UP Date pics. after 1 yr.

[craigshup]

Originally Posted by ReeferBill

Where did you get your liverock it is gorgous?

LOL (What was the second one about?)

[craigshup]

Originally Posted by craigshup

They still will not let me get a good pic. each one, but here is pic.1 and 2 of what i could get.
3 is of my rose tip anm. sucked up in a 1300 gph. pump It did not hurt it or loose any tenticles.
4 is a better pic. of my mantis, Richard sent me!
5 is just some plastic scrapers floating in the top of a sump I use to collect isopods to feed the adult seahorses as treats, they crawl in the woven plastic then I shake them out in the horse tank

I typed isopods
But i meant to type Amphipods !!

[liverock]

Craig

Pretty amazing job you have done there on your foray into raising the ponys...is NOT an easy job, and you have progressed light-years from where I have been in the process, and I have tried it many times over the years.

Your diligence on this is inspiring, wish I had the time to give it a go again...

and I will be looking for the females in earnest!

sea ya
Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com

[craigshup]

Thanks Richard, I love the seahorses you sent me and can't wait for the females!

I have put all my effort in this, I am still pulling the weaker ones out ever day, and am going to spend more of my time tending to the healthy ones.

The weaker ones I am flushing if they are not eating, and keeping the weaker ones that eat in separate jars from the healthy ones.

I decided a day or two ago, I can't save them all, so I will just do my best and see how it goes!

I am at less then 100 now on the 400 batch
and about 50 on the 62 batch.

I think the reason so many of the 400 batch died so soon, may have been because the males had the fry premature because of stress of the move to here!
remember many had yoke sacs. still ballooned out when he gave birth!

That and I really have no idea of what i'm doing right or wrong yet, it will take a couple more batches or more to see what might work for me but I will get it!

My wife feels neglected by me because I spend all my time with my critters
I told her if she would get involved with my critters with me, we would still be spending time together ( I got THE LOOK if ya know what I mean) but it sounded good to me!

I will post pics. today of the fry after I take some, and I got a good pic. of my cucumber and 2 more of the male horses that keep hiding and one of the female in her brown color!
She is really getting fat.

[craigshup]

I got a few more pics. of the seahorses.

1 This is a pic. of a male from Richard (TBS) with some cirri
2 is a pic. of another male from Richard
3 is a pic. of my female from richard
4 is a pic. of my yellow cucumber from Richard i got last yr. it was only about
2 1/2 inches long when I got it and now it is over 8 inches
5 is a pic. of a mean a_ _ damsel I can't catch out of my 90 gal.

[craigshup]

pics. 1,2,3,&4 are of the 9 day old fry!

I had some bad luck yesterday with my fry, all of them the 3 week and the one week old.
I did my 100% water change like I do every 2 days, out of my same 5 gal of water that they were already in and for some reason they all went into shock, most died within 3-5 min. a few recovered after about 10 min.
I noticed that after the water change now several are floaters now that was not before the water change.
I have now moved them to a 10 gal with a divider in the middle to keep the fry separate so I know which came from the W/C and which came from the C/B!
The fry that is left don't eat as well as they was before this, but they are slowly coming around.
I also dosed with Quick Cure for parasites as it can be 1 cause of floaters, that is why my water is so blue in the pics.
I have only about 15 3 week old alive today!
and about 25 of the 1 week old alive today!
I got a few pics. of them to share, most were too bad to post.

[craigshup]

Pics. 1,2,&3 are of the 3 week old fry.

For the people who are wandering what floaters, one of the pics. of the 9 day old are of them floating, after I took the pic. I added another air line and increased the air flow and they are not floating for now!

I know I probably won't raise any of these to adults but the longer I can keep them alive the more I will learn about them so I don't make as many mistakes on the future ones.

I will keep posting about this until I raise at least one or run out of money trying

I am considering setting up 1 or 2 40 gal sumps for the 20 gal tank and a 29 gal tank to hook them all together for a more constant water per. This should keep them from going into shock again from small mistakes!
I already have the new tanks, for backups, so no cost.
I just need to figure out the best way with what I have.
I think i may get about 20 or so cleaner shrimp from Richard (TBS) on my next order to use to feed the fry at 2-3 weeks old.( can place them in 40 gal sump!

As always comments and advice are welcome!

I would love to have a step by step how to guide on erectus fry! But I don't!

