I have babies!

gymnothorax

Just wanted to let everyone know that i am now in possesion of 16 newborn hippocampus erectus seahorses. The parents, (two beautiful starburst reds), belong to a good friend of mine. I have known the male was pregnant for about 20 days now and have been preparing for arrival over the last week or so. I went to his house after work for dinner and to my amazement, showed up right after the male had gone into labor. I watched the birth and collected the babys for 5 hours straight, and managed to successfully extract 16 little "colts" that all seem to be in apparent good health. I was very surprised when the male only gave birth to less than 30 young, including a few still births and some runts which i knew would not survive competition in the rearing tank and just left with the parents. Past experiences with hippocampus kuda and hippocampus kellogi had led me to expect close to 50 babys. The young mustangs are currently in a 2 gallon vase with a few small dead seafans for hitching posts and a small airstone inside a plastic tube to prevent the baby's from getting stuck in the current from the bubbles, as well as possibly ingesting air. Unfortunately, I do not own a camera, but i will try my best to find somebody who does. The baby's average about one centimeter from snout to tail, and most have no visible yoke sak. I'm very excited and will do my best to keep you guys updated, as well as get some pictures when I can : )

Amphitrite

Oh wow - that's amazing gymnothorax! Please do try to get hold of a camera... pictures would be absolutely amazing to see!

And the very best of luck with them! :D

willow

wow ! that is really fantastic news :)
i wish you every sucess with the young ones,
please let us know how you get on. :)

gymnothorax

thanks guys, i was actually just woken up to my buddy's wife calling me and saying that she woke up this morning and found atleast 20 more babies hitched together at the top of the tank this morning! I guess the male was just taking a breather when I left. I am releaved to know that he gave birth to a normal size litter. I'll keep you guy's posted : )

willow

awsome,i guess you guys need a break huh.
:)

gymnothorax

well, I have succesfully extracted 18 more babys, all in apparent good health, and now have them in the rearing tank with their brothers and sisters. I now have a total of 44! I'm starting to hatch nauplii to feed them and plan on setting up a larger rearing tank later tonight because my buddy has another pair of erectus with a pregnant male. I'm expecting him to give birth in the next 2-3 weeks : )

gymnothorax

ok, i got pictures now, just can't figure out how to get them on here........[/list]

gymnothorax

gymnothorax

that's me with the skull beany, proud daddy : )

willow

wooohoooooo :)
great pics well done,they are so small,how on earth did you know
it was birthing time ?
there should be no stopping you now,
have you got any pictures of the parents ?
we shall be expecting regular updates. cool hat,and i hope you are going to share the oreos :)