ReefDreamer's Seahorse, Pipefish & Snipefish

Originally Posted by spinycheek

Your aquariums are stunning by the way!!! And those are some incredible photos!

I couldn't agree more, they are what I strive for mine to be like.

Originally Posted by Barbara

I am speechless! (and no comments from the peanut gallery please )......did I just die and go to heaven! that was simply amazing to watch Heinz...and can't believe how well-developed they are at only 3 days old! you sure have worked out a successful breeding system ... I know I ask a lot from you,....but....will you set up a separate thread on your breeding tank set up? why the crate pieces? what material are you using for them to cling to? what was that black piece at the bottom and what's its purpose? and so on.....???? would be REALLY great to know all the details of your breeding set up and tank for those of us who want to set one up

@all
thanks geeks



@Barbara
Thank you very much Barbara for the nice comment. I would also like to write about my breeding tanks. I will do it, but not yet in a separate thread. I have simply too little time. Starting with Monday next week I am in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, with some friends from Shark Project. This time, no business trip but in terms of shark and reef-protection.This week end I would like to prepare my aquarium for my absence and update my thread here.

I will be online from South Africa and will certainly also from time to time log in to RG, but it will certainly not be very often. I'm back on march 3.

Finally, here's a picture of one of the frys from the video. In the picture, it is about 4 months old. Soon more pictures and info

hey Heinz! wow...south africa eh? take some video of the dolphins surfing if you get a chance! so what will you be observing with the sharks? would be cool to hear how it all went when you get back ......I won't pressure you for a tank "build" thread .....until you get back
love the pic of your baby seahorse!

Originally Posted by Barbara

hey Heinz! wow...south africa eh? take some video of the dolphins surfing if you get a chance! so what will you be observing with the sharks? would be cool to hear how it all went when you get back ......I won't pressure you for a tank "build" thread .....until you get back
love the pic of your baby seahorse!

You like dolphins? OK, you should get dolphin pictures, but for video, we have no time this time. The sharks are not observed Barbara, we are specifically dealing with the great white shark. Each year we try to provide as many as possible with GPS transmitters to better understand the habits and behavior of the great white shark.

With a little luck I can take some pictures of Mola mola and other big fish (whale shark, etc), we'll see. If it were possible, I like to show the pictures in a separate thread, the question you had asked now in any case. LoL

woo hoo!!! we're getting dolphin pics! and great white shark pics! and mola mola and other BIG fish pics!!!!! AND it their own thread ......can't wait!!! thanks!
........so how many of the great whites do you usually get to tag with transmitters? how many are you currently following now? .........very cool "work" Heinz...you are very fortunate

Originally Posted by Barbara

woo hoo!!! we're getting dolphin pics! and great white shark pics! and mola mola and other BIG fish pics!!!!! AND it their own thread ......can't wait!!! thanks!
........so how many of the great whites do you usually get to tag with transmitters? how many are you currently following now? .........very cool "work" Heinz...you are very fortunate

Unfortunately, the number of white sharks in South Africas coast, the wear a GPS transmitter, is still relatively low. This time we hope to be able about 20 - 30 more sharks to equippe with a transmitter . It's actually not a true GPS transmitter, because it does not transmit its data to the GPS satellite but to a satellite of the 'Argos' series.

There are other groups doing the same, for example in New Zealand, Mexico, Australia and the USA. This increases the number of "chipped" Sharks relative fast. Most, however, we are chipping in South Africa, since there is found the world's largest number of White Sharks.



For example, a transmitter work fors about 1 years, some only 9 -10 months and it costs about 3000 Euro, as our financial resources are extremely limited, the chipping of a larger number of sharks are simply impossible.

by the way ....this is a so called "Shark-Tracker".

hmmmm...too bad they don't last longer than a year ... guess that's why you try to tag as many as you can then eh?! wow...so you "tag" them right on their dorsal fin ... how difficult that must be! and great whites! how many guys does it take to do this? how do you "catch" them so that you can do this? or can you actually "shoot" it on the fin somehow? seems dangerous yet exciting! what kind of information are you tracking anyway? I sometimes wish I knew about all these different venture careers when I was in school......would've chosen a different path for sure! but at least the rest of us here can live vicariously through you!

Barb, are you suggesting that marketing is not as exciting as Great White wrangling? I find that hard to believe!

@ spinycheek
You find this hard to believe spinycheek? Well, first I did not believe it either, but this has however changed with my first participation in one of these actions. Moreover, In the meantime I do not care whether you or others believe it or not, alone important is that it is done and at regular intervals. Whether you or other believe it or not, is as much important as when fall over in China a sack of rice.

