A TEAM of students at Sparsholt College Aquatics Centre have been taking on the difficult challenge of breeding seahorses.
Mother’s Day was slightly different at the centre for two new baby Seahorse Fry, as it is the seahorse father who gives birth and carries the young and not the female.
Seahorses have been absent from the College’s National Aquatics Training Centre for seven years until Extended Diploma and Subsidiary Diploma fish management (ornamental) students decided they were up for the tricky challenge of breeding them.
Led by instructor and technician Ellen Ashford, the team of 12 students started the breeding exercise back in November and it has taken since then to ensure that all the key elements which make-up the ideal breeding conditions are in place.
With two adults from a captive breeder, the students focused on ensuring the specialist tank, which keeps the babies suspended in the water with their food, was perfect for the births and they were rewarded with the arrival of Seahorse Fry babies.
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