March 5, 2010

Here come the dwarf babies

Mickey and Pluto became unexpectedly expecting. We have been busy with the other baby seahorse, that we did not notice the Mickey was pregnant. So it was hard to tell what day was the big day. About a week later Mickey began to have contractions once the lights came on. And few minutes later out came the first baby dwarf seahorse.

After the first baby Pluto the mother joined in as the birthing coach… Push Mickey push… Interesting this is also the morning greeting of mating seahorse. They synchronize their movements for about 15 minutes and then head back to the post and wait for breakfast to come drifting by.

Finally, the last set of contractions and Mickey had giving birth to a total of nine babies. Dwarf seahorse only give birth to a small brood and out of all the seahorse the dwarf babies are the most developed. But also the very small.

Once the babies get a little older we have a new 8 gallon bow font tank that will be their new home. Currently they are living in a hang on tank inside the main seahorse tank. Also the babies will all need names, which will most likely have a Sleepy, Dopey, escapie, snappy, snippy tone to their names. Mickey, Pluto and the nine dwarfs… Kinda catchy…