aquarium adventures: January 2018

Jan 16, 2018

Felicia's Saddled Seahorses for Sale

EDIT AUGUST 2018: You can now purchase my seahorses at Fish Factory in Bensalem, PA!

I'm very happy to announce that I'm breeding seahorses again! Some friends got together and sent me a pair for my birthday this year, and they've been very prolific. This first batch of (not) babies (anymore) are headed to That Fish Place and Reef Conservation Society's Winter frag swap. These are H. erectus seahorses; most are rusty orange, brown, or yellowish with lots of saddling and some with cirri. They're about 6 months old, and many of the males are already pregnant. We may decide to ship seahorses in the future with the help of our friends at Ricky Fin's Aquatics, so stay tuned.

These babies are fed four times a day and are very friendly. It's not easy to change the water (which we do three times a day) when there are seahorses all over my hands and in my face!

How to make a seahorse love you - Feed it!

Before breakfast - we're so hungry!

Please excuse the algae, when you feed this much food, it's inevitable.

baby pics of this batch

so much cirri!

Jan 15, 2018

Felicia's Pico Reef Vase

When I had my son and moved back to my hometown a few years ago, I gave up reefing for a short time. I had a 6 gallon cube with a ravenous clingfish and some corals. My mom bought me a beautiful vase from an antique shop, and it got my wheels turning. All I could see was coral.

My best friend Ricky from Ricky Fin's Aquatics had been holding and growing some of my favorite corals that I put in his tank when I moved. In the summer of 2016, Ricky fragged the colonies that grew from the frags I gave him and I put them in my new vase along with the few corals I had in the cube. The vase took a whole hour to set up with boxed natural sea water and already cured live rock. A small powerhead, heater, and 38 PAR ABI LED bulb were all the equipment I needed.

Thank you, CORAL magazine, for publishing an article about my reef vase in the Jan/Feb 2018 issue. The cover features my son, Lachlan, peering into his favorite aquarium in our house. Enjoy these photos that didn't fit into the article. Lots of before and after photos!

June 2017

Feb 2017

Jan 2017

June 2017

Setosa Dec 2016

Setosa apr 2016 - Nov 2017

Setosa Jun 2016

SunnyD Palys 1 year of growth

SunnyD Palys June 2016

SunnyD Palys March 2016

Red Monti May 2017

Red Monti Feb 2017

Red Monti 1 year of growth

Red Monti June 2017

Purple Gorgonian 6 months of growth

The Reef Vase was transferred into an 8 gallon bowl in June 2017. The stand I kept my 2 gallon vase on cracked down the center. My step dad made me a new stand with a carved unicorn on the front, and the tiny vase looked silly on the big stand, so I upgraded to an 8 gallon bowl which fits perfectly and gave my corals some room to grow.