@Barbara
Yes, it's a shame that the Shark-Tracker not working longer because they collect a lot of information. If the shark on the surface, this information will be sent to the satellite and from there to the ground station by Dr. Bonfil, a French marine biologist and director of this action. Since the mounting very time consuming and dangerous is, We use more recently, whenever the shark is too big or too agresive, a new transmitter, he is known as PET. The method to attach a PAT tag to a shark in the field is very simple. First the shark is attracted to the surface close to our boat using chum (a mixture of fish oil, fish meat and water) and baits without hooks. Once the shark begins circling the bait, the researchers pull the bait closer to our boat, and using a modified hand harpoon they insert the dart at the end of the PAT tag into the back of the shark. The ideal place to put the dart is on the upper back of the shark just below the posterior part of the first dorsal fin. The sharks only feel a little pinch when the 1-inch plastic dart is inserted, like when we get an injection, and many times the sharks don’t even seem to notice that we darted them. Usually the hardest part is to find the white sharks in the ocean and make them come to our bait.

PAT tags tell us a great deal about the vertical and horizontal movements of great white sharks and the temperatures they sustain. Using these instruments we discovered that the great white can dive to depths of at least 980 m and also that during oceanic travel they swim very close to the surface, as if looking at the position of the sun. This led speculate that white sharks might use their powerful vision to guide themselves in their long voyages across entire oceans by using celestial bodies like the sun or the moon. PAT tags also tell us a lot about the relationship between water temperature and the behaviour of white sharks; so far they have shown to have a great tolerance for changes in temperature that range from 3.4˚ to 25˚ C! But most importantly, PAT tags tell us where the sharks travel, which are their most favoured areas of the ocean, and what routes they follow during their migrations. All of this is key information to help governments and scientists to design better protection measures for these fantastic creatures of the ocean.


So, the Shark Tracker tell us:

Which are their preferred habitats? What is the size of their home ranges? Do white sharks show fidelity to particular sites, such as hunting grounds, and if so for how long? How far do white sharks travel? Do white sharks have regular migrations, and if so what are the sizes and routes of these migrations? What are the relationships between great white sharks that live in different parts of the world? Are the movements of white sharks driven by environmental factors and if so which are the most important of them?

Still hardly to believe spinecheck? OK, Here are three photos of one of the last actions, more when I'm back.

Heinz, I think you misunderstood me, I was making fun of Barb having an office job while you get to do an exciting marine biology job. I believe you!

Spiny:
marketing versus an incredible, exciting, life-changing career???? hmmmmmmmm....that's a tuff choice eh?! ......I agree with you! I would much rather be doing the work that Heinz does than marketing!


Heinz:
this is all so fascinating! I've been obsessed with sharks (especially the great white) since the movie "Jaws" came out....so beautiful......so intriguing......so mysterious! I'm glad that PATs are being used to better understand these majestic creatures........I hope that it also helps to reinforce the need to ban the slaughtering of them too...I eagerly await the pics of your trip when you return!

Originally Posted by Barbara

Heinz:
this is all so fascinating! I've been obsessed with sharks (especially the great white) since the movie "Jaws" came out....so beautiful......so intriguing......so mysterious! I'm glad that PATs are being used to better understand these majestic creatures........I hope that it also helps to reinforce the need to ban the slaughtering of them too...I eagerly await the pics of your trip when you return!

Hi Barbara,

my second day in Port Elizabeth and as the weather yesterday and today was not good enough to begin chipping I visited a approximately 50 miles distant Safari Park and was able to make great pictures of leopards, lions and much more. Tomorrow the weather will be better and we will take a boat to travel to Plettenberg Bay where to start chipping.

By the way ... on Monday in False Bay, a swimmer was attacked by a Great White and killed, newspapers and TV report constantly in the news here in south-africa. This is not a reason for us to give up, the likelihood to be attacked by a shark is much less then to be run over by a car.

Tomorrow maybe more ....

And as we in this thread actually dealing with seahorses here a picture of the delivery of a seahorse baby.

wow...the baby seahorse pic is fabulous! thanks for sharing!

too bad about the weather but glad you got to spend time enjoying some of the sights of south africa! good thing you weren't swimming in False Bay on Monday! though you're right.....the chances are so minimal for getting attacked - - the news should report all the millions of swimmers daily who AREN'T attacked!

I look forward to your updates Heinz!

Great photo Heinz. The look on the males face says it all

Hey Heinz...welcome back!

Despite the poor quality of these pics, you are more than welcome to choose any of the algae pics I took for Gary's photo challenge.......I'm still learning how to take a good photo so I practiced on our algae for the challenge and to also have pics for you.........If you can still use them then GREAT! here's the link with the pics in it:
http://www.reef-geeks.com/forums/32930-post36.html

Any updates Heinz ?

I hope all is well mate

Cheers

Andrew

I second that andrew! .............miss you a lot Heinz........I hope you're doing well

I agree hope all is well!!

Come back soon Heinz

Absolutely amazing tank. I am getting my first seahorse tank going. Now I am thinking I should have gone a bit bigger. =/ Any updates?

nice bump there Gina!
Heinz always has us on the edge of our seats with his awesome updates! ........we miss him a lot.