Seining meeting critter update

[coyoteseven]

Well, after a lot of looking around on the net at the various syngnathid (seahorse/pipefish) related sites, it looks like the horses we caught are Hippocampus Erectus (lined seahorse) in various stages of development. It appears that the dwarf seahorse (H. Zosterae) didn't make it to our little get-together.

I stopped by the LFS on my way home from work and got a pack of frozen mysis for feeding. The larger of my pair seemed to be a little interested and snicked one as it floated by him/her (haven't had a good chance to sex them yet), but paid no attention to the others that floated by. The smaller one seemed to take no interest at all... at least my cleanup crew is going to have a good meal tonight :rolleyes: .

Since I had a small jug of BBS hatching, I put about half of them in the tank and they both went wild! Looks like I had better keep some BBS cooking (and plenty of fresh SW for water changes), as I try training my new ponies to take frozen, so they don't starve. BTW, if anybody's interested, you can get hatchable decapsulated brine shrimp cysts at Seahorse Source (http://www.seahorsesource.com/foods.html) and it looks like beginning in June, live mysids also! :thumbsup:

All the snails and hermits, that Pookie hasn't invited home for dinner, are doing well and still working on my algae in the 45g. The serpent star is sharing the 10g with the ponies (until I get them a new, larger home) and stays under the colt frag minding its own business and probably getting fat on the missed mysis. :lmao:

That's all for now, if I can get my digital camera to take more than 3 pics before it eats the batteries, I'll post some as soon as I get the chance.

Added edit: I put a bid on eBay for a 4'x4'x1/8" seine. This would be ideal to catch the real small mysid and other critters that might have slipped through the ¼" mesh we had. Keeping my fingers crossed.

[myakkareef]

Larry, Thanks for the update. So have you ID the hermits at all. I wonder if they are reef safe? Or if they are only workers till dinner.
Keep us posted on how your seahorses are fairing.

[lookout888]

Awsome,
Thanks for the update.....When we going again :)

Mike

[coyoteseven]

So far, no luck on the frozen mysis, but they readily snick up the BBS. I'm going to try feeding them nothing but mysis and see if hunger will win out and they'll eat. I'm still keeping the brine shrimp handy in case this doesn't work.

As far as the species of hermit crabs we got, the best name I could find for them is green leg hermit (no scientific name, yet). As far as I can tell, they haven't molested any of the xenia, anthelia, zoas, fire coral or GSP that is in my 45g right now. I really can't say if they are truly reef safe, but I might throw one or two into my main 90g and keep an eye on them.

[coyoteseven]

Still no luck getting the SH to eat frozen mysis, probably not enough action to draw their attention. I'm thinking about trying to find a very thin piece of stainless steel wire, skewering the mysis and wiggling it in front of them to induce a feeding response. Anybody have an idea where I might find a piece of SS wire that is almost hair thin? I can find copper motor windings like that, but of course, I won't be using them. I'm not ready to give up on them, I knew it was going to be a challenge and I still have BBS continually hatching so they don't starve. If anybody also knows of a reasonably priced source of live mysis, let me know... I can also try the old "bait and switch" routine.

So far, the hermits and snails are doing a good job, but I'm going to need more... Pookie is a pig! They seem to have shown no interest in my xenia, anthelia, fire coral, zoas or GSP in the 45g. I did put a couple in the 90g and all they seem to be interested in, is cleaning the LR and sandbed. I'm still not ready to pronounce them reef safe, yet.

Well, that's all for now. More updates to come as I get them.

[ladybug_Montreal]

By chance did you win that seine net?

[coyoteseven]

Won the seine last night, now all I need is to get a couple of hoe handles to attach to it and we'll be good to go. I figure with the smaller size/mesh (4'x4'x1/8"), a single user or pair of users could easily manuever it and gather the smaller shrimp (or even some larger pods) that may have slipped through the larger 1/4" mesh we had... of course the downside is that it will also have the tendency to fill up with grass/algae/muck/etc. a little quicker.

Still no luck on the mysis feeding, but then again, I'll keep trying. So far the hermits in the 90g are behaving theirselves and seem only interested in foraging the sandbed/LR.

