How to breed seahorses in your saltwater aquarium
We’ve had 8 seahorses in our 150g seahorse exhibit now for 5 months and now they are having a new batch of babies every month (sometimes more often). I thought I would share our experience as we grow them up. I’ve kept seahorses a few times before, but this is the first time I ever tried to breed and rear them.
The species of seahorse we are exhibiting here is Hippocampus erectus, which is local to the New England coast and can be found in backwaters and marshes. The ones we have came from 2 locations. Four were from the New Englan Aquarium, and the other four were from Pro Aquatix (a tropical fish/coral breeder in Florida).
We are now growing out batch #3. The first batch was a dud, as often the case where a seahorses first brood is less robust than later broods. I kind of think of this as the first time parent syndrome. The second batch we were not ready for them – and even though we fed them newly-hatched brine shrimp (not enriched), most of the babies were not large enough to eat the brine, and those that were would ingest air at the surface and then later die.
So now we are on our 3rd batch, which just hatched 3 days ago. We now have rotifers being cultured (about 1/4 the size of brineshrimp nauplii), and this batch of seahorses is the largest one yet. They still tend to congregate at the surface, so we are experimenting with different approaches to preventing this air-ingestion problem. Once we have that licked, I think we are going to be awash in baby seahorses.
Please leave a comment below and let us know if you are interested in the detailed methods we are using to breed these seahorses. If we get enough responses then we will go ahead and provide the detailed procedures for you. Also, let us know if you have experience in breeding seahorses.
Tagged with: fish breeding • how to breed seahorses • seahorses
Filed under: fish breeding • seahorses • Uncategorized
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Hello, friends,
I am from caracas, Venezuela. Actually I am triying to rise a group of seahorses fry that where born in my tank from a seahorse I got already pregnat. I took it all newborn with a glass very carefully from main tank to nursery tank, first day, almost half died, in fact, I was not prepared for that because they arrive impromptu, that was last friday, 4 days ago since today is wednesday. Now I think I have like 80, but some of them are swiming under water ans they seem very nice there, and some of them are floating on surface. When I looked further I noticed that the ones are floating on water surface, have an air bubble inside them, Im not sure, I think that is happening, now I have read a lot about air intake and how to avoid it, but I dont know if they can be saved once they had took air. They are triying to swimn inder water but simply the cant. I try to help them trowing water little by little on them, so they went down, but after water presure release them, they com back up like a baloon.
I would like to shar with you what I am doing here, and please, if you know how to cure the air intaking thing I really really apreciate that.
By the way I am giving them live phytoplankton home grown and one day fresh baby brine srhimp. I am working on rotifers now but not have anough population yet to give them away.
I wpuld kie to know more about your breeding system.
Thanks and good look.
Joel Zambrano
Hello, Joel. Thanks for the comment. We have experienced the same issue you mentioned, whereby the baby seahorses ingest air bubbles from snapping at baby brine shrimp at the surface. Unfortunately, I am in the same boat as you and don’t yet have a solution for helping them get rid of the air bubble – once they have ingested it.
One solution that has worked well is one that focuses more on preventing this problem. The solution is to grow the babies in 2-Liter soda bottles w/ a rigid airline wand. The bubble rate is roughly 2-4 bubbles per second. It is very important that the water level be set right where the neck narrows down – in other words don’t let the water level go up into the neck or below it (just at the bottom of the neck). This enables a slow bubble rate to sweep this small water surface – thus preventing the baby seahorse from being able to stay at the surface. It also creates slow enough water movement so that the baby seahorses can still track and eat their food (baby brine shrimp).
Another solution is to wrap the walls of the baby seahorse rearing container in black (paper, paint, plastic wrap, etc.) so that they baby seahorses can better see their food (baby brine shrimp). This will also make them less likely to use the surface to silhouette the baby brine shrimp against the water surface.
One other key piece to the puzzle is to enrich the baby brineshrimp with Super Selco. There are other similar products, but the key is an enrichment that is high in Highly Unsaturated Fatty Acids (HUFAs). This is key to the seahorses development. Baby brineshrimp by themselves are rather poor nutritionally. The one exception is right after the seahorses are hatched.
