ZM-100 as first food for seahorses / pipefish fry

[FUGU]

Hi Seahorse breeders,

Surprise, surprise......seahorse/pipefish fry being successfully reared on principally a dry diet! :thumbsup:

Just a quick update on the work by Loch Lomond Sealife centre on using the ZM-100 and ZM-200 fry food for rearing Reidi seahorses, native pipefish, and shrimp.

ZM-100 used 4 x day for the first 4-6 weeks of feeding
ZM-200 used 3 x day for rest of the year, plus 1 x day newly hatched brineshrimp

I will get more details soon but as far as I understand the dry food is prepared into a suspension and squirted towards the fry.

In the case of this hatchery the results have been a big improvement on their previous protocols and have meant rotifers cultures are no longer specifically cultured as the main food for seahorse fry. Consider this as one feed option available and potentially more convenient and timesaving to rearing and harvesting live cultures.

Cheers!

[Sailfin]

Hi Fugu

I have read about this elsewhere.

I'll give it a go with my next brood and let you know how I get on.

Is it only the recent ZM 200 thats classed as suitable for marine fry? I have some left over from last year from raising fw fry - will that be ok? I only ask as the ZM 100 I have left over specifically states that its suitable for marine fry but the 200 doesn't?

If its ok I have 4 month old tiger tail fry to try it out on!

[FUGU]

Howdy Sailfin

I believe the way in which the food is presented in the water column plays a big part to how the inert food is taken up. Pre-mixing the dry food in some water will help soften the particles and help create a suspension. Also, not losing your nerve and perservering with a new regime probably helps. With the large size of most seahorse spawnings you do have the option of setting up different feeding regimes. Yes, ,the formulations of the ZM-100 and ZM-200 have been fine for marine fish and inverts for some time. The ZM-200 has also been successfully used on jellies in place of bbs or freeze-dried copepod preparations with less tank pollution. All the fry feeds can be purchased in 30g tubs if you only need a small amount to test. Just store in the fridge to maintain shelf-life.

BTW, what's the collective term for a group of seahorses?

Cheers!

[Sailfin]

Hey FUGU

Trotted off to have a go before but they've had a glut on enriched bbs already today.

Quote: "Also, not losing your nerve and perservering with a new regime probably helps" - lol you remember my last post! Was a bit more gung ho with this brood and it paid off -they've been on frozen cyclops for a while (mixed with live bbs) now but only got them there by making them go hungry!

Will starve them tomorrow and try tommorrow night.

Oh and collective term is actually a herd as far as I know. Mind you not in this house - it varies between little darlings (when they're eating well) to little _________ (you can fill the blanks in) when they're running rings around me!

[FUGU]

Hi Sailfin

I love your collective term references to your critters. How did the starvation regime go?

Cheers

FUGU

[Sailfin]

Hey FUGU

I starved them but no luck. I reckon it was a long shot anyway as they've been with their current routine for too long anyway I suspect. I'm definately game on to try the next batch from day one.

One very interesting and positive result however...I noticed a huge feeding response. Even though they didn't want to take the granules themselves they really started hunting and when their normal food went in they went mad for it. Really useful observation from my point of view. I reckon I have a feeding stimulant now for finicky babies.

I noticed this then tried introducing the granules when there was already loads of bbs in there. They went from 0 - 60 in 60 seconds! They were just sat off (as they do) snicking the odd bbs, after the granules went in they went charging off all over the place.

Thats a win in my book :)

As said - I'll start off from day one with the next brood with the ZM 100 - If I can lose half a dozen hatchers I'll be happy! I'll let you know how I get on with it.

Cheers

[FUGU]

Hi Sailfin

Well done for trying. As you say let's see what can be done with a fresh brood. How long was the starvation period before feeding? Sounds a useful technique for persuading the finicky eaters.

Cheers

FUGU

[rt456]

I've been using both zm-100 and zm-200 for a while now and the fry take to it from the first day with no issues.

I feed them 100 4-5 times a day then give a mixture of the 100 and 200 from 4-6 weeks and then the 200 3-4 times a day until they are large enough for chopped up frozen mysis

[FUGU]

Nice one rt456!

Next questions would be how have the survival rates been and have you tried using live foods during any of these stages as well in the past? What age are the oldest fry now? Thanks for your input.

Cheers

FUGU

[rt456]

Oldest are eating mysis now 3 months, only 4 at this age so far. I have a few other tanks with between 30-40 fry in at various stages including a new batch last night. i would say that i had no success with live food and fry, possibly due to issues of nutritional value? this is much simpler for me and removes the need for another 4-5 tanks to grow rotifers, bbs and phyto in the kitchen, so the wifes happy :)

[FUGU]

As an update I spoke with Anglesey Sea Zoo guys at the NAW conference and they have some results from using the ZM-100/ZM-200 on their seahorses with co-feeding (live and dry diets) being the most successful. For the moment we're awaiting more data from Anglesey......