Holy Babies Batman!

[in_flight]

totally caught me off guard today but i was feeding my seahorses for the 2nd time today and was watching them hunt for a bit, i noticed that one of the mysis was brown so i figured i should fish it out in case it was spoiled and causes problems with my horses.

While i was getting the fish net my wife was like, that's not food it's a baby seahorse!!!

i ran back upstairs and i've got 2 baby seahorses, they're about the same size as the mysis shrimp i feed my pair :bounce1:.

I never intended for them to breed but i'm obligated to try and save them and raise them now. Not to mention that my cerith have spawned again and crawling all over my tank walls. I can only find 2 right now and the others may have been sucked up by the powerhead (turned it off) or been eaten by the coral branded shrimp :(

it seems that everything in my tanks are having babies :woohoo:!! Seahorses, snails, cleaner shrimp!

Honestly i haven't done much research on seahorse fry but what can i feed them other than newly hatched bbs?, anything i can buy from a store since i'm pretty busy this entire week and i can't do much else?

oh and before ron asks here's some pics
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2299.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2300.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2301.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2302.jpg

and here's the baby snails on the glass
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2303.jpg

[RonPeter]

WOw that's incredible!!! Isn't it an awesome feeling to discover something like that! Good for you.

[NanoReefaholic]

I've never reared seahorses so I'll leave that to those whom have but congrats are definitely in order. Must be the ambiance.

[in_flight]

thanks guys i need mark to chime in here and see if he can take pics of his kreisel nursery, hard to find pics of them on google

only post i've fond so far is this one http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=782864

i'm pretty sure this first batch won't survive but in case they start hatching on a regular basis i might be able to save/raise a few of them

[vaporize]

Hippocampus kudas 'might' be able to eat bbs, can't remember exactly... but it's a bit too late to try to hatch them now, they need food NOW :D

Seems like your house have the fengshai of getting breeding going LOL How many children you have again? :P

[Dene]

......you can grab a Critter Keeper, a small heater, an airstone and whip up a small nusery. Add some phytoplankton (if you have some), the microalgae will help export waste....

........and CONGRATULATIONS!

oh, and add some hitching posts, plastic plants or cable ties

[in_flight]

thanks coralscaping, i actually have spare 5g and 10g tank but i think i'll use the 5g since it will be easier for the fry to catch the food, I have DT's phyto which i have squirted into the tank along with brine shrimp direct's larval diet 50-100 microns soaked in zoe

hopefully they survive the night and i can set something up for them tmw

[icyuod2]

you need to prevent them from reaching the surface of the water (water tension can trap them there)
the inverted fish bowl in the 5g is the perfect solution.

i just set up a nursery myself. maybe it will be of some help.
i just recieved some baby banggai from mark. i also needed to set up a nursery fast.

i used a 2.5g, a phillips daylight spiral,two pop bottles,air pump and some cheap pvc and airline fittings.

drilled the 2.5 with my dremel and added a diy bulkhead.
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f382/icyuod2/IMG_1408.jpg
the water is actually syphened from my display via a 1/8" airline hose. theres no overflow, just a straight syphen to the 2.5. the 1/8" hose in the display is positioned just below the water surface. if power go's off the display level drops and stops the syphen (which will need to be manually started again)

the extra water overflows my 2.5 and heads down to the sump.

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f382/icyuod2/IMG_1409.jpg

the bbs hatery consists of 2 bottles with 2 holes in each. one for the airline, one to feed the bbs to the aquarium. the brine take 12-24hours to hatch (packages says 24-36h) i feed from the first bottle and at the end of the day add new water and eggs. the next day i'll use the second bottle to feed and at the end of the day add water and eggs. the system allows me to have freshly hatched brine everyday.
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f382/icyuod2/IMG_1411.jpg
you can drip the brine in over the corse of the day, or just open the valve for mass feedings
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f382/icyuod2/IMG_1394.jpg

you might ask why the light is behind the aquarium and i have a few good answers for you.

a. the light is actually keeping the brine cultures warm.
b. brine are attracted to the light. if the light is above the aquarium, the brine swim to the surface (my fish stay on the bottom). with the light lower, the brine swim to the fish.
c. makes it easier to see just how saturated the aquarium is with brine.

anyway thats my simple nano nursery. :)

and the kids just love thier artificial urchant as you can see. :)
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f382/icyuod2/IMG_1412.jpg

the 2.5 has the stability of my 75g system its connected to, but also delivers the surplus brine to my horses in the display.

