Tips on raising H. Erectus fry?

[ARH_Aquarist]

I've been raising h. erectus for about 3 months now - I still have 1 left from the 1st brood, she's about 3 months old, alternating her food between decap/gut loaded live adult brine/cyclops/mysis. This is a new project for me - I've kept h. erectus from about 6 months of age on, never had problems with converting them to mysis/brine - had 3 females live until 5 years old and just passed away last year.

Just got another brood this past Saturday, and they seem to be dying quickly. I am not sure how they were transferred, since my part time aquarist worked this weekend. I've got them set up in a kreisel tank with light/moderate air flow, feeding newly hatched nauplii 4 times a day. This was a rather large brood so I split them up into 2 different bowls. Water changes are daily, suctioning food/deceased multiple times a day, and replacing water with their parents water.

I would LOVE to learn how to be able to raise more than 1 to adulthood. Any help is surely appreciated!

 

[truetricia]

You should reach out to the Seahorse Conservancy. I know Walt is very passionate and good with seahorses.

 

[massage]

Do you know if they are northern or southern Erectus? There is a big difference in how hard they are to raise. If you are not sure could you post a picture of the parents? Another way to tell is if you put something in the baby tank do they hitch immediately (within 3 hours of birth)? Usually northern erectus takes a while to hitch and southern hitch from birth but not alwys. This will change how you can treat them.

 

[ARH_Aquarist]

I want to assume that they are southern erectus since their parents come straight from our bay here in Rockport, but they don't hitch from birth. They usually take about 2 weeks before they hitch.
Again, all of my seahorses come from Aransas Bay, Little Bay, or Corpus Christi Bay.

 

[massage]

How are they doing now? I am wondering if they may be northern or just not as developed as they could be. After feeding do you see a nice red belly? The big thing with fry is they can over eat. If they continue to eat too much they will poop live bbs. Feeding 4x a day is awesome. Just make sure they are clearing the majority of bbs in 10-15 minutes so they are not just pushing the live through. I know there are a million ways to setup a tank for baby seahorses. How big is your kreisel? When I was raising babies my biggest issues were oxygen and ph. Keep an eye on those as well as ammonia. Congrats on getting the baby to 3 months. That is a great accomplishment.

What is the temp of the adult tank? lowering the temperature will increase gestation time. I had the strongest babies during winter. What are the parents being fed?

 

[vlangel]

How are they doing now? I am wondering if they may be northern or just not as developed as they could be. After feeding do you see a nice red belly? The big thing with fry is they can over eat. If they continue to eat too much they will poop live bbs. Feeding 4x a day is awesome. Just make sure they are clearing the majority of bbs in 10-15 minutes so they are not just pushing the live through. I know there are a million ways to setup a tank for baby seahorses. How big is your kreisel? When I was raising babies my biggest issues were oxygen and ph. Keep an eye on those as well as ammonia. Congrats on getting the baby to 3 months. That is a great accomplishment.

What is the temp of the adult tank? lowering the temperature will increase gestation time. I had the strongest babies during winter. What are the parents being fed?

Hi massage, I thought I would jump in since I just raised some erectus fry. Mine were 17 weeks when I sold them. I raised 15 out of 22. The parents are captive bred so I am sure they are easier to raise than wild caught. I kept a male and female from the batch. It was an awesome and fascinating journey but also a boatload of work. Maybe next winter I will do it again.

 

[ARH_Aquarist]

How are they doing now? I am wondering if they may be northern or just not as developed as they could be. After feeding do you see a nice red belly? The big thing with fry is they can over eat. If they continue to eat too much they will poop live bbs. Feeding 4x a day is awesome. Just make sure they are clearing the majority of bbs in 10-15 minutes so they are not just pushing the live through. I know there are a million ways to setup a tank for baby seahorses. How big is your kreisel? When I was raising babies my biggest issues were oxygen and ph. Keep an eye on those as well as ammonia. Congrats on getting the baby to 3 months. That is a great accomplishment.

What is the temp of the adult tank? lowering the temperature will increase gestation time. I had the strongest babies during winter. What are the parents being fed?

They seem to be doing tons better now - I've lost probably 60% of the brood, but I also started with over 300. I did notice that splitting the brood into separate tanks helped with the mortality rates. They do show red bellies, and I don't feed them until that color disperses. I'm using brineshrimpdirect's EZ hatch decapsulated brine shrimp this time around to rule out shells. I normally feed every 2-4 hours depending on what's going on - but I check on them frequently. I've got 2 gallon kreisels I'm using to raise them - no problems with O2, NH4, NO2, or pH. Thank you - she's growing fast, it's just harder to see if she's eating other than SEEING her eat haha.

Temp of the adult tank runs 78 - 81, that's a general for all of my tanks. Parents are being fed mysis/brine/selcon, every once in awhile I add in copepods or live brine adults ... sometimes even grated shrimp!

 

[vlangel]

They seem to be doing tons better now - I've lost probably 60% of the brood, but I also started with over 300. I did notice that splitting the brood into separate tanks helped with the mortality rates. They do show red bellies, and I don't feed them until that color disperses. I'm using brineshrimpdirect's EZ hatch decapsulated brine shrimp this time around to rule out shells. I normally feed every 2-4 hours depending on what's going on - but I check on them frequently. I've got 2 gallon kreisels I'm using to raise them - no problems with O2, NH4, NO2, or pH. Thank you - she's growing fast, it's just harder to see if she's eating other than SEEING her eat haha.

Temp of the adult tank runs 78 - 81, that's a general for all of my tanks. Parents are being fed mysis/brine/selcon, every once in awhile I add in copepods or live brine adults ... sometimes even grated shrimp!

If you lower the temperature you might even have smaller mortality rates. My tanks run 71-74. Lower temperature inhibits the growth of bacteria which is the seahorses biggest vulnerability due to their primitive immune systems.

 

[massage]

Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on it already. vlangel has it right. Lower the temp on the babies. I generally keep mine in the low 70's when possible without any problems. All my tanks run without heaters including my sexy raising setup. The lower temps in the adult tank will increase the time of gestation and may help with development before release. Nutrition of the parents also plays a roll. I used to keep the calcium levels slightly higher as well when raising seahorses.

What copepods are you adding to the adults tank?

 

[ARH_Aquarist]

Thanks y'all. I've lowered the temp to about 74 for the babies. The adults are at 79 right now, just wondering if lowering the temp will affect the other fish in that tank?
What do you suggest for raising the calcium levels?

I'm feeding arctic copepods

 

[vlangel]

Thanks y'all. I've lowered the temp to about 74 for the babies. The adults are at 79 right now, just wondering if lowering the temp will affect the other fish in that tank?
What do you suggest for raising the calcium levels?

I'm feeding arctic copepods

If you lower the temperature slowly most fish will adapt. My seahorse tank shares a sump with my reef tank which has a clownfish, 2 lyre tail anthias, a royal gramma and a midas blenny. Not a one of them seems adversely affected by the 71 degree temperature. Even my LPS coral and crocea clam are all growing and thriving.