Right after the seahorses are hatched they have a yolk that sustains them for the first 24 hours whereby they don’t yet eat zooplankton. Thus, after 24 hours, we offer rotifers (enriched with Super Selco) and newly-hatched baby brineshrimp (24 hrs old – not enriched). We only offer enriched baby brineshrimp after the first week, because enriched baby brine shrimp are simply too big for newly hatched seahorses.
As for the daily routine, we do daily 100% water changes on the baby seahorses in their 2-Liter soda bottles – using water from the exhibit tank where the adults are (and where they were hatched). For the water change, we move the baby seahorses by small cups or spoon – do not use a turkey baster as this is too tramatic and can injure them. A net is also too tramatic unless it is already submerged in a beaker, so that the seahorses are not impinged against the net. Feeding occurs immediately after the water change is complete.
Hope this is of help to you.
Warren
umm, i do not have any sea horses, but i wanted to know what the temperature and everything else has to be?
how big should the tank be and can you get sea horses in Australia?
Hello, Joey. The target temperature for your seahorses depends on the species you are keeping. The ones we are keeping are Hippocampus erectus, and are local to the temperate waters off of Massachusetts. We keep our adults in the exhibit at 76F.
In Australia, there are about 25 species of seahorse. As for where to get them, I would strongly recommend you get captive-raised seahorses. One of the most widely respected breeders is called Ocean Rider. You can order seahorses directly from them (online) at http://www.seahorse.com. They also have good information on their site for caring for seahorses. In particular, their “Vibrance” enrichment product is fantastic. You sprinkle it onto a small block of frozen mysis shrimp (best food for seahorses) and it gets absorbed immediately and the seahorses eat it readily.
A nice size tank for seahorses is a 29g (high). The “high” refers to the tank being taller than it is wide or front-to-back, as this gives the seahorse room to migrate up and down. It is also recommended that you provide something for the seahorses to hitch to. Any kind of plastic plant works well for this.
Thanks again for your question and let me know if I can be of further help.
Warren
Hello friends,
All of my small seahorses that I mention in the last post are all dead, as I unfortunenally expected, they lived for only one week. What I didn’t understand is that they all died, the ones qith bubbles inside them, and the ones that were swiming all around under water.
But now my couple is pregnat again. I would like to know if you can send me a picture of your setup, I would like to try later, to see if I can raise them all, so I can pay at least what I spend in my aquarium, and help to avoid people capture them from the sea, This time I am going to be more prepared to received the new sea horse babies. Thank you for all,
Joel
Hello
I live in Denmark and my English is not so good so I hope that i could understand me and will bear with my language.
I have a couple of seahorses are waiting pups for the second time first time all died within 48 hours.
I caught them off in a small aquarium where I had put the light at the bottom to try to keep them down but it was not good enough.
will help me with what I can do better just to get some of them to survive or refer me to where I can find the necessary information.
Sincerely, Nina Christensen
Hello, Nina. One of the 3 key elements to success with breeding seahorses are:
1) nutrition
2) water circulation/movement
3) water quality
WATER CIRCULATION
To start off, you need the right container, which will help with creating the proper water circulation and flow pattern. A vertical circular current is key (water flows from across the surface and then down and sweeps the bottom – creating a still/calm spot in the center). This current flow pattern also keeps seahorse fry from being able to get stuck at the surface, as the flow sweeps them away from the surface. You can do this with one of the small glass tanks that are commercially produced, using a bubble wand to create the vertical circular current.
NUTRITION
Offer newly hatched baby brineshrimp to seahorse fry. It is important to feed the brineshrimp off at 2hrs after they hatch, as they get bigger with each hour after they molt. After the first week, begin offering enriched baby brineshrimp (with selco). Ideally setup so that food is constantly dripped into the fry tank, or at least offer food 3 times a day.
