Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus Erectus

General
Species:  Hippocampus Erectus
Social Structure:  Male / Female
Size of Individuals:  TBD
Age of Individuals:  TBD
Date added to Tank:  12/28/10

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  35 gallon Hex
Substrate Details:  4" Fine Sand
Filtration Details:  Marineland BioWheel 280; DSB; caulerpa to be added
Water Changes:  5 gallons per week
Water Temperature:  72-74
Lighting:  NO lighting
Lighting Cycle:  10hrs on
Other Tank Inhabitants: None yet; planning Trochus, Nassarius, Peppermint Shrimp, maybe banggai

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Hykari Mysis; Enriched Brine Shrimp
Feeding Schedule:  2 time per day

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn: 
Spawn Time of Day: 
Dates of Consecutive Spawns: 
Courtship Details: 
Egg Size: 
Egg Color: 
Egg Count: 

Hatch Details
Hatch Date: 
Hatch Time of Day: 
# Days after Spawn: 
Larvae Description: 


Larval Tank Details
Temperature: 
Size of Larval Tank: 
Substrate Details: 
Other Tank Decor: 
Filtration Details: 
Lighting: 
Lighting Cycle: 
Water Changes: 

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types: 
Feeding Schedule: 

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start: 
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(NO PHOTOS OR VIDEO): 



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Rook

Finally (only over a year later) I'm back at.  I have a seahorse tank set and Santa got me a pair of Erectus for Christmas, though he is having FedEx deliver them on Tuesday   

  

Here are a few pictures of the setup.  a 35 gallon hex tank, 4" of sand, a few pounds of liverock from my reef tank, a hang-on bio-wheel filter.  You can see that I'm trying out the idea of a heater inside of a pvc pipe with a air hose bubbling up through the middle.  I'm not sure its creating much current, but if noting else it should keep the horses away from the heater and it should circulate some of the water in the bottom of the tank to the top and help keep the oxygen levels consistent throughout the tank. 

Attached Image(s)

Rook

I'm going to QT the ponies for at least a week to help acclimate them, make sure they are eating, and to get used to how much they eat and how they behave.  Here is the QT tank setup; very simple with sponge filter and not much else.  I have a plastic plant and some air to provide hitches.  In the second picture you can see my attempt at a feeding station. 

 

 

 

 

 

[UPDATED WITH THIS NEW THREAD WITH THE NEW FORMAT AND DELETING THE OLD ONE]

Attached Image(s)

Rook

Just a thought... you might want to get a bright colored fake plant for the display tank like the one in the QT. The SHs will be more likely to color up if they have something else colorful in with them.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

The plant in the QT will move to the display when the seahorses do.

Rook

Added some caulerpa prolifera to the display tank today. Hopefully it takes hold, I did not acclimate it very well from the display tank. Also added some grape caulerpa (racemosa?) to the QT; not sure that's a good idea. Ponies arE delayed until Thursday due to Fedex problems.

Rook

I've never done any type of acclimation for macro and have never had any problems.

 

FedEx is probably tied up with the storm out east. Better safe than sorry.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Still think I need some more water flow, the water is definately moving but its quite calm.  May have to look into a new maxijet with a spong prefilter to prevent any seahorse tail damage.

Rook

The Ponies just arrived.  They are floating in the QT tank, trying to warm up.  I'll upload pictures later tonight (wish I could upload pics via Iphone).  So far so good, they are smaller than expected, but they have nice saddle markings and the female has nice cirri (male not so much).  Color is bland right now but I'm sure they will color up in time.
 
 

Rook

They are now comfortably in their new home.  My son got a big kick out of scooping them out of the bag by hand and placing them in the QT.  I'm surprised at how much they, the male in particular, swim around.  Now to get them to eat...
 
 
I realize that my feeding station is far to big and I'll have to find something that will work better.  Currently is a half cup tupperware cup.  Is simply too deep, nearly as deep as the horse are when curled up.  I'll have to dig around the house and find something better.

Rook

Mine lost the cirri after a while. They grow quite quickly so don't worry about size. Their color will brighten up after they calm down a bit.  Can't wait for pics! 

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

I spoke too fast apparently.  I just witnessed the female eating out of the feeding dish; and the male was eating some mysis that floated by  

 

 

Here you go.  This, I believe, is the male.  Sorry for the dark, cruddy pictures, I've not turned the lights on yet.

Attached Image(s)

Rook

I believe the female is the one with all the cirri.

 

I'll get better pictures tomorrow.

Attached Image(s)

Rook

Nice looking, from what I can see so far.  Congrats!  Looking forward to better pics soon.

Good luck Jeremy. As food for thought, my male seahorse committed suicide by sticking his head into the output side of a powerhead until he made contact with the propeller. Don't underestimate their ability to get themselves into trouble. Kind of like real horses and teenage humans, honestly.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Five days in and they are still alive!!!  Both seahorses are eating very well, although I need to get a feeding dish that is NOT see-through.  They keep trying to eat through the side of the dish as opposed to going over the top.
 
Question:  when they arrived they were both a light yellow color.  The male has since become a bit of a darker yellow whereas the female has become very pale, off-white color.  They both eat well, swim around well, are breathing good, snouts look good, no observed leasions or other external parasites and I clean up poop every day, and my tests show no ammonia, nitrites, nitrates or phosphates.  Temp is 72 and salinity is 1.023.  Should I be concerned or is the female simply choosing to be off-white?  I'm thinking of moving them to the display tank, perhaps they are a bit stressed?

