ReefDreamer's Seahorse, Pipefish & Snipefish

ReefDreamer's Seahorses, Pipe- & Snipefishes






Hippocampus bargibanti (Dwarf seahorse)

I started my first seahorse tank mid-summer 2001 (June) with 1/3 water as well as approx. 5 kg live sand of my reef tank and 2/3 fresh mixed seawater.

I added the first animals (crabs, shrimps and snails) in august 2001 and the first soft corals in september. End of september the first gorgonians came in to the tank and at the end of november moved into the first seahorse (Hippocampus reidi). In january 2002 the pair of Hippocampus barbouri and end of february the pipefish (Doryrhamphus exisus). As far as the history of my seahorse tank. 2009, a pair of Hippocampus kuda has been added, all the animals get along splendidly.

I fed 3 times a day artemia (mix from living and frozen) as well as Mysis (1/2 living 1/2 frozen) into a fodder bowl in the tank (see picture below).

The seahorses began with their first brood in September 2002. In the distance of approx. 3-4 weeks the ponies tried again and again. Unfortunately I had still no success with my raising. I could not offer suitable food for the young ponies, that was my guess after I repeatedly talked to some fellow breeders.

Around something to change I started in the summer 2002 with a artemia breed tank in the garden. Other reefer her in germany had thereby already success, So why should I not succeed?

Starting from 2004 I had the very first time good success with the artemia breed in the garden and could so feed living artemia as well as artemia nauplien all summer long.

I had considerable more success first as I enriched the living artemia with Lipovit (vitamins and trace-elements). I gave the nauplii about half an hour before feeding into a container with Lipovit and trace element-enriched seawater, the artemia nauplien took up the lipovit and other fodder additives. In this way my seahorses got to the very first time food that they the pretty exhausting courtship (the hatch for the male) could successfully complete. The first babies don't live very long after hatching but the first step was done.

Today I do everything completely different, I learned from my various errors. I will tell you about it in the near future.


Technology:

Tank:
100 x 60 x 60 cm (39,3 x 23.6 x23.6 inch) = 360 Liter / 95gal
Flow: 2 x Tunze - Turbelle powerhead 800/2 840 l/h (224gal/h)

Skimmer :
Deltec MCE 600, High Performance Skimmer, Air capacity: about 300 liters / hr.

Light:
FAUNA MARIN SOLARIS T5 4 x T5 54 Watt
2 x 54 Watt T5 AQUA Science Special 15.000 K
2 x 54 Watt T5 AQUA Science Blue

Heater:
Titan 200Watt in a guard (PVC lattice)

Rocks:
Live Rock 30Kg / 66lbs

Sand:
45Kg / 99lbs Live Sand (0.1 – 1mm)

Different Caulerpa algae, several red algae and sea-grass


Livestock:

Corals:

2 x Gorgonia ventalina
2 x Lemnalia sp.
1 x Sinularia flexibilis
1 x Lobophytum sp. (yellow from Tonga )
1 x Biareum asbestinum
1 x Muricea pinnata
1 x Plexaurella dichotome


Snails:

6 x Nassarius vibex
2 x Plakobranchus ocellatus
6 x Tectus fenestratus


Hermit crabs:

4 x Paguristes cadenati
4 x Calcinus elegans


Crustaceans:

2 x Lysmata wurdemanni


Seahorses:

2 x Hippocampus reidi
2 x Hippocampus barbouri
2 x Hippocampus kuda


Pipefish:

2 x Doryrhamphus exisus
2 x Corythoichthys haematopterus

Hippocampus barbouri (adult breeding pair)

Attention: This video has a greater than 35 MB File Size ! To watch click into the picture below. Qucktime Player must be installed !

My computer and connection is way to slow to watch video's, but the couple of pictures you''ve posted are amazing. Not the sort of thing I'm interested in keeping, but I do like seeing the pictures.

It's good to hear that you've had better success over the years with the breeding

stunning ! I look forward to reading more of your posts

Love those first ones they are beautiful....Have you ever bred those ones?

Very cool Heinz, I will watch the video later on.

