Sea horse feeding

[extendedmango]

I'm a hopeful seahorse owner and I was wondering how you all feed you're seahorses and what you consider the best way. I have heard of target feeding, feeding stations and all but I can't see any being the "best method".

[laga77]

Best is what works for you. I target feed. I have a long coral feeder which I can place a single PE mysis right in front of the Seahorse. Very little if any goes to waste. I feed twice a day. Each Seahorse eats 2-3 each feeding.

[extendedmango]

I have been thinking about feeding my seahorses the same way my LFS owner feeds his pair of seahorses, he just spreads the frozen food around the tank after defrosting it but he uses a much larger skimmer than required. His tank is also a community tank with corals and fish so there isn't much leftovers in the tank. Could that work for me.

[extendedmango]

Here's a pic of his pair, he says it's the first time this specific type of seahorse has been in America. This pair isn't in a community aquarium though, only his other seahorses are.

[vlangel]

Those are some beautiful seahorses. No, I don't recommend the broadcast method as it has more potential for stray pieces of mysis to get hung up or stuck some place. Then it rots and fuels bad bacteria.
I would be much more comfortable with either target feeding or using a feeding dish.

[extendedmango]

Okay thanks

[BlueCat1949]

I have done both target feeding and feeding stations and both could work but feeding stations are probably the best way to go. I used a large clam shell, but any type of container will do, and placed it where it was surrounded by rock so the tank flow didn't blow the food around the tank. I used a one inch hard plastic tube placed in the bottom of the shell and squirted the mysis down the tube and into the bowl. The seahorses would head for the bowl and use the hitches to wait when they saw the food coming down the tube. Sometimes they would snick at the tube if they were really hungry. When the mysis hit the bottom I would lift the tube and it was chow time.

Because seahorses snick very hard, they essentially pulverize the shrimp, you can see puffs of "smoke" coming out the tops of their heads. The pulverized shrimp makes for a very heavy load for your filters and when you add to that the uneaten food lodged in you rocks from other methods of feeding you can pollute your tank very rapidly.

I always kept my horses in species only tanks and most of my 21 tanks were bare bottomed so I could just drop in food and clean up the leftovers. In a tank with sand and rock you need to be more careful with your feedings.

[BlueCat1949]

Originally Posted by extendedmango

Here's a pic of his pair, he says it's the first time this specific type of seahorse has been in America. This pair isn't in a community aquarium though, only his other seahorses are.

Very beautiful horses, I believe they are Hippocampus subelongatus. The lower horse in the picture shows that the stripes on the snout do not go around on the bottom which is one of the "tells" for this species. They had these guys at the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla, CA when I went there around 2005.

[extendedmango]

Originally Posted by BlueCat1949

I have done both target feeding and feeding stations and both could work but feeding stations are probably the best way to go. I used a large clam shell, but any type of container will do, and placed it where it was surrounded by rock so the tank flow didn't blow the food around the tank. I used a one inch hard plastic tube placed in the bottom of the shell and squirted the mysis down the tube and into the bowl. The seahorses would head for the bowl and use the hitches to wait when they saw the food coming down the tube. Sometimes they would snick at the tube if they were really hungry. When the mysis hit the bottom I would lift the tube and it was chow time.



Because seahorses snick very hard, they essentially pulverize the shrimp, you can see puffs of "smoke" coming out the tops of their heads. The pulverized shrimp makes for a very heavy load for your filters and when you add to that the uneaten food lodged in you rocks from other methods of feeding you can pollute your tank very rapidly.



I always kept my horses in species only tanks and most of my 21 tanks were bare bottomed so I could just drop in food and clean up the leftovers. In a tank with sand and rock you need to be more careful with your feedings.

Will feeding stations work in a community tank or would I need to target feed. Also I've heard of people using macro algae and toadstool mushrooms, would this work better for the seahorses.

[BlueCat1949]

If you haven't had seahorses before I would strongly recommend not keeping them with other fish for several reasons.

Seahorses have no way to protect themselves from aggression by other fish species and they are sitting ducks in a community tank if something decides to pick on them.

Because seahorses are such slow swimmers they can not get anything to eat in a tank with fast moving fish. You would have to target feed one mysis at a time which can get old very quickly. Even if you put food right in front of them other fish can zip in and eat before they can snick it.

If your seahorses are captive bred and your other fish species are not they can be subjected to fish pathogens that they are unable to deal with.

Seahorses are not a community tank type of fish. If you are careful to pick the right tank mates you can have success but for seahorse newbies that approach can be pretty iffy.

My 2 cents.

[extendedmango]

Originally Posted by BlueCat1949

If you haven't had seahorses before I would strongly recommend not keeping them with other fish for several reasons.



Seahorses have no way to protect themselves from aggression by other fish species and they are sitting ducks in a community tank if something decides to pick on them.



