Gammarus
GAMMARUS LACUSTRIS
Foods/Culturing
Gammarus
Gammarus (also referred to as scuds) are
a favorite of the larger species. The freshwater species shown here is
usually found in ponds and streams and can be enriched with HUFA's by
soaking flake food in an enrichment product and feeding to the gammarus
prior to feeding the sea horses. An excellent source for freshwater
gammarus is here.
Marine Gammarus
The saltwater Gammarus are also an excellent food for the larger species. This specimen was found in our overflow filter and native to most reef tanks that have live rock.
One way to culture gammarus is by using a 20 gallon
tub available at most stores. Place an undergravel plate that covers
the bottom reasonably well and use a power filter in the lift tube.
It's a good idea to cover the undergravel plate with fiberglass
screening to prevent the gammarus from being sucked up into the tube.
This is also the reason for putting the suction tube from the power
filter in the lift tube. The gammarus do well on floating pond pellets
or flake food. Another option is to use live plants or
caulerpra(marine). This not only provides a good hiding place for them,
but gives them something to eat. Some other options we haven't
experimented with yet are to cover the surface with bio-balls( This
would give them something to cling to) or to use ceramic tiles with
spacers. The thing to remember is gammarus like to cling to things, so
the more surface area the better. The culture should do well with
little maintenance, as long as the young have places to hide.
Also known as Glass Shrimp, these are favorites of many larger species. Both Freshwater and Saltwater varieties are available, but are somewhat costly. One specific use for ghost shrimp is to "gut load" them. This can be done by feeding them flake food soaked in medicine or HUFA booster, or lifting the carapace and injecting it immediately prior to feeding.
The same tub for gammarus works well for ghost shrimp. Just be sure to give them lots of hiding places. They do well on flake food, and can be carnivorous if not fed well or kept in large numbers.
Culturing Ghost shrimp is a little more work than
Gammarus, but not that difficult. In addition to the main tub or tank,
you'll need two other ten gallon tanks. One of these is a hatching tank
and the other is the grow out tank.
The hatching tank:
The hatching tank consists of a "basket" that holds the pregnant shrimp. To construct the basket what we used is 1/4" square acrylic rod available at a plastics shop. the frame was made so that 3 or four inches are submerged in the water and it is held up by tabs on the top. This frame is then covered with crinolin, a netting material you can find at any fabric store. It's very important that there are no holes that the shrimp can get through. The whole idea is to keep the eggs away from the shrimp. An airline is also used to keep the water aerated. When the female releases her eggs, they fall through the netting and hatch on the bottom. Every day check the shrimp and remove any that have released their eggs, placing them back into the main tank. Lifting out the basket and temporarily setting it in the main tank so the shrimp are still under water you can use a brine shrimp net to collect the young shrimp and transfer them to the grow out tank.
The grow out tank:
The grow out tank simply contains a sponge filter and lots of hiding places for the young shrimp. Some wadded up crinolin or unused bath squeegee thing's work well. We fed ours a little of the nanno paste daily as well as a little flake food.
We didn't culture the ghost shrimp for too long but the above method seemed to work pretty well. The main problem is it takes along time for them to grow out to a feedable size.
Top view of the hatching tank
By Basil J Miller
I use a long handled small mesh ( 1/16 " ?) white net to collect the ghost shrimp. The handle is about the size of a broom handle. These nets you will see used at bait houses being used to scoop up live bait shrimp and fish.
Areas such as public boat ramps, parks and picnic
areas that are on water frontage and where there is grass will usually
have ghost shrimp as long as the temperature and water conditions are
within the shrimps tolerable range. This certainly would include
the Gulf Coast states , Southern California and fresh water
speciesinhabit many lakes, ponds rivers and irrigation canal
systems. I wade around the grass beds and evenly and smoothly
sweep the net in a scooping motion towards the grass from deep to
shallow. It is not necessary to make a lot of commotion
while moving the net.... smooth movement is sufficient to
capture the shrimps as long as the water is not extremely clear ( very
clear water is rare in the Bays near Houston Texas where I live).