Richard, I have been hoping the water condition's will get good so you can find me 2 females with so much cirri on them they look like sea weed
I think my cucumber is obese!

If my wife will let me I will try her camera to take better pics.

[craigshup]

Thanks Dan for all the info, sorry I kept you on the phone so long!

I went to Home Depot and bought me a micro cleaner set for about 13 bucks, and a 10 ft clear 3/8 hose to put on the end of it, and wow it cleans good and fast with the little the little 1 1/2 wide brush!(The best money on equipment I have spent yet!)

For a middle of the week update on the fry!

I have gave them 2 of the 3 treatments of Quick Cure for parasites, most of the floating has stopped for now, their 3rd dose will be tomorrow.

I took them out of the jars after the last die off from shock of a 100% water change and put them in a 10 gal. tank so I only change 20 % each day as I clean the bottom up and put 24-36 hr. BBS in 2 times per day, and take the BBS out the next morning.To take out the uneaten BBS I use a divider and place a filter from Wal-Mart in it without the filter.I turn it on and place a bowl with a 53 micron screen under the out flow of water to catch almost all the BBS.

I place the BBS in either a 16 gal. tub with Mysids in it or another 16 gal. with green water in it and am raising those to larger sizes and test with a few hundred each day to see when they are ready for larger food.I rotate each day which tub I place the left over BBS in and now I have enough bbs in with the mysids I have seen a few baby mysids now! I also placed my fake leafy plants in the mysid tub for the baby's to be able to hide from the adults better!

Out of the first batch of over 400, I only have a hand full still alive, 3 has started growing a lot in the last few days. and 3 of the floaters has started eating a little, they are 3 1/2 weeks old now!

On the second batch of 62, I still have 20 @ about 12 days, two don't look so good, they are still not eating well yet (floaters). The other 18 stay in the lower part of the tank swimming and eating all day, and some at night (they can still see from the light used for the green water) most of these are as big and some bigger then the first batch.

I am trying not to get my hopes up yet on any of them, It's hard not to tho because now some are starting to show their personalities and more grown up looking features like the little cone shaped thing on their heads, bigger and longer bodies, better colors, better hunting skills, favorite hitching places, they really are so cool even at this age

I have went from spending most of ever day checking on them/watching them, to a couple hrs. a day watching them plus about 30 min. for cleanup and feeding.

I will post new pic.s this weekend on their 4 week birthday or of what is left by then!
I will use my wife's camera to take the next pic.s of the close up.

[craigshup]

Well I got called out fri. and had to go on a 2 day trip on a train, so I am just now getting to show new pics. and a update.

1 is a pic. of my male with a little cirri in a small tank for a few days to keep track how much he is eating! (doing good)
2,3,4 is pic. of the 2 week old fry

Still have 16, I lost one while I was gone(and yes my wife was feeding them

5 is a pic. of the new cleaner (micro) from Home Depot) Someone PM me about.

[craigshup]

I still have 3 of the 4 week old fry, but at least these are doing good!
I have a new batch of 59 as of yesterday, I put them with the 4 week old fry so I can still keep track of which ones came from which parents.
It really has made a difference in how fast they grow after I finely got my Dan's Enrichment for the BBS a week ago. And I think I have only lost one after that!
I finished the 3rd treatment with the Quick Cure before I left. I have no floaters or scratchers now.

Here are some pics. of the 4 week old fry.
I had just cleaned, did a 20% water change and added more 3 day old BBS enriched with Dan's feed, and the stuff on the bottom of the tank is frozen Cyclops I just added, yep,still trying to get them started on some frozen food.
I will clean it out in a few hrs.

1,2,3,4 are close ups of the fry,
5 is a close up of a one day old riding a 4 week old

[craigshup]

Well I still have the 3 left from the first batch of over 400, they were 5 weeks old sat. 5 th
and I still have 15 of the second batch, they were 3 weeks old fri. 4th


Pic 1,2,&3 are of the 3 week old
Pic 4&5 are of the 5 week old

Well it's a short update but thats all I have time for, for now.

[mustard]

any updates?

[PamelaMueller]

Wow, I've enjoyed reading your updates and as I know nothing of raising horses, I thought it was really interesting and informative. What got you started on them?

BTW, your rock is gorgeous! I got mine from Richard as well and I couldn't be happier! I am not a fan, however, of the mantis shrimp! I'm on a catch and remove mission for my tank!!!!