Because seahorses are such slow swimmers they can not get anything to eat in a tank with fast moving fish. You would have to target feed one mysis at a time which can get old very quickly. Even if you put food right in front of them other fish can zip in and eat before they can snick it.



If your seahorses are captive bred and your other fish species are not they can be subjected to fish pathogens that they are unable to deal with.



Seahorses are not a community tank type of fish. If you are careful to pick the right tank mates you can have success but for seahorse newbies that approach can be pretty iffy.



My 2 cents.

Thanks for the warning but I have been preparing this tank for some time an exchanged emails with Pete Giwonja while completing the program he set up on ocean rider. I have done my best to choose only captive bred fish fish from my LFS that he would recommend for seahorses.

[BlueCat1949]

Keep us informed on how your seahorses are doing. I am hoping that you have success your new venture.

[extendedmango]

Thanks so much for all the help guys. This is a really great reefing community.

[mwilliams62]

Originally Posted by extendedmango

Here's a pic of his pair, he says it's the first time this specific type of seahorse has been in America. This pair isn't in a community aquarium though, only his other seahorses are.

Those are the most beautiful Sea Horses I have seen. I don't have a sea horse tank yet but one day I will.

[extendedmango]

Originally Posted by mwilliams62

Those are the most beautiful Sea Horses I have seen. I don't have a sea horse tank yet but one day I will.

I know, I was shocked when I went to the store and saw the pair were looking at me. I even was in time for feeding.

[Protoavis]

Originally Posted by BlueCat1949

Very beautiful horses, I believe they are Hippocampus subelongatus. The lower horse in the picture shows that the stripes on the snout do not go around on the bottom which is one of the "tells" for this species. They had these guys at the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla, CA when I went there around 2005.

I believe they are also, they look like what is commonly around here (Australia...basically just CB Kuda's and WC Subelongatus in every LFS that has seahorses), the male is quite decorative though.

[extendedmango]

Originally Posted by Protoavis

I believe they are also, they look like what is commonly around here (Australia...basically just CB Kuda's and WC Subelongatus in every LFS that has seahorses), the male is quite decorative though.

Are they likely captive bred or wild caught?

[BlueCat1949]

Originally Posted by extendedmango

Are they likely captive bred or wild caught?

Australia is the seahorse breeding capital of the world so I would guess they are CB. They also have more species of syngnathids of any place as well.

[extendedmango]

Okay thanks

[zydek]

Nat Geo Wild just has a special on seahorses they'll be replaying it Monday at 3 p.m.

[Protoavis]

Originally Posted by BlueCat1949

Australia is the seahorse breeding capital of the world so I would guess they are CB. They also have more species of syngnathids of any place as well.

Australia only has one seas horse farm these days and they don't breed subelongatus. There may be a few hobbiests who breed them but even then you will pretty much only ever see WC subelongatus in Australia and CB Kuda and Abdominalis (and even then that's only if you go through the farm, stores generally won't stuck them due to being cold water)

[BlueCat1949]

Originally Posted by Protoavis

Australia only has one seas horse farm these days and they don't breed subelongatus. There may be a few hobbiests who breed them but even then you will pretty much only ever see WC subelongatus in Australia and CB Kuda and Abdominalis (and even then that's only if you go through the farm, stores generally won't stuck them due to being cold water)

Seahorse World in Tas has H.abdominalis, H.reidi, H. whitei, H. barbouri and H. kuda for sale. Is this the only seahorse farm left? I know SASeahorse is gone but there used to be a farm near Perth and several others.

Seahorses are not the hot item that they used to be a decade ago but I would think there would still be demand for them in both Australia and the US.

[rayjay]

To the best of my knowledge, Seahorse World is a part of parent company Seahorse Australia.
If you buy seahorses, you buy from Seahorse Australia.
If you want to go SEE seahorses and other sea life you go to Seahorse World.
Just trying to avoid any confusion if some are not aware of this.

[Protoavis]

Originally Posted by rayjay

To the best of my knowledge, Seahorse World is a part of parent company Seahorse Australia.
If you buy seahorses, you buy from Seahorse Australia.
If you want to go SEE seahorses and other sea life you go to Seahorse World.
Just trying to avoid any confusion if some are not aware of this.

So you're saying wc caught subelongatus that come from Perth and seem to be as common (if not more so) as cb kuda in lfs around Aus are comming from Tas? Seahorses world have other species but seeing anything other than wc subelongatus and cb kuda is something that has yet to happen for me in the last few years....the landscape of what is being sold has changed.

[rayjay]

Sorry, I didn't explain that well I guess.
I just meant that I believe that if you buy seahorses FROM the Seahorse Australia company, they will come from Seahorse Australia and not Seahorse World which the earlier post by BC mentioned.
I had NO intention of claiming ALL seahorses sold in Australia come from Seahorse Australia.