Very nice Heinz. I like all the gorgonians in the tank also. Nice video too

Very nice pics. I love the dwarfs.

I am so excited that you started this thread and will be following this very closely...the video was great - they're such beautiful creatures...the few pictures are amazing - those dwarfs are so unique! I think this whole hobby is about trial and error and am glad that you mastered the breeding and feeding...I am eager to hear more about your successful regime for feeding and breeding...and even more excited to see more pictures and videos...I may very well end up starting that seahorse tank we wanted years ago!
this is really a great thread Heinz and I so appreciate you taking the time to keep us glued to our computers!
do you still have the dwarfs? so now that you've succeeded with the feeding/breeding issues, do you regularly collect the babies?

Originally Posted by Azurel

Love those first ones they are beautiful....Have you ever bred those ones?

NOP, Unfortunately not, these animals are on the Red List of the IUCN and should not be traded and therefore not bred by private persons. However, meanwhile I would trust me.

But I have some beutiful Pictures of my last dive trip to Sulawesi (Lembeh Street) in November 09. Here to of the results LoL

Originally Posted by Barbara

I am so excited that you started this thread and will be following this very closely...the video was great - they're such beautiful creatures...the few pictures are amazing - those dwarfs are so unique! I think this whole hobby is about trial and error and am glad that you mastered the breeding and feeding...I am eager to hear more about your successful regime for feeding and breeding...and even more excited to see more pictures and videos...I may very well end up starting that seahorse tank we wanted years ago!
this is really a great thread Heinz and I so appreciate you taking the time to keep us glued to our computers!
do you still have the dwarfs? so now that you've succeeded with the feeding/breeding issues, do you regularly collect the babies?

I am glad if I could convince you now start your own seahorse tank. The more reefers do it and successfully breed, the fewer animals need to be gather from nature. I don't have any dwarf seahorse Barbara, they are, as already written above, on the red list of IUCU. When I would get a pair, I would first try to breed them successfully, so as to protect the remaining number of animals in nature and believe me, TODAY, I would have been the first attempt success. I run the last few years, a plankton breeding facility, not very nice, but SUCCESSFULL. There I breed both zooplankton and phytoplankton, so that I can almost everykind of fish breed successfully, But at least I can try it because all the necessary prerequisites exist.

In the coming days and weeks I'll show some pictures of the plankton station and will also try to explain a more successful breeding attempt of zoo- as well as phytoplankton. Also I will show now and then pictures of the horses as well pipefishes. I will write about the breed, show you pictures and videos on the topic. I think that was what you wanted to lead with the request? But please, not everything now/today. I will write in the coming days and weeks about it and also show pictures and videos as promised.

we will be patient and look forward to whatever you can share with us! (and yes, that is what I was requesting so thank you again! )

WOW. Awesome photos, just beautiful.

Amazing pics , just about to watch the Video

This site breeds them in Aus ,and are all onto frozen food when you buy them.Apart from a few wild ones .

Seahorse Australia

Originally Posted by Thinkin Reef

Amazing pics , just about to watch the Video

This site breeds them in Aus ,and are all onto frozen food when you buy them.Apart from a few wild ones .

Seahorse Australia

Nice page, thank's for the link.

My young seahorses eat after about 5 months also all frozen mysis and Artemia. The first three, sometimes four months they eat only LIVE food like Artemia- or Brachionus naupli (depending on the type and size of the young horses) enriched with phytoplankton and vitamins.

Thanks for sharing, and I can't wait to see how your growing the plankton and zooplankton as well. I've read of so many failures, it's going to be good to see some success for once

Awesome horses!! I love those Dwarf ones too. I've seen them for sale here from time to time (I had no idea they were illegal ) but I never felt I'd have the time to feed them properly.

Originally Posted by spinycheek

Awesome horses!! I love those Dwarf ones too. I've seen them for sale here from time to time (I had no idea they were illegal ) but I never felt I'd have the time to feed them properly.

I wouldn't think so, there are definitely special permits,, NOT in Australia and 100% not in Europe.

