Kessil

Felicia's 30 Gallon Seahorse Tank - Seahorses have arrived!!!

I've gotten so hooked on the seahorses, that I've decided to change up my stocking plans for this tank a bit. I decided since its a seahorse tank, I should do more seahorses and less fish! The rule of thumb for H. Erectus is one pair (2 seahorses) per 10 gallons, so in my tank, maximum stocking would be 6 seahorses. Since I want to have the two jawfish in there, I wouldn't stock the maximum, but I've decided to do 4 seahorses. So the tank will hold 4 seahorses and the mated pair of jawfish :)

I actually just ordered another seahorse today from Southwatch Seahorse Farm. She'll be shipping on Monday for Tuesday arrival. She's the most unique seahorse they've had in months, since she's considered a "pinto" and she has cirri (the extensions on her head).




In addition to her, the fourth seahorse will be an orange female that I have on hold at Southwatch Seahorse Farm. The little orange seahorse is too small for shipping, so they're keeping her until she's big enough to ship out, which should be around the end of September.


She's gorgeous!
 
Yeah. Stupid auto type.
If breed them if there was more of a market, especially local market. They really aren't hard, but do take some time.
Mostly I'd feel bad selling them to lfs knowing that mist likely whoever buys them won't know what they're doing and they likely wouldn't get a good home.
Through the Internet to seemingly knowledgable buyers is the only realistic way to see them off to good homes, but a step I wouldn't want to deal with myself!
I completely agree with you that there probably wouldn't be enough of a local market for them. Once seahorses start breeding they produce hundreds of fry like every two weeks. So if you you got good at raising the fry, it could be a LOT of seahorses to sell or give away. I agree that I wouldn't just want to give them to an LFS since the people who buy them there wouldn't be likely to be experienced enough to care for them. And yeah, shipping seahorses seems like a lot of work. I'll let the couple big breeding facilities cover the demand and I'll just enjoy my seahorses instead of making it into work for myself.
 
My third seahorse arrived this morning! She arrived safe and sound with not a mark or dent on the box. USPS seems to have paid attention to the "live animal" stickers on the box. My delivery guy was awesome as usual and was very gentle with the box and made sure it stayed right side up. Yay! Anyways, she's settling into her new home and seems to be doing well do far. I haven't tried to feed her yet since she arrived after the morning feeding for the other seahorses and I wanted to give her time to settle in and explore a bit first. I'll try feeding when I get home from work and then again before bed. At least I know now that its normal for her to not eat for a couple days after shipping and its not going to cause her any lasting harm. This is so much less stressful the second time around :)

Anyways, here she is!
 
She's SO pretty. Did she take any food?
She's interested in the food, which is a lot more than I got from the other two seahorses on their first day in the tank. I think she may have eaten one shrimp. She kept eyeing the shrimp but wouldn't go after them. I think she just needs to settle in because she was too shy to take the shrimp from the tweezers and she wouldn't go after them if I just dropped them in. Plus my smaller seahorse got right next to her and kept taking the food I was trying to give her. Once she's a bit braver, I'm sure she'll go after the food. She was definitely interested and was eyeing it!
 
The newest seahorse started eating for me late last night before I went to bed! I can't believe she started eating the same day she arrived after shipping. She adjusted so much faster than my original two seahorses. Today she ate just as much as the other two seahorses and she ate right out of the tweezers that I feed them with. :)

Also, I moved the jawfish into the seahorse tank from being quarantined. They've already got themselves a nice new burrow and are all settled in.

Here are a few photos I took tonight.

The new girl!




The biggest seahorse.


Yellow sea whip


One of the jawfish. Their new burrow goes under the rocks and has two entrances, one on each side of the rocks. The other jawfish was sitting in the entrance on the other side.


 
Thanks! From a couple posts I've (IDK if it was here or at reef central) I got the impression that I would have to learn photography, and upgrade my camera to get great pics like that. Glad to know that's not the case.
 
Also, my last seahorse is shipping out this Monday from the breeder in Florida and will arrive Tuesday morning. The last one is a bright orange female.


 
I did a water change and thorough cleaning of the seahorse tank tonight. After I was all done, I decided I should snap some photos. I picked up a porite/christmas tree worm rock at Aqua Exotic today, so I took a bunch of photos of that new piece. :)

IMG_4433Edit.jpg


IMG_4439Edit.jpg


So many different colors and patterns!
IMG_4411Edit.jpg


IMG_4447Edit.jpg


Man, this thing makes me really want a DSLR with a nice macro lens. Macro photographers dream!
IMG_4421Edit.jpg


IMG_4418Edit.jpg


IMG_4397Edit.jpg


And now time for some seahorses!

Time for the largest female's photoshoot!
IMG_4385Edit.jpg


IMG_4395Edit.jpg


IMG_4486Edit.jpg


And her little sis.
IMG_4456Edit.jpg


Misty (the pinto) decided to hitch a ride on the turkey baster when I was cleaning the tank.
IMG_4377.jpg




And for some reason this turned out blurry, but to give you an idea of where the new porite/christmas tree worm is located:

IMG_4468Edit.jpg
 
Those pictures look great but you're right, you'd get some really amazing photos with a DSLR and macro lens. It's actually something that I've been looking into and just waiting on the right deal. :)
I spend too much money on the tank to buy a camera too. I'll just have to have you over to take some nice professional macro shots. :)
 
Back
Top