Breeding Journal, Species: [Hippocampus erectus]

General
Species:  Hippocampus erectus
Social Structure:  Pair
Size of Individuals:  ~5"
Age of Individuals:  ~6 months
Date added to Tank:  June 2015

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  55g
Substrate Details:  None
Filtration Details:  Skimmer, HOB filters
Water Changes:  Daily siphoning (5% daily)
Water Temperature:  72F
Lighting:  LED
Lighting Cycle:  12/12
Other Tank Inhabitants:  10 erectus, 4 reidi

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Frozen Mysis, live enriched artemia
Feeding Schedule:  4-5x a day

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  Mid July 2015
Spawn Time of Day:  Mid afternoon
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  Every 14 Days
Courtship Details:  Three day courtship leading to spawn
Egg Size: 
Egg Color:  Orange
Egg Count: 

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  8/3/2015
Hatch Time of Day:  Early AM
# Days after Spawn:  14
Larvae Description:   Mini adults
Consecutive Hatch Dates:    Every two weeks 


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  70F
Size of Larval Tank:  10g
Substrate Details:  one
Other Tank Decor:  None
Filtration Details:  Sponge filter
Lighting:  LED
Lighting Cycle:  18hr/day
Water Changes:  Siphon bottom 4-6x daily

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  Live enriched artemia nauplii
Feeding Schedule:  6-8x daily

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start: 
Days after Hatch:  7-10 days
Date of Settlement End: 
Description of Fry: 

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature:  72F
Size of Grow-Out Tank:  20g
Substrate Details:  None
Other Tank Decor:  Zip Tie holdfasts
Filtration Details:  Skimmer, sponge filter
Lighting:  LED light
Lighting Cycle:  16-18hr day
Water Changes:  Siphon 4-6x daily
Size at Transfer: 
Age at Transfer:  2 weeks

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types:  Live enriched artemia (3-4 days old), frozen cyclops, chopped frozen mysis
Feeding Schedule:  6-8x daily

Additional Information

(No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please)
Miscellaneous Information: 



You will be required to provide photographic or video 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. PHOTOS AND VIDEO S MUST BE PLACED IN ADDITIONAL POSTS, NEVER IN THE FIRST POST IN A JOURNAL.

Pics of the broodstock and fry/juvies.

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Photos of fry.

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Colby! haven't heard from you in years! How have you been? Graduated? Married? Alaska?Kids? Sorry to hijack...

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Hi Kathy! How are you!?  I am doing well, living in Oregon with my fiance (yes stillll engaged...), she is finishing grad school and I am headed out to an Aquarium Science Program on the coast. I got fed up with the fisheries management world, and decided to go full out in pursuit of an ornamental aquaculture/aquarium industry career, my true passion. I have in the mean time been doing research projects at the university and working on fish raising techniques at home, all in an atempt to avoid "growing up"  
 
My objective over the next year is to establish a better protocol for copeopod production and seahorse production, with potentital designs on a west coast seahorse hatchery. Currently sitting on 500 erectus juvies at home.  
 
 

Hi Colby,
 
What are you enriching your Artemia with?

Enriching with Dan's Feed. Good stuff.

OMG.  Good to see you, Colby!  Now, back to your journal.....

Jim, Hi! How are you?  I should be down in November to visit my folks, I'd love to see your fishroom. Are you still keeping/breeding seahorses?
 
Not much new to report on the seahorses. This batch turns one month old tomorrow. All eating frozen cyclopeeze and chopped frozen mysis ~8x day and growing like mad. I would like to continue feeding them enriched artemia, however I am rapidly running out of Artemia cysts due to the number of younger fry. They seem to be thriving however.
 
Moreover I am starting to panic a little about where I am going to grow these out. I would prefer to sell them retail, however I may have to pursue wholesale in order to get rid of them as soon as they are sexable/large enough. 

Seahorse ornaments

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Four week olds eating chopped mysis. Starting to lighten up in color, mostly yellow and orange.

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Time for some more photos.
 
These guys are just about five weeks and eating chopped hikari mysis.

 

 

 

 
And some three week olds, being transitioned to frozen cyclops currently.