[Sea MunnKey]

Dang Leigh...

Man... I don't know how you can come up with such neat ideas and that's really great. Kudos to all you DIY folks...(My brain has long seized up...:hihi: )
BTW I've a 10 gallon Top-of-Tank refugium..can I convert this to a Seahorse/Pipefish tank..I have a mandarin Dragonet in the main display Tank. Would there be enough Pods for everyone or should I add another refugium in the Sump as well?



Thanks.

[icyuod2]

10g isnt really tall enough for horses, you should shoot for 3-4 times the height of the horses adult size.

and thanks for the kind words. :)

[mark0933]

Sorry for the late post, hopefully they survived the night.

I don't have any pics of the final Kreisel design I came up with, but here is an early version, and I'll tell you the improvements I made.


http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m75/mark0933/Hospital-December23and242005003.jpg

This is the small plastic fish bowls in any LFS, take a piece of air tubing and attach to one of the curved sides under the apex of the curve (if you look in the pic, the airline is the black hose, and you can see it inside the bowl about 1" from the bottom)

The next upgrade I did was to allow more fresh water into the set-up (I hate water changes) - take a dremel and cut out a 3" circle on both the flat sides of the bowl, then get the rotifer mesh that reef crew sells, and superglue it to the bowl (leave no gaps, spaces etc or bristle worms will get in and food will escape) - this allows you to put the little bowl into a larger tank of water, and still manage to keep feeding densities high of rotifers, bbs, etc without fouling the water.

Put the airline onto an air pump with a valve and have the bubble rate at about 2 or 3 bubbles per second (just to keep the water circulating, but the horses should not be going round in circles :) )

If any of this doesn't make sense, PM me.

Mark

[in_flight]

thanks for the help guys, i think i'll leave the horses in the main tank so that they benefit from the better water quality, i'll pick up one of the plastic bowls and build the kreinzel

i picked up some brine shrimp eggs and will start some hatching tonight. all 3 horses were still alive this morning, i guess the phyto and the larval diet helped them a bit

icyoud great diy but i dont have the room to have a continuous feed station in my tank

[Dene]

in_flight, you can make a continuous feed system with a pop bottle, air valve and airline. Cut the bottom off, drill a hole in the cap, push in the airvavle and add the airline. Use a plastic clamp to clamp it from the "mouth" (or where you cut the bottom off), in the morning pour your bbs in and let it drip into the "nursery". That'll keep them going until evening.

How are the ponies doing now?

[in_flight]

well it's been 24 hrs since i spotted these guys, i believe i lost one but 2 are still alive and kicking, i caught them in a hatching unit that i had lying around making sure that i didn't take them out of water, feed them some phyto and have started hatching the brine shrimp

here's some pics of their temporary home
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2325.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2326.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2327.jpg

and here's a quick DIY automatic brine shrimp hatchery i made thanks to icyuod/coralscaping/mark0933

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2329.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2330.jpg

i also ran a piece of tubing into the container with a bubble count of 3bps as mark suggested to break the water surface

P.S. does anyone in the markham/richmond hill/newmarket area have any hatched brine i could borrow? i'll trade you for unhatched eggs :D

and to think i started a simple seahorse tank so that i didn't have to fool around with so much equipment and maintenance--but i'm still pretty pleased that both my tanks are healthy enough that my inhabitants feel that they should propogate

[mark0933]

Congrats, but do try to get the rounded fishbowl (even if you add the mesh sides later, the airbubble is not meant to just break the surface, it is meant to roll up the side of the bowl and create a slight current across the top ot the water surface forcing food (and the babies more importantly) back down into the water column so they don't suck in air while trying to feed.

All in all looks good, but the babies won't eat phyto, bbs or rotifers yes, plain phyto no - even try some cyclopeze, or frozen BBS, see if any are curious - be sure to clean out any uneaten food though after it has been a while.

And, yes you should be proud of your pair and their surroundings. I have had Kuda before, and they never felt happy enough to breed.

Mark

PS - post some full tank pick of the horse tank.