The water around the
grass is usually a foot or so deep. There are oysters ( and
lots of shells in many of these areas ) growing on any rock so you have
to avoid those as they are sharp and will tear your net ( and you too
if you aren't careful ). I wear rubber boots or old tennis
shoes ( but definitely something to protect my feet).
When the tide is out I will usually have good success by raking the net
gently across the bottom towards the grass beds and right up against
the grass blades.
These shrimp are
very easy to catch. You will also catch lots of small crabs and
small
fish ( be careful you do not keep any fish
considered game fish as a game warden
would likely fine you several hundred dollars
for each illegal fish). Check the game/fishing laws in your
state/area. In Texas you need only a fishing license and a
salt water stamp to collect 'bait'. The pipefish I catch
are on a federal watch program but as of yet have not been put under
any protection.
After catching the
ghost shrimp I put them in a plastic 5 gallon bucket with a battery
operated air pump and stone ( you can get these where bait and fishing
tackle is sold - Academy, Kmart and Wal-Mart stores
here). If its very hot outside I put the bucket
inside the air conditioned cab of my truck for the ride
home. I also put the bucket inside
a Rubbermaid container to contain any splash that may
occur in transit.
Once you get your shrimp home a
ten gallon tank with air stone and I use mangroves kept upright by
inserting them in Styrofoam for filtration supplemented with occasional
small whisper power filter as the only filtration. I'll
usually transfer the smaller shrimp ( ones of the right size for
Seahorses to munch on) to the tank with the Seahorses.
These shrimp will live a long time in the main tank as long as you feed
them a little flake food every day or so. The larger
females also usually have eggs under their tails which once they are
released into the current make excellent food for Seahorses and corals
alike.
The Specific gravity of
the water where these shrimps are collected varies ( as I have
measured it ) anywhere from 1.014 to 1.026
depending upon rainfall amounts prior to the
collection trip. These shrimp can
adjust to a wide range of salinity in my experience. If
you will acclimate them fairly slowly over a
few hours similar to how you would acclimate
any salt water fish. Actually these
shrimp can be acclimated pretty quickly once you get
the hang of it. Just do not take
them from 1.014 to 1.026 in 60 seconds unless you want
to kill them prior to freezing
them. If you do want to freeze some remove the heads as
the heads will rot fairly quickly.
I enjoy
collecting the shrimp and also copepods ( or is it arthropods ?
:) from clumps
of grass in the bays. I will
sometimes us a cast net in open sandy bottom areas and have
caught small green eels, puffer
fish, stingrays, small sharks etc. I also scuba
dive
boat and fish. I've always
loved the water and everything in it and around it.
To contact Basil about collecting ghost shrimp click here.
Anyone who has kept, or even considered keeping, seahorses has probably encountered the adage that maintaining proper nutrition in these animals is the single-most difficult aspect to their husbandry. For the most part it seems that the ãcommon knowledgeä is that seahorses eat only live foods and unless you can provide these foods for them, you shouldnât endeavor to keep them in a home aquarium. This leaves most folks who are not fortunate enough to live near the ocean or an inland lake seeking food sources such as brine shrimp, ghost shrimp and various other small crustaceans. There are potential problems with all of these food sources. Often times ghost shrimp are either prohibitively expensive or impossible to find, and most people are not necessarily looking to set up a breeding tank dedicated just to them. Brine shrimp are a very poor source of nutrition without being properly enriched, and even then their nutritional value is somewhat suspect. The varieties of other crustaceans available are difficult to rear or not eaten by the herd. So, what is a seahorse aficionado to do? Well, in this article, we will hopefully provide a solution that will supply the herd with an EXCELLENT source of nutrition as well as the aquarist a very simple, cost effective and minimally time consuming way to deliver it.