WATER QUALITY
Seahorse fry are very sensitive to ammonia (NH3) and nitrite (NO2), and to high levels of bacteria. There are several ways to control ammonia and nitrate from achieving toxic levels.
1) water changes (minimum of 50%/day if no biological filtration)
2) Sponge filters for biological filtration (run on air pump) – you can use the air bubbles coming out of it to create your vertical circular current
3) Use macro algae such as gracilaria or chaetomorpha to filter the water and remove ammonia and nitrite and nitrate, bu connecting the fry tank to a refugium where the macro algae will live and grow.
Hope this helps.
Hi,
Is it possible to prevent seahorses from breeding? I am truly interested in the seahorse hobby, but one factor preventing me from starting my aquatic adventure is that I know seahorses breed aound every 30-40 days. I really do not want to hatch live brine shrimp daily, as I am limited on space as it is. Plus, I know many of them will not survive and I really do not have the heart to dispose of the corpses.. And yet, I don’t want to get two of the same sex because I read that they are (mostly) monogomous and are lonely without a mate… Please help! Your answer/input is greatly appreciated.
Hello, Julie. Yes it is possible to prevent seahorses from breeding. In fact, you can turn breeding on and off like a switch with food, just as long as all other conditions are ideal. Thus, to prevent seahorses from breeding, I would recommend you pay closest attention to the quantity and quality of what you are feeding them. For example, I had the same problem of seahorse breeding before I was ready for them, so I simply reduced the frequency of feedings from 3 per day, down to 2 per day. Usually it is that simple. You are basically giving them enough nutrition to stay alive and maintain body size with some slow growth, but not enough for them to begin serious courtship and breeding. I have noticed that since we recently turned the switch back on (increased feeding and added an enrichment to their food), that we have had more courtship and more females bulking up with eggs. You will also want to keep the temperature slightly cooler than normal – say 2-3 degrees lower, in order to help prevent them from breeding. Just remember that no method is perfect and that they could surprise you and breed anyway – however it is not likely.
Good luck with your seahorses and report back with another comment to let us know how it is going.
Hello, I am new to the forum here. I dont have any clue really about the air ingestion problem once they have it. We own a pet store here that does alot of saltwater fish/accessories. We have never had any breed till recently and as soon as i saw it i put a screen in the water 2 inches from the top. It has kept them from getting to the air and i think last time we looked we had lost maybe 3? dont remember, but its a simple fix?
Thank you. The screen is a great idea, and we’ve been considering using a screen, so it is great to hear that it is working well for you. The other issue to be aware of in raising the baby seahorses, is that they are very sensitive to buildup of bacteria levels. There are a few ways to deal with this, one of which is to siphon the their tank of all detritus daily. Sounds like you are doing things right to have such low mortality. Just make sure you don’t skip a day of siphoning or feeding, because it almost always results in more mortalities. Thanks for your feedback and keep going!
Hi Curtammy
I was following all these ideas and they are very intersting. I really do not have any seahorses but I am hoping to get them within next couple of days and at the moment I am doing my reserch as a preperation.
so Curtammy could you kindly tell me how long would they take to come to the breeding age.
and what kind of screen did you use.
Hi, Priya. How long it takes for the seahorses to come to breeding age depends on the species you have, and of course their age when you got them. We are keeping H. erectus, and they begin breeding at around 3″ in length, or about 6-12 months.
The screen we use to keep young in their rearing container is 400-micron. We’ve tried regular window screen from the hardware store, but the mesh size is just a bit too large. The 400-micron lets the brine shrimp nauplii out and keeps the seahorse fry in.
Happy Fishes,
Warren
hello
im from south afrika and eng not very good.
im starting to look at breading seahorses got two 6 feet tanks.
ife read all the blogs and info is good like the screen idee for keep the ear bubbel out of the baby seahorses.
if they hatch and i move them to a nuwe tank what is the best way to move them with out stress,pls
the idea i have is to link the two tanks whit a water pump that the water in the two tanks are the same and temp, and the second tank whit a screen on top to keep them to get a bubbel. can u help me to get a save way to move them from one tank to a nother pls. ife bookmarkd this page.
thanks. Phillip.
