Monday, February 18, 2013

Happy Birthday VALENTINA !!!!!

Today is Thursday, February 14th, 2013 or Valentina's Day.
Can you take a wild guess as to whose birthday it is today?
Come on, take a wild guess!

Valentina remains shy...
Only coming out to dance once or twice during the month.
But, when she does, it is absolutely precious!

Valentina, with her rotund body makes every attempt to sway gracefully back and forth. However, like
"Humpty Dumpty", the swaying gets out of control and Valentina finds herself rolling over quite clumsily and ungracefully.
As if embarrassed, she swims off and once again hitches to the filter area!


The Birthday Gal...Valentina!

Valentina enjoys a spa day on her birthday!
She loves the feeling of the bubbles!

More bubbly for Valentina!

After shutting off both the filter and the air bubbles, the water was dead calm.
The photo shows Valentina's mirror image.


Back to the Spa!

Valentina enjoys a facial in these 4 photos.




Tuesday, February 12, 2013

"THE PET DEN" & The Seahorse Troth

Now, this is a most amazing...
You know, my seahorses are very, very, very spoiled in a multitude of ways.

One way is that the majority of the time they dine on only the finest live brine shrimp from my great friends Dennis and Maurice.
These guys own "The Pet Den"
located on 6230 Jericho Turnpike
in Commack, New York.
They can be contacted at:
(631) 499-0276
You can expect all your pet needs fulfilled
and all your questions expertly answered!

Visit "The Pet Den" when you are in the Commack area.
It is the experience of a lifetime!
The staff is more of a big, loving, fun, family then just co~workers!
Come in and meet them.
Brouse around.
This is no ordinary pet store!


I've spoken  about "The Pet Den" before.
They are legendary on Long Island for their exotic pets,
and pet supplies.
And may I elaborate...
they have fresh, frozen or dried delicacies for any hungry reptile, amphibian or bird to savor at mealtime!
May I define "fresh" as meaning "alive"...
"The Pet Den" caters to the rare, and exotic pet.
But, never fear...their expertise  extends to all creatures...
large and small!

Young or old, you can also have a party at "The Pet Den"
in their "Party Jungle" Room.
Their motto:
"Come Rumble At Our Jungle"!

 Okay...
Because seahorses cannot live by live brine alone,
"The Pet Den" also carries  premium frozen brine.

Well, now and then, I will give my spoiled rotten babies frozen brine. When using the frozen brine, rather then putting it directly into the tank, I have trained the seahorses to eat out of a troth.

Now there's a concept for you!
Seahorses eating out of the same receptacle, troth, that horses eat out of!

It is quite adorable!

Once the frozen brine has been put into a strainer and then rinsed under cold water, it is ready to go. Putting the brine directly into the tank scatters the brine. This diminishes the seahorses ability of consuming the majority of the brine. It also has the tendency to "overfeed the tank". The leftovers can cause toxins like ammonia to spike. It can also change the PH and other chemistry's in the tank.
Because seahorses are fragile, these tank changes can make them sick or can even be fatal for them.

Anyway...
Seahorses can be trained!
And that is exactly what I did!

Over the period of a few days, I fed the prepared brine into the top of the troth.
It floated down to the tray area.
Using a turkey baster with a few brine shrimp in it, I slowly made a trail in front of the seahorses that EVENTUALLY led them to the troth.
Please note that the turkey baster was a brand new one and is dedicated for seahorse use only.
That goes for any seahorse equipment.
Cross contamination is therefore minimized.

After a few days, at mealtime, the seahorses would go and hitch onto the troth before I even put the brine into the tube.
They were waiting to be fed!

Again...seeing is believing!
And it is sooooooo adorable to see the seahorses eating out of the troth.






The adorable seahorses eat the frozen brine out of the troth.
Their tails hitch on the lip of the feeding tray.

Here my seahorse hitches on the side plant.

Look how the sweet seahorse's neck stretches to eat the frozen brine.