickly once I found out how fast they multiply LOL. Everyone is still doing really well (even the baby), except I am getting a diatom bloom. I was worried about that with all the plastic plants I have in there. Hopefully I can keep on top of it. Would like to get some snail to put in there but I fear introducing some unwanted pests. How does one go about making sure snails are clean before putting them in the tank? I thought about those little ciriths that reefcleaners sell. I need to restock my main tank as well so was going to get a cleaner package and just throw a few in the dwarf tank but I need to make sure they are pest free and don't know how to go about that.
I also ordered an oxydator mini for the dwarf tank. I am worried that since (with the feeding system I have developed) I am putting a lot of O2 deficient water in the tank from the brine setup so I figured even with the bubblers and skimmer I have the oxydator wouldn't hurt.
Will the diatoms hurt the ponies? Some are forming on their hitching plants and it is pretty hard to get off. I do about a 30-40% water change every week (every 6 days to be exact, the night before I go to work).