Need a species ID...

[Raf]

I reccently acquired a couple of ponies from my LFS. I lost my original male about a month ago and his lady friend was looking awfully lonely, so I decided to get some more ponies. Anyways, I bought a male and female of what I was told were captive bred H. kuda. (That is at least what it said on thier order).

Within a day of putting the two new ponies in the tank the new male was courting my existing H. reidi female. Well low and behold no more than a week later my new male is preggers.

I just wanted to get everyone's opinion on the species of the new ponies, just so I can be sure. I never had any luck raising my previous reidi fry, so I'd like to know if these would be easier or the same considering they would be hybrids.

Here are some pics... please excuse:
1)The poor quality of the photos... the new ones were being very shy and difficult!
2)The dirty tank
3)The planaria!

The new pregnant male (kuda?):

The new female (kuda?):

The existing female (reidi):

Full tank shot for anyone that was curious.... again... yikes planaria!

Thanks
-Diana

 

[panmanmatt]

Yup, they are H.kuda. Unfortunately, they are not true captive bred specimens. Sadly the only H. kuda on the market are being supplied by net pen farmers in Sri Lanka and Vietnam. They horses are raised in net pens in the open ocean, so esentila from a health stand point you just bought wild caught seahorses.

I hope you QT'd the new ones before you added them with your existing H. reidi.

As for raising the fry, I can tell you that those to species are the most difficult fry to raise. They are basically the same when it comes to their requirements. Neither one will hitch for at least the first 2 weeks, they require very small first foods in the form of rotifers or the small strain of baby brine shrimp.

Here is a fairly good article on raising reidi fry if you are interested.
http://forum.seahorse.org/index.php?showtopic=8203

 

[Raf]

Thanks for the ID!

From what I recall our LFS (J&L Aquatics) gets these kuda from a breeder within Canada, since getting ponies across the border is costly and difficult. They were immediately feeding on frozen and all looked really good, and from previous batches customers have raised the fry.

The reidi I have is 'captive bred' from Sri Lanka, however from the entire batch of 40+ plus seahorses that came in the order not one was ill or died. And since they were expensive there were still ponies at the store over 6 months after they brought them in. I was extremely suprised....

That sucks about kuda also being difficult to raise... I've done much research on reidi fry and have tried many different setups, since my last pair had 400+ fry every 2 weeks for over a year. I just ran out of time and space for it.

Thanks again

-Diana

 

[panmanmatt]

I forgot you were in Canada, so it is possible that they are true CB kuda.

The reidi coming in from Sri Lanka are from a different breeder/supplier and are indeed true CB specimens. They are bred and raised in closed aquaculture systems not net pens or flow through systems.

Hopefully one day you will find a fry raising set up that works for you. It is indeed very frustrating to lose batch after batch, but if they were so easy to raise, we would never have a shortage of CB horses in the world.

BTW, I love the looks of their tank. The colours are amazing.

 

[hma]

Hello Raf, Diana ....


I had already a few times luck with my Hippocampus reidi brood. Last about 3 years ago. Since this time I have not tried it again (time reasons). Here my last brood is to be seen in a video.

In the pictures they are 3 month-old.

 

[panmanmatt]

Congrats on the success, Heinz. Do you have any pictures of the adults? The one in the pic with the ruler looks more like H. barbouri than H. reidi.

 

[hma]

Congrats on the success, Heinz. Do you have any pictures of the adults? The one in the pic with the ruler looks more like H. barbouri than H. reidi.

WOW .... RESPECT panmanmatt ..... You are right....

The animals in the pictures are Hippocampus barbouri, none reidi's. Once again, my respect .... ! I have written by mistake reidi instead of barbouri. Because I have already well kept both and have bred successfully it has struck me too late.


Here a picture of BOTH kinds in the feed bowl. On the left Hippocampus reidi, on the right the pair Hippocampus barbouri.

 

[panmanmatt]

Very great looking seahorses you have there. I didn't mean any disrespect to you at all, I was just curious.

I have kept H. barbouri, H. reidi, H. erectus (both northern and southern subspecies), H. comes and H. zosterae.

Only ones I have been successful raising are the H. zosterae. I had 5 generations in the tank at one point in time.

 

[hma]

Very great looking seahorses you have there. I didn't mean any disrespect to you at all, I was just curious.

I have kept H. barbouri, H. reidi, H. erectus (both northern and southern subspecies), H. comes and H. zosterae.

Only ones I have been successful raising are the H. zosterae. I had 5 generations in the tank at one point in time.

Heeeeeey .... you are right, I was simply too stupid my mistake to see immediately. But thus this is sometimes in the life. One must also be able to add mistake. It was unambiguously MY mistake ......:bluenod:


edith:

Maybe it is no bad idea to be written a small breeding report in my Chronicle? Of course also with pictures ....?

 

[panmanmatt]

You are correct, everybody makes mistakes. But it takes a real person to admit to making them.

Cheers to you my friend.

 

[Raf]

Thanks for the ID and feedback

 

[silverseahorse]

I still think specifically taneopterous of the kuda complex. I love tane's. Beautiful horses

 

[kyrie_eleison]

durasa?

 

[Whiskey]

durasa?

Okay,.. I'll give you this one,.. That was funny

Whiskey

 

[NoUsername2use]

i dont know how long this thread had been active, and i preety much joined the site to reply because panmanmatt and hma seem to know alot about horses, anyway i was googling about H. Comes because i have a very healthy 2 who are eating frozen, and are breeding, and ive read so much about seahorse fry tank setups that i think i have a general idea of what to do, but i would like to know if anyone knows the requirements for caring for their offspring, if the kreisel system is required and rotifers, or if i shouls just introduce them to live pods right away? I want to know if their are SPECIFIC outlines for these fry as ive heard so......

also awesome looking seahorses raf, the head of the horse in your first pic looks like the head of my male seahorse.....

if im in the wrong place i apologize, i can gladly make a new thread just excited and thought you 2 could help!