Hi Janey. Welcome to Talking Reef. Our resident seahorse keeper is busy putting together a podcast on seahorse keeping right now. See this thread. In the meantime check out this website (I've never been there before but it looks interesting).
I'd also recommend www.seahorse.org. Another friendly site and FULL of great information.
My H. Reidi tank is the EASIEST tank I've had thus far. I will admit, I know more now, than I did back when I started, but for all intensive purposes, if you can keep what the reefing community calls a "refugium" and know and understand the basic needs of the species, you can do it. It is a kind of fish only FO system that is tailored to the needs of seahorses.
Research on the species is key. Again, the folks at the "Org" can and will help. I'm sure that when Rob and I are done with our project, you'll have the basics about Hippocampus Reidi, the Brazilian Seahorse.
from my experience one of the hardest things about raising seahorses is nutrition. getting them to eat frozen foods is tough. when my seahorse tank was up i fed them ghost shrimp. if your lfs doesnt carry them you can catch them near river mouths or where the water is brakish. they live is some nasty gunck so if you do decide to try to catch some for your horses invest in some tobis or reef walking shoes.
I can discuss the use of wild harvested ghost/glass/grass shrimp. I used them to feed my reef, my seahorses, and to keep refugiums clean. They, like the cleaner shrimps, also provide hatch after hatch of babies that add to the natural foods for the tank. I harvest them quite easily from my dock on Cape Cod. I bring them home in a 5 gallon bucket with battery powered air pumps.
As Pham mentioned, they do live in some of the nastiest sections of water and typically in slower moving waters. They are prone to 'issues' that need to be understood before tossing them haphazardly into your systems. Most notably, they often suffer from parasitic isopods that attach to their carapace close to where you'd find expect to see gills. While I've never seen these isopods attach to other scaled or scaleless fish, I have seen them make a jump to mythrax crabs, cleaner shrimp and once on an arrow crab. A picture of a typical parasite attachment below (this is not a glass shrimp, but shows the parasitic relationship quite well):
You should practice isolation, quarantine, and culling of wild harvested shrimp. Simple as that. I kept two 20 gallon tanks going at all times. The first is where I dumped them after the catch. From there, I'd cull out the affected fish (with isopods clearly visible) and toss them. The healthier shrimp stayed in that tank for a week before moving to the second tank. The second tank was for holding and harvesting to feed to the various systems I used.
The grass/ghost shrimp will take ANY foods given to them. I fed them Boyds pellet foods and they remained happy and healthy. I also kept some local snails in their tank to clean up behind them. DO NOT put any of these snails in your displays. Not only are they temperate and would slowly die and foul your water, but they are also known to eat clams and other expensive inhabitants of your tanks.
And yes, to respond to Pham's observation, proper nutrition is key to keeping the seahorses. I use Selcon and other products to enhance the value of the foods I use. This is a MUST when raising fry, but should also be practiced in feeding adults as well.
Tank raised seahorses will eat frozen foods and you should continue to give them this diet and refrain from using live foods if at all possible. Even those trained on frozen will turn up their snout at it if once again exposed to live foods. If you have wild caught fish, you may have no choice but to feed live foods while you attempt to switch them over to frozen. Otherwise, soaking frozen foods in any decent supplement contianing OMEGA 3 fatty acids, Marine Lipids and Vitamins is sufficient.
I'm rather new to TalkingReef - (I've been offline for awhile) - but I'm a long time seahorse keeper and SOOOOOO excited to see this new forum and up-coming podcast.
I've learned a lot over the years and would be happy to share my experiences/knowledge. Most importantly, I'd like to encourage anyone interested in keeping seahorses to please consider captive-bred only! They will cost more upfront but will eat frozen mysis which is a HUGH advantage. Many wild-caught never adapt to frozen and if you have to purchase live shrimp from your LFS trying to convert them over, it will end up costing a small fortune. On top of this, it can be very frustrating and heartbreaking to keep a fish who refuses to eat, and wastes away.
I currently maintain H. Erectus and love 'em. They're very hardy, pretty social and breed readily. They tend to be less colorful then some of the others, but I know a CB supplier who routinely gets some very pretty yellows.
Anyhoo, I hope this helps - and thank you for starting this site, thread and podcasts!!! (Finally, I have something interesting to listen to in my car!! )
I will be covering the NEED for purchase of Captive Bred and Tank Raised fish. I agree with all your statements whole heartedly.
Please do keep an eye on the subject matter and chime in wherever and whenever possible. We welcome any and all inputs!
Erectus are wonderful fish. I'm glad you are having a good time with your herd of ponies. Does your 'source' happen to be Dan (Danu from the org)? He, and others on Seahorse.org are my mentors...I'd be nowhere without them.
Yes, Dave, DanU is the source of the gorgeous Yellow Erectus'. The fish I've received from him are the healthiest, prettiest ones I've ever had and I've learned a great deal about breeding/raising fry from him as well. I can't even begin to tell you how helpful the folks at Seahorse.org have been over the years.
Looking forward to further learning and discussions!!!
DanU and others from Seahorse.org have been a great resource to the sygnathid fans! I was a lurking student at the "Org" for some time while I was contemplating keeping seahorses. It wasn't until I was successful at breeding and raising Banggai Cardinals that I decided to take the plunge. I researched for more than a year, probably closer to two!
I've really become fond of Greg, Renee, the other Admins, Mods and members there for the same reasons I found a new home here. It too is a very informative, newbie friendly site and only because they work hard to keep it that way.
From what I know you can't go wrong acquiring DanU's Erectus. I see people waiting in queue (on the boards) waiting for those ponies. I'd love to keep Erectus one day. If I do set up another species tank, I'd get in that same line and wait.
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