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Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus reidi
Sunday, August 22, 2010 12:06 AM
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Breeding Journal DataSheet
This first post should be updated regularly to include new information as events take place or changes are made to your system General Species: Hippocampus reidi Social Structure: Two mated pairs Size of Individuals: 6" Age of Individuals: 2+ years Date added to Tank: 21 July 2010 Broodstock Tank Details Size of Tank: 65 Gallons Substrate Details: Sand bed Filtration Details: Polyester sock, Protein skimmer, Chaetomorpha in sump, Rowaphos in phosphate reactor, live rock Water Changes: 25% weekly (daily while fry kreisel is operating) Water Temperature: 72-76 F Lighting: HO T5 2 x 39 W, 1 Actinic 450 and 1 Super Daylight 6500 K Lighting Cycle: 12 Hr photoperiod Other Tank Inhabitants: Clean up crew-- Turbo snails and red-legged hermits Broodstock Feeding Details Food Types: PE Mysis, Hikari Mysis, Enriched Brine, occasional live ghost shrimp Feeding Schedule: 2-3 times daily Spawning Details Date of First Spawn: Both males arrived pregnant. First broods lost to filter sock. First spawn in my tank was 2 August, 2010. Spawn Time of Day: Not witnessed. Dates of Consecutive Spawns: 20 August, 2010, and 23 August, 2010 (different males), 3 September, 2010. Courtship Details: Larry loves Freckles, and Big Bob loves Miss Piggy. Egg Size: Egg Color: Egg Count: Hatch Details Hatch Date: First brood birthed 19 August, 2010. Hatch Time of Day: About 1:00 AM # Days after Spawn: 16 1/2 Larvae Description: Several hundred (appx. 375) small fry about 7 mm long Larval Tank Details Temperature: Ambient room temp ~ 72 F Size of Larval Tank: Jelliquarium Ephyra grow-out: http://www.jelliquarium.c...ls.aspx?productID=3112 Alternative tanks used are 1-gallon fishbowls lit from top and bottom, with an airline in one corner. Substrate Details: Bare bottom Other Tank Decor: None Filtration Details: 10 Gallon sump with HOB Penguin Bio-Wheel 350 filter + bio balls + live rock The 1-gallon tanks have no filtration, per se. Live T-Iso used as greenwater. Twice daily siphoning and frequent small water changes, plus judicious use of AmQuel Plus and Prime. Lighting: 15W fluorescent Lighting Cycle: 24 hrs Water Changes: 50-75% daily. The small fishbowls get frequent (2-3 times a day), small (10%) water changes. Larval Feeding Details Food Types: Enriched rotifers, Enriched Instar II-III BBS, Apocyclops panamensis, Euterpina acutifrons Brood #2 was fed almost exclusively A. panamensis. They got a few rotifers on day One, and some enriched BBS, but they never really liked the BBS. The are copepod pigs! Feeding Schedule: Many times daily. Every time their guts don't look full, and when the snicking stops. 4-5 times daily at first, and then more like 2-3 times daily at two weeks. Metamorphosis/Settlement Date of Settlement Start: Hitching seen with some individuals of Brood #2 at Day 11. Days after Hatch: Date of Settlement End: Description of Fry:
Grow-Out Tank Details Temperature: Size of Grow-Out Tank: Substrate Details: Other Tank Decor: Filtration Details: Lighting: Lighting Cycle: Water Changes: Size at Transfer: Age at Transfer: Grow-Out Feeding Details Food Types: Feeding Schedule: Additional Information Miscellaneous Information: You will be required to provide photographic evidence in this thread of each event submitted for the MBI Program.
If your thread does not contain these photos the MBI Committee will not be able to approve your reports.
<message edited by JimWelsh on Saturday, September 4, 2010 1:25 AM>
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus reidi
Sunday, August 22, 2010 4:27 PM
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Wow Jim, it looks like we are in a very similar situation! I received 2 pregnant males from a seller on 8-19 and they both gave birth in acclimation. Good luck!
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus reidi
Sunday, August 22, 2010 8:43 PM
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The first brood documented in this Breeding Journal was the offspring of the seahorses named "Freckles" and "Larry". This morning, I awoke to a second brood, this time the offspring of "Miss Piggy" and "Big Bob". Only about 120 fry in this brood.
Since the kreisel is busy right now as a home for Brood #1, I put these few fry in a 1 gallon fishbowl, and made a small kreisel out of it by bubbling air up from the center of the bottom of the bowl (user BlakeT's suggestion made over on MOFIB). This brood got a first food of Apocyclops panamensis, and they immediately started eating them up! They seem to prefer the copepodites. The adults get their interest, but are generally too active and fast. The nauplii are too small to be interesting. I also tried some rotifers on them, but they weren't interested in them. Later in the day, I did a 90% water change, and added in a very dense culture of A. panamensis, and about 10% of a medium-dense T-Iso culture to give them greenwater (brownwater?). I put the whole setup on top of an inverted 5-gallon tank, with the light underneath, to draw them down, away from the top to hopefully avoid the air snicking problem.