Hippocampus bargibanti is listed in CITES Appendix II, it is quite possible that they were imported for breeding purposes with special permission. The USA and Australia have a special agreement as I know, but what exactly are the contents of this agreement, I do not know.

Hi Geeks, here's another picture of my seahorse tank, this time WITH all snipefish.

I'll continue with some further information about my plankton-breeding, which I then run the next time on.

A key factor for successful breeding of seahorses is absolutely sure the "right" diet "! But what is the right diet for both the parents and the brood? Exactly that was what I had to figure out in the first months or even years.

It is written so much about that, each breeder has his own little tricks but only a few are willing to share this knowledge with others. A lot of breeders resign after a few attempts either because he did not get the brood reared or the parents die after a few months to a bacterial infection. Well, I think I have figured out how it can come to this infection. I am aware of the opinion that most seahorse-breeders pay too little attention to hygiene in the rearing of plankton (zoo- as well as Phyto). Since the relevant bacterial infection infects the tube-mouth of the Seahorses is the suspicion obvious. These poor animals can not eat because its mouth swells and there can be no more food through the tubemouth. As a consequence, the animals starve miserably, and one can not help.

So I am knitting on hygiene in the cultivation of plankton what I want to use as breeding food. How do I do this and what you should follow I describe a little later.

So what is the now the correct food for small seahorses, or even Pipefishes? Well, I breed only two types of zooplankton. First, Artemia nauplii and second Brachionus plikatilis. Both are relatively easy to breed and just as easily, they are to "fortify" with phytoplankton, vitamins and trace elements. How do I do it? Even more on this later.

With the successful breeding of different species of phytoplankton I had at first (like so many others too), major problems. After I have also optimized the hygiene, stood first success relative quickly.

Pisciculture without live food will be mostly an exception, as most fish or cancer larvae are depended on natural, live food. Without a suitable algae culture, it is nearly impossibly to cultivate optimum zoo plankton. Even if the most different so-called enrichment feed are offered, there is no substitution for live algae. Algae are, apart from the fact they are a source of nourishment, not to be underestimated as a well-balanced biological environment in the breeding tanks.


Currently, I breed the following types of phytoplankton:

Nannochloropsis salina
Phaeodactylum triconutum
Tetraselmis chuii
Isochrysis galbana

All the above have different cell sizes , from 2µ up to 25µ; any size is represented. Thus, even the smallest zooplankton larvae have sufficiently "small" food from the first day on.

In the picture below you can see Brachionus plikatilis with a look through my microscope. In the "inner" of the animals you can see quite well the incorporated algae, in this case, Tetraselmis chuii. Between Brachionus you can see the various algae and 'in' those whose individual cells.

So Geeks … that's for today, more on the topic in a few days

This is really great information Heinz...cool pic of the rotifers too!
We culture rotifers (brachionus plicatilis) but didn't take the extra step of breeding live phytoplankton for them...instead we use a Rotifer Diet (from Reed Mariculture) that consists of a combination of nannochloropsis and tetraselmis...our rotifer cultures are extremely successful, dense and happy and we use them mainly for rearing clownfish larvae...what are your thoughts on the phyto we're using? have you heard of this? while the non-live phyto works for our rotifers because we're feeding them to clownfish larvae...would we need to switch to breeding live phyto if we wanted to breed seahorses? is there something in the non-live phyto that's causing the infection?

oh yeah...so Reeflex eh? another one of your babies? when was this developed? it looks like a wiki to me...who else was involved in creating this?

Thank you very much for this write up. I myself am on a mission to breed pipefish. Species that interest me are Doryrhamphus pessuliferus, Aeoliscus strigatus and not quite as interesting to me Doryrhamphus dactylophorus currently I have a pair of Doryrhamphus pessuliferus and hope to obtain several more with at least a trio of Aeoliscus strigatus in the very near future. If you have any info on Aeoliscus strigatus I would be very interested in hearing it. There seems to be very little available on the net.

Also (I know, I know as if I didnt have enough questions) Can you identify this species of pipe?





It was sold to me as Corythoichthys sp. but the head structure looks different to me.