@phillip –
Hello, Phillip. The easiest ways to move baby seahorses is to either scoop them out with a bowl or small cup, or with a very large pipette. The safer method for the seahorse is the bowl/cup method.
If you are going to use the pipette method, then you need to make sure that the diameter of the pipette is at least larger than the width of the seahorse, and you will likely need to snip off the narrow tip of the pipette so that the seahorse is not forced through a small opening.
Overall, I recommend the bowl/cup scooping method.
Warren
Hello every body!
I’m come from Vietnam. Now I want to breeding seahorse but I don’t know how to do. Please tell some experience to breeding seahorse for examle: food, disease
The main thing for getting the adults to breed is to ensure stable water chemistry. This means ammonia <0.2ppm, nitrite <0.2ppm, and appropriate temperature for the species you are keeping. And then once you have that, it is simply a matter of food. I recommend you feed them frozen mysis shrimp from Piscene Energetics, which you can enrich with a product called “Vibrance”. Vibrance is a powder you sprinkle on the frozen mysis while it is thawing out, and it gets absorbed into the mysis shrimp.
And then once you get a pregnant male (his pouch is full), you will need to be prepared with a grow-out tank, which can be attached to your adult breeding tank, or separate. The most important thing to remember with rearing the young is to siphon the bottom of the rearing tank daily and do 50% water changes each week (less if rearing is attached to adult tank).
Feeding the young consists of offering newly hatched brine shrimp for the first week, and then after the first week, begin offering enriched brine shrimp nauplii in addition to the unenriched brine shrimp nauplii. To get the best survivability of the young the best feeding frequency is constant, via a drip feed. To do this, you will put a container of brine shrimp above the rearing tank, and then set up a constant drip of brine into the rearing tank.
The way we do it is to harvest the brine shrimp in the morning, then fill the drip container with half of our brine harvest and top off the drip container w/ saltwater. To get a constant drip you’ll need a pinch valve or small 1/4″ ball valve, and it helps to aerate the drip container. Aerating the brine shrimp in the drip container oxygenates the water that the brine are in, and if you put a lid on the drip container, it also helps put pressure on the drip valve to help keep it from getting clogged.
We are also growing phytoplankton (green water) in 2-liter soda bottles. We feed this to the brine while they are in the drip container and we have seen an improvement in survivability using the phytoplankton.
I know this might seem like a lot of work, and it is. So go for it and check back with us to let us know how you are doing.
Happy Fishes,
Warren
Hi,
I have three dwarf seahorses, one of them I’m certain is a male began shaking near another seahorse, he also widened his pouch, but the female ignored him or didn’t notice and eventually swam away…is there a way to encourage breeding? I feed them 1-3 times a day with newly hatched brine shrimp should I increase feeding? Or is there anything else I can do to encourage mating/breeding?
Thanks.
Yes, that sounds like typical breeding/courting behavior for seahorses. The male displaying his open pouch is pretty amazing to watch. It’s just like you described. He is saying ‘hey – check out my pouch – I can get the job done, now give me your eggs’. And yes, often the female will ignore such a display. The female’s top preference is a male who she just witnessed in the act of releasing a clutch of babies. She knows that this male can do the job, because she just saw evidence of it. Pretty amazing.
As for encouraging breeding, I know that increasing temperature or increasing food are typical ways to manipulate breeding. The fact that you are feeding 1-3 times a day should give you a good shot at it. And it sounds like it is working, given the male is flirting with the female, like you described. The one change I would recommend is adding frozen mysis shrimp to the daily diet, as it is high in protein and good fats. Also, be sure to stay on top of water changes and the removal of detritus build up.
Keep going. Sounds like you’re doing great.
Happy Fishes,
Warren
I was wondering if when my baby seahorses come if a pet store would buy or even take them? I wont be able to keep them and I dont want them to die.
I’m not sure if you mean to raise them for a few months and then sell them to the pet store, or if you want to sell them the day they are born.