[newreef8584]

Mark if you need more BBS then you can hatch let me know and I will start a couple of batches for you. I have my Phyto station that isn't in use right now so I can do up to 4 jugs at a time. If you need some right now try George he is usually hatching some all the time.

I am still thinking about using the new 25G as a pony tank, the daughter seems to like the idea as well. So I maybe looking to you for a little advise in the near future.


Good luck.

[in_flight]

well to my amazement all 3 (found the other one this morning before i left for work) are still alive and kicking, i'm still at work and i just called my wife and she said that they are all still alive

thanks for the offer jason but i've started hatching last night, i'll see if george has some right now though so i can pick it up on my way home

mark i didn't have a chance to get the round fish bowl yesterday but will pick one up tmw, and i'll also try the cyclopeeze and the frozen bbs

[Dene]

in-flight,.....nice job! Excellent work being you were caught by surprise.

[in_flight]

quick update, lost one today but the other 2 seem to be doing great i can only feed 2x per day with newly hatched bbs and i'm still using the larval diet


had a problem with my hatching station, developed a leak and 2 whole bottles dripped out (thankfully i have it in the basement) and so i have no bbs for tmw morning :( i started a new batch this evening but i'm a little worried since these guys can supposedly eat about 2000 bbs per day

these guys are now 6 days old!

[Dene]

.....I have a ton of bbs wish I could get it to you!

....day 6! Good job! The first 7 days are critical, after that................ 6 weeks to go !!!! Then their nutritional needs change.

[in_flight]

well i've been home for a few days with strep throat and took some pics of the babies...i lost 1 but guess what? i found 2 more!!! they're part of the first batch since they're just as big as the fry that i had caught previously, these guys have great camouflage, i bought a brine shrimp hatch and feed just to make sure they are getting enough food and i've positioned their holding tank near my powerhead so that there's a constant waterflow but not strong enough to create a sea swirl, they'll be 2 weeks old tmw !

funny thing is 3 are beige and 1 is dark like their parents, is this normal?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2424.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2422.jpg

[Dene]

Excellent! And you found two more....they are masters at camouflage!

Colour variations are normal yes. In our brood we have jet black, beige and yellow; parents are beige.

Good job at keeping the little fellows alive. Excellent work especially since you had some hurdles.

[vaporize]

hmmm interesting :) Good work man, hopefully you get them grow to adulthood

[newreef8584]

Keep up the good work, the new tank will be ready in another couple of weeks, just in time to take some off your hands... LOL

[lotus02]

:wow: Bravo! Great job.
</IMG>

[in_flight]

well 14 days after the first babies arrive, i'm expecting more!!!

got a call from the wife, it seems that another baby has been born, the father is about fit ready to burst and comparing the 14 day old ponies i have now with the new baby, they're about 1/4 the size---my how these guys grow fast

i' think that when i come home tmw i should have quite a bit more of these guys :cheers::jam:

[Dene]

Yahoo!!!!!!
Congratulations!!!!!

Get another nursery set-up!

I think yours are on the same schedule as ours!

Keep us posted on the new brood!!!

[in_flight]

another quick update the 4 ponies from the 1st batch are doing great, they shed every other day and are about 1.5" big, with the help of my wife we've increased feeding to 4x per day

the 2nd batch of ponies was quite large by comparison, we now have 15 5 day old ponies (they arrived nov 15) i've placed them in a separate compartment to ensure that they get enough food since their older siblings are pretty quick feeders

the father looks to be holding again...at this rate i'll need quite a few tanks to house all these babies (we stocked up on Lee's floating breeder tanks since i still haven't found a plastic fish bowl)

i also bought a hatch and feed thingy but i can't use it since i have no way of plumbing the output of the thing directly into my nurseries, i should have checked it out first at BA before ordering from mops so i could have seen the unit first before buying it....wasted money but at least i have another piece of equipment to add to my accessories box lol

so far i've only lost 1 from the 1st batch and none on the 2nd batch

and of course some new pics

my 2 nurseries
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2451.jpg

batch #2--they're all hanging around like monkeys
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2452.jpg

[Dene]

Fantastic!

Your pair have quite the program happening!

Keep up the good work!

...at this rate you might have to consider a pony tank!

