Rearing Seahorse Fry

[STARFYRE]

Here's the plan:
15 gal tank
BB
Sponge filter
Small air pump and airstone
standard flourescent light
50w heater
breeding cage for early stage (first 4 weeks)
plastic plants
small piece of LR for pods to grow, and a little extra filtration.

I'm thinking of getting a large acrylic tube for the heater, and wrapping it in pantyhose to prevent entry.
I'll be picking up a brine shrimp hatching kit. I read a thread somewhere and got some good ideas as far as feeding.
Feel free to give any advice, as I was not prepared for this to happen this soon.
Here's 2 before pregnant pics (the best ones I could find)

And here's pics from today (2nd day of his term)

 

[STARFYRE]

I took a trip to the LFS. I told the guy what happened, and what I needed. He gave me a bag with about 8 lbs of LS to stick in the tank. He also gave me approximately 6 lbs of mature LR, and 5 gals of RO SW. I also bought 5 more nassarius snails to put in the seahorse tank. He gave me the LS, LR and RO SW for free!!!! And he only charged me $2 for the 5 nassarius. Sweeeeet! I love my LFS!
So I have the tank started. I'm in the process of making water....lots of water. I only need about 2 more gallons to fill the baby tank. It's also time for a pwc in the SH tank, so I need water for that as well.
These are the current stats:
13 gallons of water in the baby tank
BB
the LS is in a bag in the tank (I'm hoping this will help in some kind of way?)
6 lbs of mature LR (I'm hoping pods will start reproducing in there)
I put a sponge filter in there
and a 50w heater
I also have two plastic plants in there for hiding spots and anchorage
The sponge filter provides surface aggitation, so I don't think an airstone or PH will be necessary.
I also need to pick up a breeding cage.
I need to make some sort of a protection device for the heater. I have, what I believe, is a good idea. I'm just not too sure where to get the thing I'm looking for? I want to put some type of large plastic tube over the heater and wrap pantyhose around the whole contraption to prevent little seahorse entry. I'd like to find a tube that is open down the side so that I can simply place the tube over the heater while it is suctioned to the tank wall. I'd rather do it this way instead of putting the heater inside the tube. I think that may cause problems?
There's also the food issue. I'm thinking hatching brine shrimp is my best bet.
If anyone has any advice, PLEASE feel free to share!

 

[rayjay]

I think you would be best to view the articles at Seahorse.org were so many people have been contributing to the success of keeping and raising seahorses.
A lot will depend on the type you are growing, as for some, the brine shrimp nauplii freshly hatched out, are still to large and you will have to use rotifers for the first while.
There are also a few specific ways that make raising newborn seahorses more successfull.

 

[MyCatsDrool]

I wonder if they could eat cyclop-eeze

 

[STARFYRE]

I checked out seahorse.org and read through some of the threads. There is a sticky about raising reidi babies, which is the kind I have. As I was reading through it, my eyes stayed wide and my mouth hit the floor.
It seems like the tank set-up is not that big of a deal as long as it's BB, and there's nothing in the tank that can harm the fry. i.e. exposed heater, aptasia on LR etc....
The battle is going to be feeding. And I have no idea how to culture rotifers, or hatch baby brine shrimp. Thr rotifers need to feed to stay alive, and they eat this stuff called nanno something. It's some type of algae I think, that turns the water green. I'm pretty sure the brine shrimp kit will come with instructions, so hopefully I won't have too much of a problem with that. At some point, I'll need to ween them off the brine shrimp and try to get them to eat frozen.
The success rate is slim to none, especially for unprepared, inexperienced people like myself. I wanted to raise seahorses at some point, but I was planning on this years down the road when I'm finished with school, have a fish room in my home, and much more time on my hands. Unfortunately, I have frisky guys that thought it would be a great idea to hook up and make babies after being in my tank 4 days.
I'm hoping the LS and LR will assist in cycling my tank fast, or better yet, not cycle at all. I was advised against a breeding net because the babies can get stuck on the netting. I got some suggestions on how to keep them from sucking air from the surface, but I'm not sure exactly what I'll be doing about that? Two people on SH.org said they don't use a heater in their fry tanks, and the temp fluctuates between 68 and 76 in their homes. My house stays at about 70 at the coolest. Most of the time I rock a wife beater when I'm home in the winter, so I may be ripping the heater out of the tank to avoid extra work. I noticed some aptasia on the LR the LFS gave me, and I don't want the babies going in the bag of LS. So I'll also be taking out the LS and LR when it's time for the babies to go in there. I'm going to leave in the plastic plants, and I'll be getting some plastic craft mesh, cuz I heard it's ideal for the babies once they start hitching.
I'm very discouraged at how much work is involved, and the fact that I really don't have the time to invest in this right now. And although, I'm not a pessimist, I am a realist; and it doesn't look like I'll be having much success with this endeavor. I am, however, going to give it my best shot.
With all that being said.....Anyone know how to culture rotifers???

 

[STARFYRE]

I apologize for not keeping a log. I've been completely overwhelmed with school, along with the other 1 million things going on.
Banana had the babies Feb. 12th. He had 26. 5 of them lived to be 5 days old, and 2 lived to be a week old. Sad to say, they all died.
However......
I woke up this morning to about 60 babies swimming in the main tank. I decided to keep them in the main tank and see if that works out any better. There are 8 or 9 left out of all the babies this morning. Most of them somehow penetrated my sponge coverings on the filter and skimmer intakes and got sucked up. I'm cleaning out the baby tank now and preparing it for the next batch with some modifications. With 2 batches in one month, it looks like this is going to be a regular occurence.
The few that are left in the main tank seem to be healthy and doing OK. They are swimming in the middle area of the tank, which is a good sign. I also saw some of them extending thier snouts as if they are eating. I've been throwing rotifers in there, and there's also a nice pod population in the tank. I witnessed some babies from the other batch sucking pods off the glass, so I know that's a definate food source for them. I'm just not sure if they'll eat them on the first day. I tried getting pics. They're all blurry. These things are so incredibly tiny, and my camera won't focus in on them.
I picked out a couple pics where you can kinda see the outline of the babies.
Here's one......It's the gray blob above the xenia.

Here's one on my finger to show how small they are