Your best shot of selling them is most likely if you were to rear them for a couple of months and then sell them. Unfortunately, new baby seahorses require a lot of frequent feedings and a lot of attention to raise them, and they are very vulnerable to high bacteria levels in their rearing tank for the first few months. Your best bet is to find someone interested in rearing them well in advance, so they have time to prepare to rear them.
Hope this helps.
Warren
Hi Warren,
I have had many kinds of seahorses. I dive in RI and every year I save the tropical’s that come up every summer. This year I got some Hippocampus erectus. Last year I bought a female from the wholesaler. She is a caribbean seahorse Yellow and white. Both mated and my high breed babies are breeding now.Im on my 3rd batch born 9/21/11. They look strong.
I had the acrylic aquarium with lip to prevent the air bubble intake. With a lite up the side of the tank to draw the brine to the glass. Sea horse babies stay were the brine and lite are. Filter ends in a bottle with screens for good filtetration.I was ready for this bunch. Lea
Hello – Very interesting information. I am currently working as an aquarist at a public aquarium where we have an erectus display. They currently don’t have the time or resources to devote to raising the fry, so i have taken this on as a personal project. Therefore, I am currently setting up a system for this purpose. My thought was a 55 gal aquarium as a sump with a 10 gallon in it for the fry. I was going to make a pseuto-krysel using half a 5 gal carboy and create flow with a spray bar from the return pump. My interests is in your feeding regiment. Have you used Rotifers, to start? I’m also interested in working on a constant feed system similar to the drip method you spoke of. How did you do this? Do you feed while the water is moving or do you shut everything off while feeding (perhaps with timers)? Also wondering what you use as a transitional food between Artemia and frozen Mysis. Do you use any kind of copepods? Thanks in advance for any advice. Kevin
Wow! sounds was really interesting, Yes it is possible to prevent seahorses from breeding. In fact, you can turn breeding on and off like a switch with food, just as long as all other conditions are ideal. Thus, to prevent seahorses from breeding, I would recommend you pay closest attention to the quantity and quality of what you are feeding them. For example, I had the same problem of seahorse breeding before I was ready for them, so I simply reduced the frequency of feedings from 3 per day, down to 2 per day. Usually it is that simple. Thank you so much for sharing it.
I caught them off in a small aquarium where I had put the light at the bottom to try to keep them down but it was not good enough. will help me with what I can do better just to get some of them to survive or refer me to where I can find the necessary information. |
One effective way to prevent the young seahorses from ingesting air at the surface is to install a screen just below the water surface. This screen will prevent them from getting to the surface, and thus will help prevent much of the mortalities.
Another important step that will greatly minimize mortalities is to siphon off detritus that collects in the tank on a daily basis. When it is done routinely and consistently, mortalities will drop off to almost none. And when this step is forgotten they will start dropping like flies. The primary reason for this increased bacteria, usually caused by increased organics and detritus. An Ultraviolet Sterilizer filter is very useful for keeping water-borne bacteria levels to a minimum.
And of course, all this goes with the assumption that the baby seahorses are being fed newly hatched baby brine shrimp (1 day old) and HUFA enriched baby brine shrimp (2 day old) – feeding many times a day, or ideally with a constant drip so that the seahorses never go without food. Rotifers are also an excellent food source for baby seahorses.
One of the tricks we use, is growing phytoplankton (A.K.A. greenwater) and we add this to the baby brineshrimp in the drip feeder. This way, while the baby brinehshrimp are waiting to be fed, they are fattening up on phytoplankton. It works great!
Yes it is possible to prevent seahorses from breeding. In fact, you can turn breeding on and off like a switch with food, just as long as all other conditions are ideal. Thus, to prevent seahorses from breeding, I would recommend you pay closest attention to the quantity and quality of what you are feeding them.
Hi Warren
what do you think of having a small breeding tank inside the main seahorse tank, that way you dont have to change the water all the time and the baby seahorses wont get air bubbles?
regards
chris-sydney
I like this idea, because one of the biggest causes of mortality (other than improper/insufficient nutrition) is poor water quality.
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