Rook

Nice, Jeremy!
 
Horses are pretty good at changing color. Your substrate is white and she's probably just blending in.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Female is still quite white, but she seems to be fine.  I'm going to move them from QT to the display this weekend, even though its only a 35 gallon hex, its very stable temp and salinity wise.  In fact, I'm surprised at how little evaporation there is.
 
Question: does it matter how high or low in the water colume I place the feeding dish?  Its a magnet mount, and I'd like to keep it a bit high just for ease of feeding but I don't want to discourage feeding.  I also need to try some new foods for a bit of variety.

Rook

Sorry, man. Can't help you there. I was always working with enormous water volumes and tons of copepods, so I never worried too much.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Yeah, I need to get a live culture of pods going and just dump in buckets full from time to time.  Now to find a good source of said info

Rook

Well, you know, I have this great little pod that can be cultured pretty darn easily....

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Hmm, need my address and some shipping fees?

Rook

Which Pod is that?

Chad Penney - MBI Council
Agis quod Adis

It's the apocyclops cyclopoid. It's a goodie. Completely pelagic all the way through the life cycle, but easy to culture to high densities. Females are brooders (and are pretty bad swimmers when the egg sacs are full = easy to catch and really nutritious). First stage naups are about 90 microns across.
 
I think we'd have to do it in two stages. I send you a culture of the dinoflagellates. Once you have that culture down, then I send out the copepods. Well, three stages. You need to get the food for the dinos first.
 
Although, heck, you can certainly culture them on T-Iso instead if you have it.
 
Let me know guys. We can start working that out.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

This is my daily copepod harvest out of 9 gallons of culture:
 
http://www.youtube.com/user/Ummfish1?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/Vqs71YX_DRw

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Let me research your methods and get setup, then I'd love to get some from you.
 
 
Just moved the ponies to their main tank today.  Started eating right away, although the male paled up a bit.  I hope they will color up better with the orange and red plants.

Rook

I can certainly fill you in on what I do here, if it's not too off topic. It's fairly simple.
 
Dinos:
I culture them in 2 gallon HPDE buckets. I'm currently revising my feeding regime, so I'll fill you in on that later. (It seems to change a little with each order of food I get from Reed's.) Foods you need: RotiGrow Plus and NRich PL. Of the two, the NRich is more important for the dinos.
 
A tangent:
You might be able to get away with just the NRich, but I feed a blend of the two foods. Here's a nutritional comparison: http://rotifersolutions.com/?page_id=290 The foods are expensive, but the RotiGrow+ can be frozen and is what people should be feeding their rotifers anyway. It's good stuff. The dinos will survive on RG+ but will not grow to really good densities. I haven't tried a lot of alternatives, but I know they will grow to good densities on NRich.
/tangent
 
I grow them in 2 gallon containers with moderate air at 73-74 degrees F. Feed twice per day. ClorAmX twice per day. Harvest at least 20-30% every day (but the cultures can survive much deeper harvesting). Every 4-5 days, pass the water from the culture through a 27 micron screen into a new culture container. Try not to siphon the stuff off the bottom or sides.
 
That's it. Like I said, I'll get you updated feeding instructions when you are ready.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

@Andy -- Hard to believe there is anybody who has been hanging around MBI or other marine breeding sites who hasn't heard one or the other of us (or both) go on and on and on about Apocyclops panamensis yet!  I've been using them on my fry, but not my adults.  Not sure Apocyclops would be noticed by adults H. erectus, but like I said I haven't tried.

 

@Rook -- I use an abalone shell on the sand for a feeding station.  To feed, I use a length of 1/2" PVC longer than the water column is tall.  I put one end of the PVC in the abalone shell, turkey baste the thawed frozen mysis into the PVC, and give it a minute for the mysis to settle.  Meanwhile, the horses gather around the shell, because they know PVC = food.  Gently pull the tube away, and the food stays in the shell.  Once the horses are done feeding, I reach down and turkey baste the leftovers out.  Easy way to keep the horses fed and the tank free of excess food.  (Doni Marie gets credit for this method, BTW)

 

 

Good idea Jim, I'll have to dig out an old clam shell from the reef and work something out.

Rook

'Tis a good point, Jim. The copepods might be too small for erectus and I don't have any ponies to run tests with. Then again, all of my small-mouthed planktivores (chromis, wrasses, and I believe grammas, too) seem to take them, so it might be worth the test.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Well time for some updates:
 
I lost the male of this pair.  No idea what happened to him, never found the body.  I also though I lost the female: that is until I notice her tail.  I have my glass heater inside of a 1" PVC with a number of holes drilled in it; the intent being to protect the seahorse from the heater.  Somehow the female got inside of this tube and I could see her tailed wrapped around one of the holes.  I got her out just find, but she a bit skinny and stark white.  She is eating.  
 
I picked up two new males today from Dan Olsson.  Both are a bit bigger than my female; and both look great.  I was quite impressed with Dan's stock, he has 4 or 5 bathes at different stages all looking great.
 
We will see how it goes.  I'm going to have to feed a bit extra for a while in hopes the female pulls through and they can get jiggy wit-it.

Rook