Does anyone here keep seahorses? I got my new issue of aquarium fish magazine today and they have a nice article in there about keeping and breeding seahorses. It doesnt sound to complicated.....but I think I'll stick to my bettas! I had a saltwater tank once....and it ruined my wall! At the back of the tank where there were openings for the filters etc., The saltwater ruined the wall behind the tank! I dont think I will be trying that again....unless I put plexi glass or something on the wall behind it for protection!
Anyone keep seahorses?
- Thread starter Franky099
- Start date
well, I dont have the article right here in front of me....but it doesnt make it sound to hard. Just gotta have the right water conditions and a tall tank...not a wide one. Geez Ryan! I cant believe you dont get aquarium fish magazine! A years subscription is only like 14 bucks I think.
[quote author=ryanp14 link=board=saltwater&num=989681069&start=0#3 date=05/12/01 at 09:12:41]
I'll send you a message about the magazine. I don't know I just heard they were for advanced aquarist. Maybe breeding them is easier than keeping them ;D
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They are incredibly hard to keep. First of all they need an appropriate species tank, can't keep anything else with them. In the tank you need a seaweed like turtle grass because they attach themselves to it. They do not go after food, they eat a little bit of food very often as the food floats by, and most of them only take to live foods. They are EXTREMELY sensitive to water conditions, not only dirty water, but when you do a water change as well, if you don't condition the water well enough, the seahorses will die.
I'll send you a message about the magazine. I don't know I just heard they were for advanced aquarist. Maybe breeding them is easier than keeping them ;D
[/quote]
They are incredibly hard to keep. First of all they need an appropriate species tank, can't keep anything else with them. In the tank you need a seaweed like turtle grass because they attach themselves to it. They do not go after food, they eat a little bit of food very often as the food floats by, and most of them only take to live foods. They are EXTREMELY sensitive to water conditions, not only dirty water, but when you do a water change as well, if you don't condition the water well enough, the seahorses will die.
hey..Just a note to say that I am trying to raise and breed saltwater seahorses and they are very hard and touchy to just about anything, ie water,food other fish. I have not been having alot of luck with them as it seems they all prefer different foods ie some like frozen and some like live.so i would not recommend these fish to just anyone unless they are truly committed to all the little things and are willing to go the extra mile..I to have the article that you mention and it is fairly truthful but unless you have prime conditions these are not easy keepers..but are fascinating and funny.
I reccommend that anyone new to the marine hobby, stay far, far away from seahorses. Far away. Far far away. I had a talk with the Curator of Fish and Invert at the aquarium not far from my home that has a whole seahorse room, and all he could do was bitch about how each speices had one specific type of food that had to be literally dumped in front of its nose to eat, and how delicate and fragil and what a hard time they were having with them, let alone trying to breed them.
Magazine articles are always good for points of interest, but they always make out something really difficult to be really easy. Be smart, don't get anything fancy. Those things are definately wild caught, and there is no reliable information about their populations to insure that the pet trade isn't depleating them. Exotic seahorses aren't worth the headache unless you want to seriously dedicate yourself to an animal.
But on the flip side, I've had lots of luck with local water seahorses. Mostly lined seahorses (Hippocampus erectus), and northern pipefish (Syngathus fuscus). Sometimes they'd come up in the sein nets along the beaches. Where I used to work, we had a trio of them in a 20 gallon long tank. Decorations were a few hunks of coral, a lava rock, and plastic pants. They'd ancor to anything. We fed them live mysid shrips and artimia naupil from a 1mm pipet. After awhile, they actually would swim to the glass to get fed, and "beg" which made it easy to plop food in front of their faces. But they aren't the strongest swimmers in the world, and would give up the chase after four or five shirmp. One of them had even been found wounded on the beach. It healed back up, but never regrew its dorsal fin. We were all suprised, and pleased.
When I lived in FL, we actually had a Sargassum seahorse, or seadragon, that we found in a matt of seaweed. The whole mess was transported into a local water tank. But we also had plankton trawls that provided plenty of little live food for him. I've never tried seahorses on fake stuff. I'm sure a starved one would eat anything that drifts in front of its snout.
If you have a local water marine tank, and the availability to sein net, then go ahead and try seahorses. They don't like strong currents, but do need gentle circulation from a powerhead. And aged, already cycled water, is the best to use for them. But I wouldn't buy them from a LFS, even if they are H. erectus. Seahorses stress out very, very easily, which is probably why lots of people don't have luck with them. First they get ripped from their happy homes, then bagged and boxed and shipped to a wholesaler who dumps them in who knows what conditions, then bagged and boxed and shipped to a retailer, who dumps them in who knows what conditions. Not good for seahorses, not good at all. So you're already purchasing a fish that is not a happy camper.
~~Colesea
Magazine articles are always good for points of interest, but they always make out something really difficult to be really easy. Be smart, don't get anything fancy. Those things are definately wild caught, and there is no reliable information about their populations to insure that the pet trade isn't depleating them. Exotic seahorses aren't worth the headache unless you want to seriously dedicate yourself to an animal.
But on the flip side, I've had lots of luck with local water seahorses. Mostly lined seahorses (Hippocampus erectus), and northern pipefish (Syngathus fuscus). Sometimes they'd come up in the sein nets along the beaches. Where I used to work, we had a trio of them in a 20 gallon long tank. Decorations were a few hunks of coral, a lava rock, and plastic pants. They'd ancor to anything. We fed them live mysid shrips and artimia naupil from a 1mm pipet. After awhile, they actually would swim to the glass to get fed, and "beg" which made it easy to plop food in front of their faces. But they aren't the strongest swimmers in the world, and would give up the chase after four or five shirmp. One of them had even been found wounded on the beach. It healed back up, but never regrew its dorsal fin. We were all suprised, and pleased.
When I lived in FL, we actually had a Sargassum seahorse, or seadragon, that we found in a matt of seaweed. The whole mess was transported into a local water tank. But we also had plankton trawls that provided plenty of little live food for him. I've never tried seahorses on fake stuff. I'm sure a starved one would eat anything that drifts in front of its snout.
If you have a local water marine tank, and the availability to sein net, then go ahead and try seahorses. They don't like strong currents, but do need gentle circulation from a powerhead. And aged, already cycled water, is the best to use for them. But I wouldn't buy them from a LFS, even if they are H. erectus. Seahorses stress out very, very easily, which is probably why lots of people don't have luck with them. First they get ripped from their happy homes, then bagged and boxed and shipped to a wholesaler who dumps them in who knows what conditions, then bagged and boxed and shipped to a retailer, who dumps them in who knows what conditions. Not good for seahorses, not good at all. So you're already purchasing a fish that is not a happy camper.
~~Colesea