ughhhh I have some work to do!

[jaws789832]

So I bought some mysis shrimp just to see what they looked like and to see if my fish and tank would support them (I like bio diversity). I acclimate the shrimp and pour them into a net then into a holding tank so I can get a look at them. Low an behold, there are 2 baby seahorses and 3 pipe fish in with them. 1 of the seahorses looks like its on the way out and the other seems to be ok. 2 of the pipe fish are doing bad but also 1 looks pretty good. Problem is my QT tank wasn't set up because I wasn't expecting any fish so now I am scrambling to get something up and running. They are so small though I am pretty sure they don't have a chance in hell but I am going to try and save them.. I have some decapped brine shrimp eggs that I hope they will eat until I can hatch some brine shrimp. I also have some OCVA that I feed to my mandarins. so I might try that as well as soon as I get them in the tank. Right now I am expecting the worse but hoping for the best.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

So I bought some mysis shrimp just to see what they looked like and to see if my fish and tank would support them (I like bio diversity). I acclimate the shrimp and pour them into a net then into a holding tank so I can get a look at them. Low an behold, there are 2 baby seahorses and 3 pipe fish in with them. 1 of the seahorses looks like its on the way out and the other seems to be ok. 2 of the pipe fish are doing bad but also 1 looks pretty good. Problem is my QT tank wasn't set up because I wasn't expecting any fish so now I am scrambling to get something up and running. They are so small though I am pretty sure they don't have a chance in hell but I am going to try and save them.. I have some decapped brine shrimp eggs that I hope they will eat until I can hatch some brine shrimp. I also have some OCVA that I feed to my mandarins. so I might try that as well as soon as I get them in the tank. Right now I am expecting the worse but hoping for the best.

Tank water and some live rock if you have it. AS big as you need, plus a non coppered hob if you have it. Skip cycle tank.

and.
Wow, thats a trip.

 

[vlangel]

O wow, that will be tough. I don't know anything about baby pipes but maybe I can offer some tips for the seahorses. How big are they? If they are still only eating bbs they need it offered in high densities to get enough. I raised mine in a kreisel style half gallon fish bowl, inside a bigger tank that was filtered. They can eat adult brine shrimp pretty young. Do you have a lfs that carries adult brine shrimp? Both adult and baby brine shrimp need to be enriched to be nutritious though. Once they are eating adult brine shrimp you can buy tank dividers. Keep the seahorse in the small part but filter the other side using a protein skimmer if you have one. You will need to clean everything every 2 days.

 

[jaws789832]

the seahorse is only about 1/2 inch. All but 1 seahorse and 1 pipefish died but they seem to be doing ok. I put them inside an acclimation box I have in my QT tank. The QT tank is more of an observation tank so no medications have been in it. I then put filter foam over the slots in the acclimation box so they don't get out. The tank is a 29 gallon jbj AIO. I thought about just letting them loose in the tank but worried they would get sucked over the overflow so I decided on the acclimation box. I threw in some decapped brine shrimp eggs and the horsey actually ate some. The pipefish didn't though. The tank has been set up for about 6 months so it is fully cycled but it had been neglected for about 2 months so I am not sure about the water quality and it has a bit of algae in it (been meaning to empty it and clean it out but been so busy). I did a 20 gallon water change while I was acclimating them so it should be ok. I through a bunch of zip ties in circles in the acclimation box and the horsey immediately hitched to them and hasn't moved much except when I threw the eggs in. I am also hatching some brine shrimp but that wont be ready for a day or 2. The pipefish is probably about 3/4 of an inch but about as thin as kite string. I will try to get some pics. the pipefish kinda gravitated to the filter sponge and has been just hanging out there. Seems fine but hasn't eaten. Have to do a little research on what a baby pipefish might eat

 

[jaws789832]

OK this is the best I could do. They were sort of getting a little spooked shining the light on them so These will have to do. The type of seahorse would be appreciated too as I have no idea what I am dealing with. The First 2 are of the horsey. He is attached to a regular sized zip tie so that will give you an idea of his size (He is small).

These next 2 are the pipefish. The pics suck so I don't think you can get much out of it but he is so thin he is hard to get a focus on. I actually did see him (what appeared to be) try to eat something while I was taking this so maybe he is going after the brine shrimp eggs as as well. He is swimming around and checking things out as well.

I don't expect either of them to last long but I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt and do everything I can to keep them alive. My eventual plan was to convert this tank to a seahorse tank in the future (when my main DT was fully stocked and I didn't have a need for it), But I wanted to drill it and create a sump with a refugium for it. Plus I wanted to do a lot more research before I did this so I can make them happy and healthy.