I was thinking that maybe I could use one of the higher note piano wires as a feeding 'stick'. More than likely, it's made of regular or carbon steel and not stainless. However, if I keep it rinsed off and clean, it might not pose a too serious threat. I have an old pocket knife of my dad's with a high carbon blade that he used for over 20 years around corrosive environments... other than the blade being a very nice jet black in color, there is no sign of rust or corrosion. He took excellent care of all his tools and would rinse and oil the knife as soon as he was able... of course I wouldn't be oiling the wire and its use would be short term.

Any thoughts about this someone would care to interject?

[ladyfsu]

I will post some pics tomorrow....I put 1/2 the seahorses in my 55 gallon, and another teacher took half in a not very established tank. His died by morning. That's sad. But mine right now are doing just fine. The other teacher is hatching brine and they seem to be loving it. Plus I put in quite a bit of macro from the refugium and I think they are finding some copepods to munch on. This 55 gallon has 3 semi-big horses, and 2 tiny ones...so far so good.

I also have 4 file fish, 2 big cow fish, some shrimp and a random tube anemone all doing ok from our seining adventure. I hope they continue to do well.

The horses keep hanging on things like filters because there aren't too many plants for them to hold on to. I'll work on that.

By the way, how do you determine their sex ( please don't tell me to look between their legs :o ) . I'm curious if I can get some lucky mating going on ... IN THE TANK!

Larry, keep me posted on yours. I'm only 6 days into this and I'm nervous ( I never expected them to live this long). And the students LOVE these babies!!!!!

THANKS EVERYONE! I had a blast!

[coyoteseven]

Here you go Laine, I found an article on Seahorse.Org (http://www.seahorse.org/) that should help you out:

Sexing Seahorses (http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles/sex.shtml)

Using this guide, it appears that my larger horse is female and the smaller is male. While it would be neat to have them breed, first thing I want to do, of course, is get them to eat frozen foods. If that looks like it won't happen, I found a source for live mysis, pods and other live foods at Sachs Systems Aquaculture (http://www.aquaculturestore.com/) in St. Augustine (click HERE (http://www.aquaculturestore.com/products.html) for their products list).

The pods presently in your tank(s) won't last long at the rate an adult H. Erectus can devour them and brine shrimp alone is a very poor food source for any SH other than the dwarf (H. Zosterae)...so, you'll also need to suppliment their feeding with other foods. I'll be the first to admit that training to eat frozen is a P.I.T.A. and it may never happen, but if it does, we'll have some of the best fed/healthiest ponies around. :D

I'm happy to hear that all your critters are doing fine so far, sorry about your colleague's luck. Wild caught SH can be fragile sometimes and not having a fully cycled tank could have added to this stress.

[Agu]

Laine,

Collect some seaweed locally to put in your tank. It'll give the horses something to hitch to and if you collect it before it washes up on the beach odds are good you'll get some pods too.

I was told by Neale who used to work at Venice pets that pods are easy to collect. You grab chunks of floating seaweed and swish it around in a bucket of saltwater. I haven't verified this but he said that's what he did to feed seahorses when he had them.



fwiw,

[ladyfsu]

:o That's what I was thinking!! I'm going to go to the beach tomorrow!! I can't believe 2 years ago I thought these water bugs were gross...now I HUNT them and love them :D hahaha that's funny!

THX!

[coyoteseven]

Sad news :sad1: ... the larger of my SH died today. I found her floating at the top of the tank when I came home from work. It was actually a little surprising, since she was the more active of the pair. The smaller one is also a female instead of a male as stated in my previous post and seems to be doing fine. In fact, she may soon be frozen trained! :dance:

When I put the frozen mysis in today, she paid little attention as it floated by her... however, a few minutes later, I saw her snick one off the LR that had gotten hung up and was moving slightly in the current caused by the nearby pulsing xenia. That cheered me up a bit and has gotten my hopes up, that she will soon take the frozen foods without hesitation.

Well, everyone else is doing fine (exept the ones Pookie has invited to dinner :lmao: ) and seem to be in good health.