[in_flight]

Fantastic!

Your pair have quite the program happening!

Keep up the good work!

...at this rate you might have to consider a pony tank!

what do you mean, i already have a pony tank, my wife will kill me if i have another tank in the house 4 tanks (2fw, 2 sw) is more than enough thanks

[Dene]

.....a PONY tank!

....for all the babies!

....a horse tank is for adults!

LOL

I know you have a horse tank, I meant a PONY tank for the youngsters....looks like you are going to have a ton of them

[in_flight]

.....a PONY tank!

....for all the babies!

....a horse tank is for adults!

LOL

I know you have a horse tank, I meant a PONY tank for the youngsters....looks like you are going to have a ton of them

ahh, a little slow due to lack of sleep over the weekend...hopefully i won't need another tank

[miked]

i assume u are going to sell them when they are of age right?

[in_flight]

not sure, i'd like to keep a few ponies to have a nice herd but quite a people have expressed interest in trades and stuff

[in_flight]

sad day today, woke up to fine mommy was sucked into the powerhead, my stupid maxijet has a loose intake pipe and it kept falling off, it must have fallen off during the night but the horse's tail was pretty mashed up when i pulled her out this morning :( should have learned my lesson when the pipe fish met it's death the same way, i have since changed the cover to a tighter fitting cover

another note over the last 2 days i have lost 5 ponies from the second batch--not sure what's wrong, they were all eating and appeared healthy, still 10 remaning and the 4 from the 1st batch are getting pretty large now

[Dene]

....I'm sorry to here about the female's tail. Personally I don't trust powerheads in with the horses. We don't have any powerheads in any of the tanks with ours, except for a WavySea which has an input from the sump, so there is no danger of hurting horses.

...as far as losing a few ponies, I wouldn't assume that something is wrong....nature will cull a brood.

[in_flight]

when i was at see u marine to pick up my new tunze skimmer for the seahorse tank my wife decided that the male will be lonely on his own so i bought her another pair of kuda's

funny thing is when i got them acclimated and into the tank, my 2 new horses look different from my old horses, the ridges on my old horses are more pronounced than the new inhabitants

ID help needed

the old male was hiding so i couldn't take a pic but here's some old pics of them
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_1506.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_1504.jpg

here's the new pair
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2544.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2541.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2538.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2537.jpg


looking at this site my old horses look more like erectus and the new one's are kuda's
http://www.syngnathid.org/articles/idGuide.html

[Dene]

.....the new additions are Kudas.

The first pair do look like erectus but the position of the coronet looks too far back from the pictures. Do you have a better picture of the first pair?

[in_flight]

.....the new additions are Kudas.

The first pair do look like erectus but the position of the coronet looks too far back from the pictures. Do you have a better picture of the first pair?

will hopefully take some better pics tmw when he's out

[in_flight]

sorry about the delay in getting some pics, i was pretty busy this week

upon closer examination, he is a kuda, looks the exact same as my new pair

here's my father in his pregnant glory

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2601.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2564.jpg

he's right on schedule for a new batch and i guess early this morning or late last night he gave birth to over 60 babies (i lost count when i was collecting them :( )


here's the new fry after being fed with bbs..don't mind the bubbles, they are outside the container, for some reason whenever i add a new container to the tank it accumulates bubbles for a few days
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2615.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2614.jpg
if you look closely their little stomachs are full , you can tell since its orange in colour

and later this afteroon, my male who just gave birth decided to see if he can get some action from my new female
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2587.jpg

here's a little S&M pics, the male's in the bottom in the submissive position lol
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2589.jpg

finally here's an updated pic of my seahorse tank with the new lights and my DIY light hanging fixture....i had originally wanted to make a hood but haven't had the time and won't have any until after the holidays

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/in_flight/75G%20starphire/IMG_2586.jpg

[miked]

roughly how many babies do u have atm? it seems every 2 weeks they are getting it on ? lol sorry but i had to.

[in_flight]

i have 4 from the 1st batch, 10 from the 2nd batch and 60+ from the 3rd and latest batch, they do get it on quite often as do my cleaner shrimp, the father looks to have a new brood every 16 days or so

[miked]

any news? for some reason i really enjoy this thread. my gf saw it.. n now wants some.. when the time comes an i have a proper tank.