You may have already guessed that this food source is frozen freshwater mysis shrimp (Mysis relicta). They can be purchased at most live fish stores and usually come in 4 or 8 ounce packages, with 4 ounces being roughly equivalent to 10,000 shrimps. An adult seahorse will typically consume between 3 and 12 of these shrimps per day depending on the size of the horse. This may seem like a low number, but due to the nutritional makeup of these shrimps, especially their fat content, they seem to be quite filling. So, as you can plainly see, a single package could last a single horse for years!! Mysis are also, as previously stated, an EXCELLENT source of nutrition for seahorses (or any marine fish for that matter) for two reasons. First, M. relicta are freshwater creatures, which means that when your marine animals consume them, they will not need to expend excess energy to eliminate the extra salt they have taken in. Most marine creatures expend great deals of energy expelling salts just due to their environment, and the oral intake of even more salt taxes their system that much more. Second, M. relicta have an extremely varied feeding cycle. During the day, they are benthic detritivores (bottom-dwelling poop-eaters) but at night, they migrate to the surface and feed on the planktonic layer, taking in rotifers, protozoans, pollen grains and several species of algae. As an added bonus, possibly due to their highly diversified eating habits, M. relicta contains very large quantities of naturally occurring fatty acids (Stearic, Palmitic, Oleic, Omega-3 and Omega-6 to name a few) that not only provide marine animals with essential nutrition but also stimulates a positive feeding response. That said, letâs look at how we can get our finicky seahorses to not only accept this alternate food source, but learn to relish it!
We will present two methods you can try. Both work equally well, but are dependent on the disposition of your animals.
Method #1:
The first thing you will need is a good turkey baster
with a CLEAR tube. This is very important part, since the horses
cannot really see the tube if it is clear. You will also need
some frozen mysis shrimp (we HIGHLY recommend Piscine Energetics M.Y.S.I.S. for its
size, consistency and quality) and some brine shrimp or other live food
that your horses will readily eat.
Next, take small amount of P.E. mysis (not too much at this point) and thaw it out in some tank water. Try to ãmushä the individual shrimp some so as to create a milky solution with the water. The cloudiness in the water is the fatty acids we mentioned earlier. Now, release 20 or so brine shrimp (or whatever live food you chose) into the tank and when your horses begin eating, suck up some of the mysis water and squirt it into the tank near your horses. You may need to do this for several days. This will get the horses used to the taste of the mysis as they are eating so that they will associate that flavor with food. It is very important to do this conservatively, as you do not want to pollute the water with the fatty solution.
The next step is to try getting your herd to eat the actual shrimp. Some horses will go right to them without even needing the previous step, and other may take a while to adjust to the taste, so your process will probably vary. As a reference, a quarter sized chunk feeds my seven horses with a bit left over for my baby trigger and puffer. Now, thaw the chunk in some tank water and then suck up a good amount of the shrimps. Squirt a mysis shrimp down to the end of the tube, but keep it inside the tube. You want just the end of it hanging out. You can mimic movement by squeezing and releasing the bulb very slightly. Take the animated shrimp over to one of your horses, and wait patiently. I (Chris) have several horses that will actually rapidly approach and snick the mysis right out of the end of the tube as soon as it goes into the water!!!
Once they begin eating the mysis, you should be able to just squirt them into the tank. I try to squirt them onto the top of the rock-work or into the macro algae. Then the horses will "hunt". They will pick over the rocks and through the algae and snick up whatever they find! You are home free from that point on, and can use the P.E. mysis as your primary food source, with occasional supplementations of other live food for variety and fun.
Method #2:
As a second method which seems to
also work is, you can work them onto frozen mysis by hand feeding them
using live food in the beginning, meaning ghost shrimp. The way
to do this is to use smaller ghost shrimp and to begin getting your
fish to take them from your hand. This method where you hand feed
may or may not work. Some fish are really too timid to take ghost
shrimp even from your hands. We have found that most of the time,
they are so hungry that they donât care that we are holding onto
the ghost shrimp. They just see it flicking its tail, and
theyâre hooked. They go in for the kill and suck them down.