Until later... :wave:

[stevemc]

Larry, Steve here, long story, but password was gone and didnt get it until today. I saw you had a seining party and caught some sea horses. Some things about sea horses, maybe you already know. They like calm water, no bubbles, sticks or blades of grass to hang on, thick substrate or a pile for isopods and amphipods to grow in. Set up a brine shrimp tank so they are always reproducing. I use a 5 gallon white bucket. You will have hundreds every day. I assume you know how to do that though-raise adult brine shrimp so they are constantly having live young. They also dont like anything else in there with them. Males have the pouch out front and females dont. If any questions let me know here, Steve. Oh it good to be back, I would lurk and couldnt get in:mad: :( , but I'm back. Maybe we can host a meeting. I am gone all June. On the 4th I'm taking a 45' sport fish up to NYC by water and flying back June 16, then Lynn and I are going to the Bahamas in my boat for some diving for 2 weeks. Maybe after that. All our fish are much bigger. The little tang(yellow) is now getting blue and the biggest fish we have. One wrasse got a lot larger than the other, both are male, so I would suppose they are supermales-they didnt go through the female stage. No one wanted the bigger queen angel and she is bigger, and the grey angel is bigger, zoos are all over, gorgonians bushed way out, and green star polyps have grown like grass. Many mushrooms. All the other fish are doing good, the 4 blennies are now sexually mature and dont mingle unless theres food, neon gobies have bred. I had to give some fish away and let some go they got too big. The Banded butterfly was picked on by the Atlantic tang, so I let the tang go, smaller grey angel and the banded butterfly. Gave away the real small queen angel and one Atlantic tang. I'll stay in touch, we both want to get to a meeting again. Weve been real busy, working , diving, traveling- went to Costa Rica, Keys, Marquesas, went on a spearfishing tournement 2 weekends ago and went diving 90 miles out in the gulf. Saw some really cool damsels that I have not seen before. These swam in schools like some Pacific types above the coral. Huge schools. They were blue with a diagonal neon blue and a yellow tail and rear ventral fin. Schools of babys were even brighter. Only problem they were in really deep water and they have swim bladders. Saw tons of great corals , black corals,and other good fish. Still want to catch some long tailed blue hovering gobies, for my tank, I saw a bunch of them out there. No bladders on them. Will have to wait till we get back. See ya, Steve and Lynn.:rollface:

[stevemc]

Oh yeah also saw bunchs of long nosed atlantic butterflies, chalk bass, some kind of bright basslets and other deep water fish we dont see in close. For a meeting/field trip, I have a seine net-maybe a 20' I think. And nets, slurp guns and other stuff. Maybe we can do a snorkeling trip to Point O Rocks reef if everyone wants to. There are lots of Lysmata shrimp- 3 different kinds, mantis shrimp, and other critters, and calerpa of different kinds. Just have to know where to look. Steve.

[Agu]

Steve,

Welcome back !

[coyoteseven]

The seine was waiting for me today when I came home. Tomorrow I'll get a couple of broom or hoe handles to mount it on and it will be ready to go. :D

Thanks for the tip Steve, never thought about using a 5g bucket for brine raising... too simple, not complicated/expensive enough to register in my brain. :lol: I'll set that up and give it a spin this weekend.

BTW, have an old 10g AGA that I could have raised brine in. However, I've been practicing my drilling technique upon it, if I were to plumb all the holes to a bunch of closed loops, I'd probably get a 175,000gph flow in that bugger. SPS fanatics, eat your hearts out! :lolspin:

Good news!!! :celeb3: It looks like my SH has taken to frozen mysis, she's just bashfull and I have to hide before she'll eat. I've heard that it might be the "big eyes looking at you equal predator" syndrome that could be the issue right now. So, I just lay back on the bed and watch from a distance... maybe I'll start moving a little closer during feeding time each day and as time goes by, perhaps she'll get used to me being close and watching her.

Later... :wave:

P.S. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the hermits we caught seem to be reef friendly. After exposing them to xenia, anthelia, zoas, GSP, mushrooms, spotted & fiji yellow leather, pocilipora, monti digi and red lobo to name a few... they have been model citizens so far. YMMV