# Hippocampus Kuda had babies (Round 2)



## disman_ca (Nov 12, 2011)

My h. kuda seahorse pair had babies again. This time I'm more prepared and did learn from the last brood I tried rearing. With all of the effort I went through trying to maintain the small little fry nursery it was abundantly clear I could use a better setup.

I went to Big Al's and spent another $50 on a 5.5 gallon tank, a cheap filter (the air type) and a tank separator. I set it up underneath the main seahorse tank in the area normally used for a sump. I took water and some aggregate from the parent tank and added a submersible heater. I put the separator in and sectioned off 1/3 of the tank for the filter, heater and some chaeto algae. On the other side I added another airline to create a nice counter clockwise circulation affect (kind of like a Ferris wheel). The idea came from Zena and some additional research on a kreisel tank which was originally designed for keeping jelly fish. The circulation is key to raising these fry as they are used to swimming in the open water column in the wild. In a home tank they have a tendency to become lazy and just float up to the top where they snick air (not good) and I believe this was the main issue I dealt with last time.






Coming up next I'll be learning how to culture my own rotifers which I have order from ReefCrew.com. It should be fun in a mad scientist way as I'm planning on trying a 2L pop bottle method for the cultures.


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## Scotmando (Jul 10, 2011)

got any pics? I love seahorses


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## disman_ca (Nov 12, 2011)

Here are some pictures of the setup.


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## disman_ca (Nov 12, 2011)

Here is a close up of the fry as best I can manage with them in continuous motion.


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## 50seven (Feb 14, 2010)

disman_ca said:


> Here is a close up of the fry as best I can manage with them in continuous motion.


Dude.... 

That is pretty awesome stuff you got going on there! good luck with the babies!


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## Tim (Dec 11, 2011)

Nice

And thx by the way... my wife saw the pics and now has the seahorse itch. I see more tanks in my near future 

And a quick ? You mention rotifiers. Why not baby brine?


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## Scotmando (Jul 10, 2011)

you must be so proud!

You are quick with the pics. AND THEY ARE GOOD!

Nice stand. where'd you get it?


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## disman_ca (Nov 12, 2011)

Tim said:


> Nice
> 
> And thx by the way... my wife saw the pics and now has the seahorse itch. I see more tanks in my near future
> 
> And a quick ? You mention rotifiers. Why not baby brine?


Because of their age, baby brine is not as nutritious as the rotifers are (from what I've read so far). If/when they grow larger I'll be switching to copepods and maybe baby brine. Gut loading is the main thing you have to do when you are feeding and the rotifers are tiny and loaded with phyto which is a healthy start.


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## disman_ca (Nov 12, 2011)

50seven said:


> Dude....
> 
> That is pretty awesome stuff you got going on there! good luck with the babies!


Thanks, I'm crossing my fingers but I still don't expect them to survive to be honest. This particular type of thing takes patience and dedication with constant adjustments to get the optimal setup.


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## disman_ca (Nov 12, 2011)

Scotmando said:


> ...Nice stand. where'd you get it?


My wife picked it out at Big Al's. It was an interesting experience taking her to pick the tank. That is the whole reason why it is a 40G and not smaller. She literally walked around and picked the nicest stand and then I had to match the tank size (I wanted a 10-20G small tank). To be honest this choice was better for how things are currently running.


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## disman_ca (Nov 12, 2011)

The parents are up for sale, sad but true http://gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34085


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