We hold the ghost shrimp between our thumb and forefinger either by their whiskers, or just above them around their eyes. The trick is to use enough of a grip to hold the shrimp and prevent it from getting away, but not so much that your seahorse canât get it out of your fingers. After trying once or twice, most people get the hang of it, and it isnât a problem from there on. After a couple of feedings with ghost shrimp, you can try using a mysis.
We thaw mysis and then pick them out individually so that we have whole mysis to feed to our fish. They look virtually the same as ghost shrimp, which is another really great thing about these mysis. They thaw whole and usually stay that way. Of course, you will always get a blend of heads or tails, but for the most part, Piscine Energetics mysis thaws out as whole shrimp.
Be sure to hold the mysis the same way that you hold a ghost shrimp. You might have to gently wiggle it so that it looks alive. We usually give it a gentle, but somewhat sharp, wiggle so that it mimics the motion of a ghost shrimp. Typically, our fish take it right from us because they think they are getting ghost shrimp, when in fact, itâs a mysis.
The thing is that they donât know that the mysis is dead. That is why we wiggle it a little. It gives them the illusion that the mysis is still alive and kicking (literally). Sometimes they figure it out, but that is rare. The other trick to doing this is that they never see the head of the ghost shrimp or the mysis. They just seem to assume that it has one and that the eyes would move (or look at them in utter horror), were they to see it. If they canât see the head or the eyes, they really donât seem to know the difference between live and dead food.
Not to mention, a mysis shrimp really stinks. Of course, to our fish this smells really tasty, and they usually go after the mysis shrimp with vigor.
Many of our fish will eventually eat the mysis that we thaw when it is in the water column, and even better, lots of other ones will eat it even when it is on the bottom of the tank. They donât seem to mind. Most of them go for it because it smells good and tastes good too. We donât have to hand feed very many of our fish anymore, which is also really good. They just eat it of their own volition.
Once again, you just have to experiment to see what works with this method. We like to feed them by hand because it gives us a chance to make sure that the fish, especially the picky ones, are eating well. It also gives us a chance to interact with our fish so that they arenât as stressed when we do enter their territory for routine cleanings, or to remove them because they are sick.
A NOTE FROM CHRIS:
Since using the PE mysis, ALL of
my horses are incredibly colored (I have two orange reidi, two black
erectus that got REALLY dark with these incredible tiny little white
dots all over them, a purplish brown erectus that pales to a yellow in
the evening, and a pair of bright yellow/green barbouri). They are all
plump... and I mean the spaces between their ribs that are usually
slightly indented, are at least flush if not protruding slightly. They
are all very active and breeding regularly!! This method has
eased my mind regarding getting the proper nutrition to my horses, and
has also eased my pocketbook considerably. I wish you luck in
this endeavor, should you choose to take it on!
A NOTE FROM BETHANY and MIKE:
We have tried several different
brands of mysis, but none of them can hold a candle to Piscine
Energetics mysis. Our fish who eat these mysis are fat, happy,
colorful, robust, and breeding regularly without any problems.
They seem to stay healthier as well and suffer less from diseases or
pathogens. Every single fish that is still eating live food
isnât quite as fat or as happy as the ones eating this
mysis. We both highly recommend that you use this mysis because
it truly is a great product and one we recommend as often as we
can. It is also significantly less expensive than live
food. And since it is actually MORE nutritious, we canât
say anything bad about it at all. If you can get a hold of this
stuff, we highly recommend it.
Rotifers are used as a first food for the smaller species, mainly H Reidi. However are not the best food as they must be enriched. We personally have never seen a seahorse baby eat one. An easy way to culture rotifers is with a 32 gallon trash can. Simply add 1.021 sg water, a starter and a rigid piece of 3/16" airline tubing bubbling just enough to make a steady stream. We feed ours Nanno paste, about 1/2" from the squeeze bottle daily. It takes about 2 weeks to establish a good culture. The Nanno paste is available at Brineshrimp Direct-http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com.
