Care of Babies
First, everyone that is successfully keeping dwarf seahorses knows that they are very prolific little creatures. I have had numerous males give birth since setting up my tanks but, I noticed that usually only a small number from each brood survive for any length of time (3 or 4 from a brood of about 15). In an attempt to help this situation I came up with a pretty simple but surprisingly successful method for rearing the baby dwarfs. Here is my secret:
I took one of the plastic floating hatcheries that you can find at many pet stores and made a few alterations.
The bottom of the hatchery was full of little slits. I wanted to have a bit of circulation in the hatchery but I felt that the number of slits was too much. So I sealed several of the holes with clear aquarium sealant (purchased from my hardware store).
You have to let the sealant dry for several days so that it cures before you place it in the tank. Next, I took some small floating plastic plants and added them to the hatchery.
That's it! I simply suspended the hatchery in my larger 20 gallon tank and when my male seahorse had babies I gathered them up with my fine brine shrimp net and placed them in the floating hatchery. You could probably just add the pregnant male to the hatchery when you think he is close to giving birth and save the trouble of catching all the babies. Then you could move him back to the main tank after he gives birth.
This method allows the concentrated supply of brine shrimp all day that you would find in a extremely small tank but also offers all the benefits of higher water quality and stable temperature that you would find in a larger 20 gallon tank. I am using the freshly hatched brine shrimp that I feed the adults. There is just enough circulation in the hatchery for the water not to stagnate but the brine shrimp mostly stay in the hatchery all day. Fluctuating temperature and lower water quality usually go hand in hand with smaller tanks so this helps prevent that problem but also gives the baby dwarfs the best of both worlds. So far I have only lost one baby out of a brood of 19! That is a BIG improvement! The babies are still going strong after three weeks! Here are some pictures of a few of them:
