How do we prepare for our babies’ arrival?
I’m an intern at the only marine aquarium in Slovenia and last week we discovered that one of our male Short-snouted seahorses is expecting. This is the first time they have bred, and we want to make sure the babies survive by giving them the best possible care. I have been researching the topic, but any tips would be very much appreciated.
MATEJA ŠVONJA, VIA EMAIL
JEREMY REPLIES: Move the male to a bare tank with a mature, air-powered sponge filter and some plastic plants for him to hang on to.
Once he has given birth, move him back to the main tank and feed the fry on newly hatched Artemia, ideally five times per day, and make sure that they are as freshly hatched as possible to ensure optimum nutrition.
Baby seahorses require up to 3,000 food items per day, so you’ll need to get several brine shrimp hatcheries going and syphon out old, dead food from the tank using 6mm airline. The ideal is to feed enough food to last them until the next feed, so they are constantly exposed to live nauplii and can eat it when they need to.
The youngsters won’t need to hold on to anything for the first six weeks, but then a ball of Chaetomorpha algae will provide anchoring sites as well as aiding water quality. Hygiene is especially important, so change their water on a daily basis.