A 32 plastic trash can works well, with a rigid piece of airline tubing
with just enough air to make a steady stream.
Newly hatched brine shrimp, or artemia, are used as first foods for
most species of seahorse young. The artemia should be enriched however
with a HUFA booster such as Selco.
Materials needed:
Brine shrimp net
2 tsp Artemia cysts
2 cups of luke warm water
2/3 cup of regular bleach
Air pump and Airline tubing
Cloths Pin (to hold airline)
Sodium Thiosulfate( Dechlore)
Removing the outer shell from an artemia cyst has many benefits. First of all it prevents any unwanted contaminants ( hydroids, ect) from entering your rearing system. Secondly there is no need to deal with the shells after the artemia hatches, and last but not least the newly hatched artemia are much higher in nutritional value because they haven't had to use all their resources to break out of the shell. The following method is the one we use and it can be scaled up to however much you need to hatch. The decapsulated cysts can be stored in the fridge for about a week and still work well.
Step 1:
Add 2 cups of luke warm water to a suitable container( a jar or plastic container work well). Clip the airline to the edge and make sure that it is all the way to the bottom of the container, so it really bubbles the water. You want the cysts to stay in motion. Add 2 teaspoons of cysts, and wait one hour, washing the cysts off the side occasionally with an eye dropper (Just suck up a little water from the container).
The cysts hydrating
Step 2:
After one hour the cysts are hydrated. The following images show the difference between dehydrated and hydrated cysts.
Dehydrated
Hydrated
At this point we are ready to decapsulate. Add 2/3 cup of bleach to the container and watch closely. There will be three color changes. First they are brown, then light gray, then orange. When they reach the orange stage they will need to be immediately poured in to the brine shrimp net and rinsed with cold water. Pour dechlor over them as well to neutralize the bleach. An easy way to check the cysts is to pour a little through the brine shrimp net and see what they look like. You want to see mostly orange, but a few gray ones. If you over bleach them they will not hatch, so it's better to stop the reaction at this point. The following images show the color change at 30 times magnification-
A few orange
cysts
About half and
half
The cysts after rinsing
The amount of bleach can be increased or reduced to
increase or decrease the speed of the process.
Step 3:
After thoroughly rinsing the cysts until no odor of bleach remains, squeeze the net to remove as much water as possible and place them into a sealed container. Place this in the fridge and use what you need daily. The cysts should last at least a week.
The cysts Decapsulated and ready for storage.
Hatching artemia takes about 24 hours. After they are
hatched, we give them another 24 hours to reach the next stage in their
development, called the Instar II stage. At this point the artemia is
capable of ingesting food or nutrients. We enrich all ours with a HUFA
booster such as Selco. This is necessary as seahorse fry generally
doesn't do well on unenriched artemia.We use three "hatchers". One is
where the actual hatching takes place, the next is a holding "hatcher"
to wait until they are at Instar II, and the third is the enrichment
"hatcher".
If you use decapsulated cysts, you must have A LOT of
bubbles in the hatcher. Decasulation removes the shell which in turn
takes away their ability to float. If you don't have enough circulation
in the hatcher, you'll end up with clumps of cysts.
Building a Hatcher
A simple hatcher to use is constructed of two 2 liter
pop bottles.
Cut the top off of one bottle and the bottom off another as shown below.
Next, drill a 1/4" hole through the cap, run the airline about 1/2" in and seal with epoxy on the outside. Epoxy is available at most hardware stores. drill a hole through the bottom half of the bottle for the airline to pass through, and put the two halfs together.
