Thursday 28 April 2011

Updates!

Well, its been some time since I've actually updated my blog so this could be a lengthily post!

Its been a tough few months for us, what with illnesses with other pets as well as our seahorses.  We lost two of our cats within a few months of each other, and have another sick one.  What with the ongoing problems with our Old English Sheepdog, the last 6 months really have been quite trying times for us.

Our H.comes and H.barbouri females have just got out of HT after apparent bacterial infections which thankfully they both responded well to treatment.  I'm really hoping to get a mate at some point for my female comes as she really is quite stunning.
Mouse
Mouse was tiny when we got her, around 2 years ago.  She was probably about 2 inches in size, hence her name.  She now is quite the size, and quite the little hunter!

Our erectus have given us several broods of babies, most of which we have given away.  They have taken a bit of a break in breeding but I think that my male may be pregnant again.  We did keep his very first brood of babies and manage to raise half of the brood.  After a terrible accident with the tank, we were only left with one baby, but he is now 5 months old and starting to get big.  He seems to be developing a pouch, so I'm hoping that he is indeed a he.

The other baby that we have is the 9 week old sibling to the 5 month old.  We moved them into the same tank when the younger one was 4 weeks old as it seemed silly keeping two tanks going with just one fry in each.  It was a risk, but thankfully it paid off.  The younger one started to take to the frozen almost straight away.  In fact, the bigger the mysis the better, although its obviously unable to eat them whole it will give it a darn good try!

Here are a couple of pictures of them.
9 Week old H.erectus fry

H.erectus fry hunting

5 Month old H.erectus juvenile
As the juvenile seahorses has quite a bit of algae growth starting to cover it, I have started to reduce the photo period of the tank in the hopes of ridding it of the algae.

Just a quick update on the dwarfs.  Although we have had several broods, we have been largely unsuccessful with raising the fry, and so far only have one.  We have decided that any future broods will be separated from the parents and raised in a dedicated fry tank.  I'm hoping to have some more babies in the next week or so, and will post pictures if/when we get more.

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