[mndfreeze]

If you will take the time to ship them, I'll take all your mantis shrimp. I <3 the little buggers. I have a Ternatensis species named Googly.

[craigshup]

Sorry for not posting lately, I will try to get some new pics. up tonight!
Thanks for the replies!
I like the mantis, I put them in my sump for the 90 gal. They are really neat to watch, they are smart hunters, I like the way they sneak around while hunting they remind me of one of our cats.
My work schedule has changed back and forth, I have been working out of town for 2 days at a time and home for a few hrs. and I leave back out.
I am back on a board that don't work as often so I can start posting again.

The update:

I still have 2 from the 1st batch, now 8 weeks old + or -
They have there own 29 gal. with live rock and sand from TBS. It is a extra tank for more water volume for the 29 gal. my original 4 adults I bought last year are in. I have a pump that pulls water out of my main seahorse tank and pumps it into another 29 gal. tank and I made a 1 inch tube that connects the 2 tanks, It's water per. stay perfect, and ampepods, copepods,and mysid shrimp are every where in there and have been for over a year.

I put the 2 horses in there to make sure they get enough to eat(these are unrelated to all the others), So I am giving them special treatment for a dif. blood line!

I started getting low of larger brine shrimp a couple weeks ago, the horses were eating them faster then I can raise the brine to adult size, so I put the 2 first batch horses in the 29 to give them the best chance to survive and so I could save the rest of the brine shrimp I had left for the others from the 2nd batch.

I ordered 48 tsp of 1/2 grown brine from a place in FL. on Tue. 15th but they were not open on wed to ship them, so they shipped them this Mon. and I didn't recieve them till Fri. 25th yesterday!!

So half or more of the shrimp died during shipping, then I had to enrich them before feeding to my 2nd batch of horses.

So I lost a couple more horses from the 2nd batch. I thought that a weeks supply would be enough to last till I got the order in ( I was wrong) that won't happen again. I need to start trying to get them on frozen BS again, I quit adding it when I would leave so the wouldn't spoil in the tank while I was gone.

I had the tank full of food (BBS) but they were too small only week old BBS, I lost a batch of BBS that was 2 weeks old while I was gone so it left me with the smaller ones. The seahorses were eating but for their size they needed larger BS to get enough nutrition.

I watched them get weaker every time I seen them the last few days, I did catch some 1/8 - 1/4 in long Mysid and pods out of my sumps but not enough for all of them.

The rest seem to be getting stronger today from eating the adult BS I recieved yesterday.
I am not sure how many of the 2nd batch are left, about 12 - 15 of the 6 week old, I have a lot of green water in there tank so it is hard to see them.

I added green water in there when I was working out of town, so when I would add enriched brine shrimp with the horses before I would leave out of town for work, so the shrimp would have something to eat till they got eaten or I would get back, and clean the tank out and do a 50% water change, strain out the shrimp with a 250 micron sieve I made and place them in a 15 gal tub to be re enriched for their next trip

I lost one of the wild caught males last week, he was eating frozen mysis fine for weeks, but he quit eating about 10 days ago, so I started feeding it live ghost shrimp, it would eat about 2-3 a day but no more, then it quit eating them and I found it dead in the quarantine tank yesterday!

I checked in one of my 15 gal tubs where I had put 5 mysid about 2 months ago with a light on a 12 hr timer, I put all my fake plants in there for the baby mysid to hide in, I dump my extra BBS up to 1 week old when I clean the tanks out i catch with a smaller 120 micron sieve.

I caught out about 20 adults and fed to the 2nd batch Thursday and I counted about 50 more in there this morning just on one side when I move the plants.
I thought they had died, but they haven't.

[liverock]

You are amazing on your diligence...but if you look at it in the real world, two survivors is about what you would get in a wild environment, don't you think?

I remember watching
a turtle law eggs on satellite beach back in 1961 and there was a guy there with us watching and he said out of the 103 eggs we watched her lay....maybe two would survive to adulthood, IF.... they were lucky...seems like yesterday that this happened, funny the things you remember..from so long ago....so I think you are doing well for a first attempt.

Do you have access to salt/fresh ghost shrimp?

as that is what I used to use and it seemed to work the best, but is nice to be here and just walk the canals at low tide with a push net and scoop them all sizes.......and the ones we get will acclimate either salt or fresh....but with all the development down here, most of the places I got them are now out of bounds....but you have done an amazing job with your pony's...
congrats!

Richard TBS
www.tbsaltwater.com