Meanwhile, Brood #1 got a nice meal of enriched BBS. They ate well -- many full bellies to be seen. A total of about 110 fry have been culled from Brood #1. I still don't have any idea how many remain.
Since I'm new here, I have a stupid question: How do I edit my first post in this thread to update it? I don't see any "Edit" button or option available to me. What am I missing? TIA -- Jim.
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus reidi
Sunday, August 22, 2010 8:48 PM
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Oh! I forgot the pictures: Fat fry from Brood #1:  Newborn fry from Brood #2 this morning:  Fry hunting copepod from Brood #2 this afternoon: 
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus reidi
Sunday, August 22, 2010 9:09 PM
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Jim,
When you mouse over the "reply to message" button you should get an edit option.
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus reidi
Monday, August 23, 2010 9:16 AM
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Nice pictures Jim.
BTW, once you start filling out breeding reports, note that for livebearers, like seahorse or banggai, the spawn and hatch occure at the same time. I'm not certain on settlement; perhaps Tal can chime in regarding that.
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus reidi
Monday, August 30, 2010 10:41 PM
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Well, it looks like Doni Marie was right about these: At Day 12, Brood #1 has only about 3 healthy fry left out of an original 375 or so! At about day 8, they just stopped eating. I doubt any will ultimately survive. They got rotifers as first food, and enriched BBS after about day 2 or 3, plus some A. panamensis copepods as supplements. I've been culturing them in live T-Iso green water. Brood #2, on the other hand, is doing a little better. They got A. panamensis copepods as first food. They only saw rotifers on Day 1 long enough for me to see that they weren't interested in them. They have had a dense culture of copepods every day, and also enriched BBS as a supplement. They've been in live T-Iso based green water every day, too. They are at Day 9 today. A power outage today caused today's culture of enriched BBS to suffocate, so Brood #2 has only the copepods to eat today, but they are still chowing down. Here's a picture:  I am expecting another large brood this coming weekend, and another smaller one shortly after that. I'll keep experimenting with foods and culture vessels and will report what I did and how it worked out here.
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus reidi
Tuesday, August 31, 2010 3:59 AM
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 Originally Posted by Rook
Nice pictures Jim.
BTW, once you start filling out breeding reports, note that for livebearers, like seahorse or banggai, the spawn and hatch occure at the same time. I'm not certain on settlement; perhaps Tal can chime in regarding that.
I'll use Banggai as an example. A holding male is considered a spawn, hatching and settlement is achieved when the male releases viable offspring
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus reidi
Tuesday, August 31, 2010 5:45 AM
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So, Jim had a spawn when the male was holding, hatch and settlement once the ponies were released?
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus reidi
Tuesday, August 31, 2010 8:43 AM
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With pelagic fry like H. reidi, wouldn't settlement be when they start hitching?
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus reidi
Tuesday, August 31, 2010 11:41 AM
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Originally Posted by JimWelsh
With pelagic fry like H. reidi, wouldn't settlement be when they start hitching?
That is my understanding. Banggai are a bit different.
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus reidi
Tuesday, August 31, 2010 1:44 PM
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Jim, the two week point is tough.
IME, once reidi begin to hitch, they prefer crawling pods. The two that I had survive (from the several batches I tried) ate mostly crawling pods and very little from the water column. They loved to hunt from the bottom, sides and on their hitches. It takes a LOT of pods for just a few juvies but try some the next go.
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus reidi
Wednesday, September 1, 2010 11:23 PM
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus reidi
Thursday, September 2, 2010 9:02 AM
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Nice photos! They are looking good, Jim. I still have nightmares about losing all my H. comes. Pelagic seahorses were very frustrating for me.
--Andy, the bucket man. "Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus reidi
Saturday, September 4, 2010 1:46 AM
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus reidi
Saturday, September 4, 2010 5:33 PM
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Good luck with this batch Jim! Congrats on the 20 that are doing well. Every day is a success!
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus reidi
Saturday, September 4, 2010 5:35 PM
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The O. marina like that RotiGrow+ and NRich, and will get your copepod production back up....  Just saying....
--Andy, the bucket man. "Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus reidi
Saturday, September 4, 2010 9:34 PM
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Yeah, I know what you mean Andy, but I've been culturing the copepods with live T-Iso, and have just kept a "stock maintenance" culture of O. marina, and not a production one. I'm working on ramping up the O. marina production now, since my T-Iso is running short.
I see that you and Gale (at least) are continuing to successfully maintain A. panamensis cultures raised on O. marina and phyto pastes. What is the current protocol you are using?
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus reidi
Saturday, September 4, 2010 11:43 PM
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The O. marina reproduces so fast, you can halve the culture twice a day. Heck, you can be in production mode in a couple of days, tops.
The O. marina: .75 mL/gal, twice per day of RotiGrow+, AND 2-3 drops of NRich per gallon, twice per day.
For the Apocyclops, I harvest about 1/5th of the culture daily and replace that water with O. marina.
To all of it, I give 1 mL/gal. of ClorAmX per gallon, twice per day.
--Andy, the bucket man. "Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus reidi
Saturday, September 4, 2010 11:56 PM
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Thanks, Andy!
The ClorAm-X is at a concentration of 16 tsp / Liter, yes?
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