by Tami Weiss | Mar 3, 2014 | Fish, Science, Seahorses, Tanks
A flirty pair of seahorses from Seahorse Canada. Canadians have long had trouble getting true captive bred seahorses. CITES has had the unfortunate side effect of restricting access to Captive Bred seahorses to Canada, and while a few overseas companies do ship across the border, it’s a difficult process. No more! Seahorse Canada has recently opened it’s doors, specializing in captive bred seahorses. Their first offering is the Lined Seahorse Hippocampus erectus. H. erectus are considered the hardiest of the seahorses, making this an excellent first offering. This is doubly good news, as many of the tank raised seahorses that make it into Canada tend to species that are more difficult to keep. A beautiful group of Lined Seahorses showing long cirri, the fleshy growths that help them blend into algal environments. And did I mention they’re true captive bred seahorses? Seahorse Canada is a home based breeding facility, allowing Angelo Guaragna, his girlfriend Eve Herman and Thanny, the resident “seahorse whisperer” , to monitor their seahorses 24/7 and ensure they are getting the best care. Those of you familiar with seahorses know that many tank raised seahorses fair poorly in home aquariums, so having access is to true captive bred seahorses north of the border will make seahorse keeping a much easier prospect for Canadians. Yellow Lined Seahorse showing the bright colors they can achieve. I took a few minutes of their time to ask how they got started. Eve had her first experience with seahorses at 8 years old, given to her by her mother; this started a lifelong love of seahorses. Just under four years ago, her interest in seahorses sparked the set up of a few marine tanks. The care and attention of Thanny, along with help from saltwater expert Colin from Reef Boutique Toronto, helped to inspire them to take their passion to the next level. So, after a few years of research and experimenting with different species, foods and environments, they have been successful in breeding H. erectus and are currently in process of trying to breed H. reidi. Eve, Angelo and Thanny, were able to get their breeding operation off the ground. Seahorse Canada is currently working towards raising the ever popular Brazilian Seahorse. Seahorse Canada is currently researching shipping methods, and have shipped as far as Ottawa. They are continuing to research best shipping practices so they can offer their seahorses to aquarists across the country. Seahorse Canada hopes to offer supplies and specialty foods for seahorses soon. And they are currently working with the Brazilian Seahorse, H. reidi, which they plan to offer in the future. Oh Canada, you have your seahorses now! Many beautiful seahorses available to Canadians. This entry was posted on Saturday, February 22nd, 2014 at 5:41 pm and is filed under Aquarium Care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. by AquaNerd | Feb 16, 2014 | Fish, Science
Last year saw the worldwide debut of one very unique clownfish from Sustainable Aquatics. Dubbed the Longfin Clownfish, this particular individual had the most elaborate finnage we’ve ever seen from an otherwise normal looking Amphiprion percula, and according to a very recent announcement, that trait has been successfully passed down to a whole new generation of longfin clowns. Admittedly, these are some terrible photographs of the fish, which were shared on the Sustainable Aquatics Facebook page, but the fish do show significant signs of the same elaborate finnage that were just so intriguing in their parent. We hope to see a few more images of the “Longfin Jr.” clownfish in the very near future, and while the fins may not be as elaborate, it’s a step in the right direction in getting a whole new type of designer clownfish. The original longfin clownfish is pictured immediately below. by AquaNerd | Feb 12, 2014 | Corals, Fish, Science, Tanks
Nano aquariums are so much fun. It’s as simple as that. The tiny little glass boxes can be put just about anywhere, and while they can’t house every fish or coral, they can be personalized in so many ways. One such nano that we’ve recently gotten to play with is the EcoPico from Ecoxotic. This tank measures 10”x10”x12”, which translates to just a shade over 5 gallons, and has a small LED light and filter that make it pretty much saltwater friendly out of the box. We have a hard time calling it reef ready, which for the record is not one of Ecoxotic’s claims, but it certainly has a lot of features to get it off to a good start. by AquaNerd | Feb 10, 2014 | Aquaculture, Corals, Fish, Industry
It would seem that the recent musings of Scott Fellman, longtime figurehead in the marine aquarium hobby and co-owner of Unique Corals, on captive bred fish have really struck a nerve. In a recent posting on his company’s Reef2Reef forum page, Scott shared a little of his frustrations about the virtual disappearance of captive-bred mandarin dragonets from Oceans Reefs and Aquariums (ORA). In a nutshell, he was told by an ORA rep that the dragonet breeding program had essentially been shelved due to the lack of support from aquarium hobbyists. This was due to the fact that wild-caught mandarins were far too cheap for the captive-bred variety to compete with. With regards to this news, Scott went on to say “that sucks”, and offered up a thorough virtual “spanking” of the aquarium hobby as a whole…and we completely agree with Scott one billion percent! To clarify, this is not in any way a reflection on ORA or any other organizations or individuals that breed marine ornamental species or support captive breeding efforts. Instead, this is a look at why aquarium keepers still continue to purchase low-quality wild-caught livestock. Scott’s article highlights the big reason why captive-bred fish still see so many hurdles…and it’s purely financial. After all of the initial excitement wore off, hobbyists by and large avoided buying them because they were $40 or more per fish. by AquaNerd | Feb 6, 2014 | Fish, Opinion, Science, Tanks
Yesterday, we broke news on the amazing aberrant moorish idol that popped up in the holding tanks of Segrest Farms. Unfortunately, the images in that post were not the best quality, but Segrest delivered the goods today with a fresh batch of high res photos showing the amazing moorish idol in all its splendor. They just uploaded them to their Facebook page moments ago, and the images confirm, at least in our humble opinions, that the fish is a moorish idol and not the proposed hybrid that many folks were chattering about on social media sites. That said, this is the most unique moorish idol we’ve ever laid eyes on. This aberrant form has significant yellow markings all over its body, with only slight hints of the black bars that are normally seen. It’s such an amazing fish and we’re grateful to Segrest Farms for keeping us in the loop in a big way. Continue below for a rather impressive gallery.
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