Seahorses!!
- Thread starter Abercrombie6202
- Start date
Don't.
Seahorses are difficult to care for and feed dispite all the hype about them. They are completely marine fish, sedentary for the most part, need live foods and the cleanest, purist of water quality. The lab I worked for used to have a trio of seahorses we caught once in a sein net along the beach. They lived only because they had five marine biologist constantly "hovering" over them. We were also able to culture live foods for them and collect plankton occassionally. But if you speak to any big-time aquarium curator they'll tell you the most difficult animal in their collections to care for are the sea horses.
~~Colesea
Seahorses are difficult to care for and feed dispite all the hype about them. They are completely marine fish, sedentary for the most part, need live foods and the cleanest, purist of water quality. The lab I worked for used to have a trio of seahorses we caught once in a sein net along the beach. They lived only because they had five marine biologist constantly "hovering" over them. We were also able to culture live foods for them and collect plankton occassionally. But if you speak to any big-time aquarium curator they'll tell you the most difficult animal in their collections to care for are the sea horses.
~~Colesea
Seahorses are cool fish, most at shops are tank bred so feeding them is getting even easier now. Frozen mysis shrimp, and small live foods are the best. They also prefer a taller tank than a long one so a 20G high would be good or a 15G X-high would be perfect. Just provide places for them to hitch, low current, not to intense lighting, and perfect water quality(low nitrates and all that good stuff) and they should be just fine*celebrate
I've always thought seahorses are supposed to be tricky. Especially the contrast - no ammonia,nitrite,nitrate and low current. So how do you filter them - presumably skimmers are right out. Very low stocking densities and lots of water changes I guess.
Has anyone on this site actually kept seahorses alive for more than a year. Not read about it, but done it. These would be the people to talk to. What was their set up, food source, and survival success rate.
Has anyone on this site actually kept seahorses alive for more than a year. Not read about it, but done it. These would be the people to talk to. What was their set up, food source, and survival success rate.
i always thought seahorses were so rare/endangered that it was never recommended for just hobbyists to try to keep them, contributing to their fall in numbers. the monterey bay aquarium in monterey recently opened a seahorse exhibit, apparently one of very few in the world, and they highly discouraged not only keeping seahorses as pets, but buying asian medicines with seahorse parts, etc. they're fairly helpless to evade capture in the wild, and so it's best for us to keep hands off as much as we can. i think 
I told u abercrombie, you would be shot down, now listen to me one more time, as I tell you, don't do it. It's basically impossible to keep them alive, and personally I think it's cruel to keep suck a beautiful and rare and big wild caught animal in such a small space. Most seahorses get alteast 8" long, thats pretty big, especaially in just a lil 15 or 20 gallon tank. It isn't as big of an aquarium as most people (Not in the fishy world) would think. Save your money, it's not worth the heartache of seeing such awesome looking creatures die. If you really want a saltwater tank, read those links I sent you last night, they'll give you a good start on what you need to know.
Wild captured seahorses are very difficult to keep alive, however tank bred and reared ones are fairly easy to keep alive. I kept a pair in a 20G high tank for over 4 years, they spawned a few times had a couple of the fry survive. They have their requirements that must be met and if they arnt met the fish will surely perish. Small outside powerfilter and yes alot of waterchanges*celebrate They are available at most LFS for around 20bucks, not rare at all. Our fish shops always has a few around. They come in sizes from 1" to well over 9". There really is a seahorse for any sized tank out there now. However if you have no saltwater experience, dont get them....start off with some damsels or clowns. One of the few SW fish that is really being bred in the tank, plus really interesting to keep*celebrate
I think you may be pounding a bit to hard.
There are captive bred seahorses out there.
But they are still hard to keep...they ned food almost constantly. And if htey breed...good luck with starting up enough brine shrimp cultures.
Im not saying you can't do it....but if you are a novice(or eve nan intermediate I would recomend ot slowly scale the mountain instead of trying to jump.
First get experience on freshwater.
If you think you are ready(you can breed most frehwater fish..fish are healthy, water prisinte etc) you can travel towards saltwater..and start with hte eay keepers(damsels) soon you may decide ot take hte coral chalenge, and order htem off the interent since you relized that the one your petstore sells are apparently half dead...you will keep climbing. finally...you will be a very experinece hobbyist with both FW and SW tanks...plenty of experience, and you'll probably have a website and be teaching other aquarists(me included...I still am a novice at this)...you will one day plcuk up the courage....and buy a pair of dwarfs or some other kind(dwarfs are easiest however)......you will be able ot hatch brine shrimp cultures at a rapid enough rate ot sustain them etc.
But thats a long time......And you shouldn't rush either.....becuse the aquarium hobby is so fun you probably won't notice it until....
good luck with this dream..but there wil be a lot of hard work to suceed
There are captive bred seahorses out there.
But they are still hard to keep...they ned food almost constantly. And if htey breed...good luck with starting up enough brine shrimp cultures.
Im not saying you can't do it....but if you are a novice(or eve nan intermediate I would recomend ot slowly scale the mountain instead of trying to jump.
First get experience on freshwater.
If you think you are ready(you can breed most frehwater fish..fish are healthy, water prisinte etc) you can travel towards saltwater..and start with hte eay keepers(damsels) soon you may decide ot take hte coral chalenge, and order htem off the interent since you relized that the one your petstore sells are apparently half dead...you will keep climbing. finally...you will be a very experinece hobbyist with both FW and SW tanks...plenty of experience, and you'll probably have a website and be teaching other aquarists(me included...I still am a novice at this)...you will one day plcuk up the courage....and buy a pair of dwarfs or some other kind(dwarfs are easiest however)......you will be able ot hatch brine shrimp cultures at a rapid enough rate ot sustain them etc.
But thats a long time......And you shouldn't rush either.....becuse the aquarium hobby is so fun you probably won't notice it until....
good luck with this dream..but there wil be a lot of hard work to suceed
Abercrombie, Before you get shot down anymore i want to direct you to www.reefcentral.com
go there and talk to the people there who have kept and breed them, all very knolaged in keeping marine animals of all forms including sea horses.
there is even a site out there.
Not only can it be done but it can be done very well!
go there and talk to the people there who have kept and breed them, all very knolaged in keeping marine animals of all forms including sea horses.
there is even a site out there.
Not only can it be done but it can be done very well!