 

[Katrina71]

What beautiful little creatures.

 

[Lucie]

Looks like dwarf (H.zosterae)and gulf pipefishs (Syngnathus scovelli).
I bred these pipefishs,they are easy and hardy but fry can handle a lack of food...

 

[Lucie]

Are they like this?

 

[Lucie]

 

[jaws789832]

Sorry none of those pics came out for me

 

[jaws789832]

yep that is exactly what he looks like only way smaller LOL'

 

[jaws789832]

What will he eat. Mine is about half the size of the ones with the ruler

 

[Lucie]

enriched baby brine, pods, and other planctonic food....
These are 48 hours old ones

 

[Lucie]

Not the most impressive pipefishs but i love them.

 

[jaws789832]

Thanks for the info. I will try my best to keep them both going. Looks like tomorrow I will be making some more water and I depleted my salt today with the 20 gallon water change. Will try to do another water change, and maybe come up with a more permanent solution to try and raise them both. Hopefully some brine hatches tomorrow so I can throw some live food in there for them. The decapped eggs seem to hatch a lot faster than regular eggs so I am betting they will get some. My LFS doesn't carry adult brine so I might have to look for options for long term. This tank is loaded with pods of all sorts (copepods, amphipods and now mysis) though that I had stocked for when my mandys were in there so if I get them out of the acclimation box there should be all sorts of food for them.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Thanks for the info. I will try my best to keep them both going. Looks like tomorrow I will be making some more water and I depleted my salt today with the 20 gallon water change. Will try to do another water change, and maybe come up with a more permanent solution to try and raise them both. Hopefully some brine hatches tomorrow so I can throw some live food in there for them. The decapped eggs seem to hatch a lot faster than regular eggs so I am betting they will get some. My LFS doesn't carry adult brine so I might have to look for options for long term. This tank is loaded with pods of all sorts (copepods, amphipods and now mysis) though that I had stocked for when my mandys were in there so if I get them out of the acclimation box there should be all sorts of food for them.

Look for nutrimar ova. And if you have a canister filter use it. It'll cut down on the water changes by just pulling out the solid foods and poop. It's a massive mechanical filter and is ten times or more effective than an hob.

 

[jaws789832]

I have some Ova. That is what I feed to my Mandys and they love it. Was going to try it tomorrow.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Good luck!

 

[vlangel]

Both pipefish and seahorses are vulnerable to bacterial infections. You might want to read the first 2 articles on keeping seahorses in aquaria to get an idea of what sort of husbandry you are looking at.

 

[jaws789832]

Well over 24 hours into this and they are both still alive. Some of my baby brine hatched so I threw some in with them. The pipefish definatly ate. he was swimming around and chasing the brine. The pony I am not sure. He didn't leave his hitching post while I was watching, but I came back in later and he had moved across the little tank he is in and hitched somewhere else. I also threw in some Nutramar OVA right underneath him. He seems to peck things off the bottom, so I thought I would give it a try. I thought he was a goner earlier because he was laying on the bottom, with belly and snout to the floor. I saw he was still breathing so I left him alone and came back to him upright and hitched to the zip ties again. I put a rigid airline tube into their little tank (which is inside the jbj AIO) just to make sure they had some water flow and enough O2 in the little tank. I was worried, because I have the filter pads blocking the slots on the acclimation tank, that there might not be enough flow and oxygen getting to them so now I am adding more. The main tank has a HOB skimmer on it and the stock filtration basket in the back. So all in all it should be getting enough gas exchange. I made 50 gallons of RODI water today so I am going to mix up some salt tonight and do a 10 gallon water change tomorrow to see if I can clean up this tank a bit more. The tank itself has 2 medium pieces of LR and a few small pieces that have some GSP and xenia on them that I had taken out of my DT a while back, because I didn't want them anymore there but don't have the heart to kill anything. Both corals are actually doing really well, but with those that doesn't say much because I think they would grow in salted sewer water. I dimmed the lights a bit, because I read that ponys don't like intense lighting, plus maybe that will help with the algae. All in all the tank looks pretty good right now considering I hadn't touched it for about 2 months. The salinity is at 1.026 (35), so I was thinking of backing that back a bit with water changes (maybe to 1.024?). I also backed the temperature back a little. It was at 79-80, with it getting up to 82 when it gets hot in the house, so I backed it off to 77-77.5. The tank is controlled by an apex, so I can monitor the ph, temp , and dim the lights. The PH on this tank always runs a little low but I am not as diligent calibrating the probe so I am guessing that is why. I runs 7.85-8 which isn't horrible but my main DT runs 8.2-8.3.