[in_flight]

any news? for some reason i really enjoy this thread. my gf saw it.. n now wants some.. when the time comes an i have a proper tank.

sad to say i had a disaster earlier this week, i dont have an ATO in my horse tank and due to the busy week i had i forgot to do a top up, thursday i got a call from the wife about lots of bubbles in my tank, i figured shouldn't be a big deal until i get home in a couple of hours.

it seems that my DIY surface skimmer was cavitating air (the skimmer attachment kept bobbing up and down) due to the water level, this in turn caused micro bubbles to form and the 2 nearest nurseries was flooded with micro bubbles

8 of the 10 seahorses from the 2nd batch snicked some air and were floating upside down, 7 died the next day, the 8th's still hanging around but not eating. The 2 that didn't snick air are alive and healthy

the last batch was devastated i lost alot, not sure as to the #, my last count i believe i have 19 or so remaning but it's hard to count due to the caulerpa and the ponies swimming around

now i know why everyone's been warning about micro bubbles in a seahorse tank. My wife was pretty sad about the losses but at least the 4 from the first batch are still doing great

i have to redo my overflow and have been meaning to build a proper acrylic surface/overflow box but haven't had time to do so

i have got to say that adult mysis are voracious eaters, i've spent quite a bit on DT's phyto and selcon the last few weeks

[Dene]

It is better to feed the mysis shrimp, enriched brine.

Sorry to hear about the disaster, and the loss of the ponies. Might be safer to move the rest of the babies into a little 10 gallon with an air driven foam filter.

[pearce23]

pls dont feed them bbs because they are to hard as the the fry will choke and die...i had raised up mine on rotifers !...then once they got a bit biggeri fed them bbs...

[mark0933]

BBS is fine, just remember to let the container settle for a few minutes, and the cycst will float to the top, then use a turkey baster (or other device to remove the lower water and bbs, leaving the cysts at the top) - or use decapped bbs.

That being said, fry won't live forever on bbs, I hit a wall at about 6 weeks old - they seem to lack some key nutrition profile for the fry at that age - need to switch over to mysis (shaved) before that point.

Mark

[in_flight]

thanks for all the tips guys

i was mistaken in my previous post, i meant adult bbs instead of mysis...i've been feeding 3 day old bbs gutloaded with phyto and selcon also 3 ponies from the first batch survived with no snicked air, i thought it was only 2


It is better to feed the mysis shrimp, enriched brine.

Sorry to hear about the disaster, and the loss of the ponies. Might be safer to move the rest of the babies into a little 10 gallon with an air driven foam filter.

thanks, the only reason i haven't moved them to their own tank is because i've got the skimmer running in the main tank along with the LR, i just don't trust foam filters in maintaining the water quality...a bit nervous about ammonia and nitrate levels due the massive amounts of feeding that we do


pls dont feed them bbs because they are to hard as the the fry will choke and die...i had raised up mine on rotifers !...then once they got a bit biggeri fed them bbs...

i've fed all the babies strictly bbs from day one with no problems whatsoever i don't have any rots in hand to feed them


BBS is fine, just remember to let the container settle for a few minutes, and the cycst will float to the top, then use a turkey baster (or other device to remove the lower water and bbs, leaving the cysts at the top) - or use decapped bbs.

That being said, fry won't live forever on bbs, I hit a wall at about 6 weeks old - they seem to lack some key nutrition profile for the fry at that age - need to switch over to mysis (shaved) before that point.

Mark
i've tried decapsulated to no success, i've tried soaking it in selcon and phyto but no luck to speak of

the first batch were born Nov 1 so they are almost 8 weeks old and are very healthy but i'll heed your words in terms of their increased nutritional needs. i strain all my bbs so that there are no unhatched or egg sacs used during feeding, stricly bbs

how did you wean them off of bbs and to mysis?

[Dene]

To wean them off bbs start growing the brine to juvenile and adult brine (still gut loaded) then start adding frozen brine or Hikari mysis (very small or chopped; Hikari rather than PE Mysis at this point because Hikari is smaller)...be sure to overlap when changing foods.