The completed hatcher
DIY Automatic
Seahorse Feeder
The ãSo You Can Go Out of Town for a
Few Daysä piece of equipment
By Chris Burns
Have you ever just wanted to get away from it all, take that much needed drive down the coast, to the mountains, the river, the desert, or forest· Just get up and go! What? What do you mean you CANâT?!?!? Ohhhh· you must be a seahorse keeper! Tied to the tank like a Spaniard in Torquemadaâs dungeons· Well, have I got news for you! Salvation and freedom are at hand!
When free-feeding your horses, you have probably run into the common dilemma of feeding enough that the horses get plenty to eat while not feeding too much to the filter and substrate. This means that most of your friends will not, without at least a bachelorâs degree in ãCaring for My Personal Aquariumä, be able to feed your herd should you wish to take a break. And, to make matters worse, you couldnât possibly just throw enough food into the tank to last a few days· or could you? I would like to give you the plans for a do-it-yourself feeder that will allow you to put 2-4 ounces of live, adult brine shrimp in your tank for the horses to feed on without fear of it all going into the filter. As an added bonus, the feeder will, free of charge, retain all of the dead brine shrimp carcasses so that when you return from your trip, you can pull the feeder from the tank and flush all of those ammonia-generating bodies down the drain!
So, without further ado, here
are the particulars. The feeder is a cylinder approx. 6-7" long
and 2.25" in diameter, and I have had success with a wide array of
seahorse and pipefish species feeding from it. There are three
major components that you will need in order to construct it, all of
which you can get at your local hardware superstore (Home Depot or
wherever).
Be sure to wash and clean
everything off before you begin. :>
Now, using the crazy glue gel, glue one plug into one of the pipes.
Next, tack the screen onto the outer surface of one of that pipe with the crazy glue. The pipe should fit inside of the screen so that the out edge of the pipe and screen are even. The screen SHOULD overlap when going around the pipe. Then, do the same on the other pipe. Now you have the cylinder with one opening. Next, run a bead of silicon over the overlapping seam. Smooth it out to ensure even contact. Next, I took and smeared a smooth bead of silicone over the entire surface where the screen contacted the pipes. Let it dry for a few hours, and viola!
Now, place the sealed end into the tank, put some live food in, and seal the other end with the plug. Lay it down somewhere conspicuous and watch the fun!!!
To enrich adult artemia(brine shrimp) simply
place the enrichment media, being algae paste, selco, etc. in with the
shrimp. For adult shrimp this can be done at any time by simply feeding
the tub they're stored in. Do not however do this with a HUFA booster
such as selco. This will spoil the water and may kill all your brine.
To enrich with a booster, use a seperate container such as the hatcher
described above.
To enrich newly hatched artemia, place the media in
the hatcher after the shrimp are 24 hours old. We enrich for 12-24
hours.
An ideal food for the first two weeks of a seahorses life, copepods are naturally high in waxy esters and fats. They are not particularly difficult to culture, however the cultures are somewhat unstable and may take up to 6 weeks to get going. Due to this more than one culture is recommended.
We use ten gallon aquariums for the simple fact that the cost of anything smaller is greater for some unknown reason. They seem to do the best in matured water, such as that from a water change on your main tank. No aeration or filtration is needed. Specific gravity can range from 1.015 to 1.030. We feed every day alternating between flake food and algae paste. When the culture is first started, place just a few flakes on the top and let the copepods eat at this for about a week. In addition add a little Nanno paste and a bit of T-Iso paste (which can be purchased from Brine Shrimp Direct). Once the culture is going well replenish the flake food when depleted and every other day add a small amount of each of the algae pastes.
As you will discover netting copepods is
frustrating at best. Swooshing a net around results in all sorts of
debris from the bottom ending up mixed in with the copepods. The
best way to collect them is by using a suction tube. Take a 3/16" rigid
piece of tubing approx. 14" long and attach a 24" length of airline
tubing. place the rigid side into the culture tank and suck gently on
the other end to start a siphon. Using your finger to regulate the
flow, suck the copepods off the glass and into a small container. Once
you've collected what you need, pour them through a brine shrimp net,
rinse gently for a few seconds, and feed.
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