Breeding Journal, Species: Hippocampus reidi

General
Species:  Hippocampus reidi
Social Structure:  1 pair, one lone female (mate died, she doesn't spawn with the remaining male)
Size of Individuals:  4" (females), ~6" (male)
Age of Individuals:  Unknown
Date added to Tank:  June 2010

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  40 breeder
Substrate Details:  sand
Filtration Details:  skimmer, live rock, live sand, macro algae
Water Changes:  sometimes
Water Temperature:  cooler than the other tanks, 76ish
Lighting:  Clamp lamp
Lighting Cycle:  12 on 12 off
Other Tank Inhabitants:  cleaner shrimp, target mandarin

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  mysis, brine, homemade mush
Feeding Schedule:  1x daily

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  November 28
Spawn Time of Day:  appears random at this point
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  Every 14-18 days
Courtship Details:  Typical seahorses...very elaborate and cool to watch
Egg Size:  Unknown - never seen them
Egg Color:  Unknown - never seen them
Egg Count:  Depends...75-250ish, again, seemingly random

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  Dec 12th (first)
Hatch Time of Day:  early morning, sometime overnight
# Days after Spawn:  14-18 (bigger brood = longer "incubation", or so it seems)
Larvae Description:  TINY little buggers!  Look like mini versions of their parents, only 1 cm long or so


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  77-79
Size of Larval Tank: glass flat-sided fishbowl...kriesel type setup 
Substrate Details:  barebottom
Other Tank Decor:  none
Filtration Details:  none...daily water changes
Lighting:  ambient
Lighting Cycle:  14 on, 10 off
Water Changes:  daily, slow drip in and slow drip out

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  Enriched rotifers, NHBBS
Feeding Schedule:  constant supply

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):  These guys were meant for display fish, I wasn't really intending to breed them.  It seems like seahorses give you less "bang for your buck" so I've been focusing on the regular "fishy" variety.  I had a batch released from dad earlier today so I decided to finally put more effort into it and document.



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Congratulations, Chelsey!  Good luck with them, and please post about your experience with them, whatever the outcome.  A lot of people are working on H. reidi, and very few are having any success.  I, for one, would like to know how you attempt to raise them, and the results.

Here are mom and dad!

 
The lone female, just because I got a good head shot

 
Dad (newly pregnant...3 days now)

Here are two pics of the babies that I just took tonight.  They're feeding pretty well but I'm still losing 1-2 per day.   Fortunately it's a decent sized batch and with any luck I'll make it through the crucial period (which seems to be for another month )
 

 

Nice shots. They look so fragile, it's amazing that they survive in the wild.

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

Thanks Tal   They are very fragile. 

Well, the vast majority don't!  Think about it -- assume an average brood of 500 fry, every two weeks,  6 months out of the year (give him a break for winter), for a four-year adult breeding lifespan (I pulled that number out of thin air).  500 * 26 * 4 = 52,000 fry.  Only two need to survive to adulthood to maintain a stable population, replacing the two parents.  That would be a 2/52,000 = 0.00385 percent survival rate!

 

Sure, it's an overly simplistic mathematical model, but still any way you juggle the numbers, survival rate in the wild is a very tiny number, to be sure.

Count on Jim to not back down to a math challenge
 
Very nice Chelsey, isn't 76 still a bit on the warm side for the broodstock, or do you up the temp to induce them to spawn?

Rook

one usually never really knows for sure exactly where a fish was caught, but naturally these guys do survive in waters that hover around the low 80's, or the low 70's
 
there are 3 problems with higher temperature with fish,
1: psychological if the fish naturally comes from an area where there is high and low temp water it may be programmed to try to stay in the cooler side. requiring either F1 which usually dont show this tendancy(want a reference see ORA and RCT), or slower aclimation, raise the temp in lots of steps long enough for the fish to be comfortable before its raised again.....
2: food food is different in the ocean (size, type and quantity), easily fixed in a tank
3: water quality: DO and others are different in different temp waters, also easily fixed in a tank.

Pappa is getting HUGE!  He was supposed to release on the 15th...that didn't happen. 
 

 

Well, these guys are dropping like flies   They're now 18 days old and I have 7 left   The male hasn't released the latest brood either, I think I need to give him a shot of oxytocin   I'll try and get a picture of either a newly dead baby or a live one sometime in the near future for record keeping purposes, but I don't think any of these will be making it much longer

New pics!  Taken just before I added enriched rotifers, so he's a little thin.

Still have 3 baby reidi at 23 days old. 

I came home tonight and couldn't find the third stooge in the bucket.  After quite a bit more looking around I discovered that HE WAS HITCHING!!!!  I'm super excited

Congratulations!  Odd that it took 3 weeks.  I usually see them hitching at around 12 days or so.  Not all of them, mind you, but the first ones start then, and by 3 weeks, they're all hitching.

It could be that they're just being raised in a bucket instead of a kriesel, or that they didn't have anything size-appropriate to hitch to until a few days ago

Chelsey, you are very inspiring! Thank you for all the great phoots and information.
 
Are you using a two gallon glass fish bowl? Just an airline gentle bubble to get the motion you like? Any heater in the bowl?

http://www.suzysreef.com/

Thanks for the compliment Suzy!  You made me blush
 
Since this batch was so small and trying to raise them was a spur-of-the-moment thing I'm actually using a 2 gallon bucket...just like a 5 gallon coralife bucket or something but smaller.  I'm using an airstone for a little bit of water motion/oxygen and I'm also using an IV dripline that is constantly dripping in new water (from my reef tank).  The bucket is sitting in a heated 20 gallon tank, and the last I checked it the water temperature was 79.  When the batches get bigger I'll put more effort into it and use a kriesel type setup as described in my journal up above.  I suspect the reason they hadn't hitched as early as Jim's, and the reason I only have 3 left, is because these guys are an afterthought...I'm just plain busy and have to divide up my time accordingly   I'm also being unconventional with these guys...they're done getting enriched rotifers and are now eating otohime...we'll see if they make it

I love those 2 gal. buckets. I do all my cultures in them unless something makes me bump up to 5 gal. 2 gals. are very easy to clean, 3 fit nicely into my cleaning sink to soak (and 4 if I shove them), and not too heavy to lift when full of water.

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