[in_flight]

To wean them off bbs start growing the brine to juvenile and adult brine (still gut loaded) then start adding frozen brine or Hikari mysis (very small or chopped; Hikari rather than PE Mysis at this point because Hikari is smaller)...be sure to overlap when changing foods.

thanks i have some vacation time coming up in the next few weeks and will go this route

[fish_gurl]

WOW... cool thread. Congrats on your lil ones... you must be very proud of your accomplishments to date. It definatly is a challene to keep these fry alive, I watched my neighbors horses give birth and not many of them survived the first few weeks, mainly due to alot of mistakes and lack of info.
I would definatly be interested in buying/trading you something for a horse or two when they are ready.
good luck and great job so far.
Ruth

[Dene]

To wean them off bbs start growing the brine to juvenile and adult brine (still gut loaded) then start adding frozen brine or Hikari mysis (very small or chopped; Hikari rather than PE Mysis at this point because Hikari is smaller)...be sure to overlap when changing foods.

thanks i have some vacation time coming up in the next few weeks and will go this route


....keep us posted. We are working on the transition too, shaving the mysis off the frozen cube and dicing up afterwards seems to work well in making small enough pices. Now if I can convince the little rascals how delicious they are !!!! (one for you and one for me....*grin and bear it* LOL )

[in_flight]

thanks i have some vacation time coming up in the next few weeks and will go this route


....keep us posted. We are working on the transition too, shaving the mysis off the frozen cube and dicing up afterwards seems to work well in making small enough pices. Now if I can convince the little rascals how delicious they are !!!! (one for you and one for me....*grin and bear it* LOL )


will do, hopefully i can wean them off bbs in a 6 day span

[in_flight]

i think i'm hitting a wall now, i noticed yesterday that my ponies didn't go nuts for the bbs like they usually do, whenever we fed, they swarmed the bbs, yesterday and this morning they didn't look like they were eating.

i sliced up some really fine slivers of hikari mysis and they are currently soaking in a selcon/zoe/phyto solution and i added a little cyclopeeze i'll see how that goes

mark how long have you been able to raise your seahorses? have you ever raised one to adulthood?

dene, how are your seahorses holding up? do you still have your ponies from the first batch?

[Dene]

Well, this may or may not be a wall. If they have taken a liking to the frozen food they maybe turning up their little snouts at the brine. Or, they are confused and don't know what to go after....if that is the case, yes you hit a wall, and may have to back up abit. You'll have to pay very close attention to them.

Backing up means one of two things:

1) very very little frozen chopped finely with 98% brine.
2) back up completely and stay with the brine for a while longer to keep them eating and try again.

In answer to your question to us still having ponies from our first batch....YES!! We are running approx. 60-70% success and will hit the 2 month old mark on the 29th. We are soon to be out of the woods with this batch. We analyzed some of the stumbling blocks and put corrective measures/improvements in place so we anticipate higher success rate percentages from this point on with all future fry.

What is your survival rate at this point?

[in_flight]

Well, this may or may not be a wall. If they have taken a liking to the frozen food they maybe turning up their little snouts at the brine. Or, they are confused and don't know what to go after....if that is the case, yes you hit a wall, and may have to back up abit. You'll have to pay very close attention to them.

Backing up means one of two things:

1) very very little frozen chopped finely with 98% brine.
2) back up completely and stay with the brine for a while longer to keep them eating and try again.

In answer to your question to us still having ponies from our first batch....YES!! We are running approx. 60-70% success and will hit the 2 month old mark on the 29th. We are soon to be out of the woods with this batch. We analyzed some of the stumbling blocks and put corrective measures/improvements in place so we anticipate higher success rate percentages from this point on with all future fry.

What is your survival rate at this point?

not good at all 100% mortality rate from the 3rd and final batch

my male doesn't seem to be pregnant again due to the female dying

2 out of the 15 survived from the 2nd batch so 87% mortality rate

4 out of 5 survived from the 1st batch so 20% mortality rate

not sure how that was possible because i was completely unprepared when they arrived, as for the 3rd batch, as my previous post stated, i lost all of them to micro bubble and snicking issues

man i was doing so great up until now, water parameters were a little sketchy at first but ammonia has never showed up in any of my tests, nitrate is at 10ppm 0 nitrite and phosphates are down to 0.5 from a high of 2!!(before the skimmer and the use of rowa)