Cautionary note re: seahorses for anyone who is considering them
 

Well I want to share my experience with seahorses in case it is a help to others even though it is depressing to talk about.

I set up a 30 gallon cube tank as a species tank for seahorses last March. Before setting up the tank I did my usual hundreds of hours of research on the web including www.seahorse.org and I planned the tank out carefully. The tank was a 30 gallon cube macroalgae tank with live rock, a few species of macroalgae, 96 watts pc lighting, tunze nano skimmer/filter combination, UV sterilizer, heater, chiller, and live rock. Basically I set up the tank right without cutting corners.

Because of delays with a vendor not sending me my seahorses for several months the tank went 6 months with no livestock in it, just macroalgae. I was happy enough with this because a more mature tank meant better conditions for the horses.

Around the end of September I ended up getting four horses (? Reidi, ID was uncertain) from a well-known vendor whom I have trusted in the past. I bought them without seeing them and they were shipped up to me. They were said to be captive bred and eating mysis well. Later I found out from the seahorse boards that they were almost certainly wild caught and net pen raised although the vendor may not have been aware of this.

In any event four seahorses arrived three months ago. Water conditions have always been perfect. The horses appeared healthy and active on arrival. However since day one they have not fed on any mysis and only would eat the small pods in my tank.

After about 6 weeks the first seahorse died, then over the next six weeks two more of the horses died, now there is only one left and I am sure it will be dead within the next month. I think the cause of death is starvation.

This has bothered me a lot because I knew seahorses would be difficult, I researched them extensively and put a lot of effort into setting up their tank.

From what I have gathered there was once a decent captive-bred seahorse industry which has been basically eliminated by competition from low-cost net-pen breeding operations. These lower-priced wild caught seahorses are from what I have read destined to die within weeks to months of purchase.

No one is proud of their failures in this hobby but I thought I should post this so others can avoid my mistake.

I wouldn't think of this as your failure but failure on the vender's part for not supplying the animals you expected.

Scott

Thanks for sharing. I've considered seahorses on and off, and this will help me (and others) have more success, should I ever decide to actually pursue trying to keep them.

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Thanks for sharing your experience...

Is there any way you can find live shrimp to feed your remaining seahorse? Maybe grow your own?? There should be articles on seahorse.org telling you how to do that (but I know it's labour intensive, plus you need the right set-up, etc.)

I set up my first marine tank September 1st, and hope to one day have Canadian-bred seahorses in it. I have a cleaning crew in there now, and last week I bought a Royal Gramma, as I'm realizing now it's going to take awhile to find captive-bred seahorses... I'd hoped to have them by now, but it seems that private breeders are few and far between (especially for the breed I want). People keep asking "don't you have seahorses yet?", and I keep saying "no, this takes time to find the right ones..." Argh!

I feel bad that you have gone through this, and this has only re-affirmed why I won't be buying these from any LFS...Thanks again for sharing your experience, as painful as it is...

If ANYONE reading this thread knows where I can get Canadian bred seahorses (erectus or reidi), please let me know!

Lydia

Lydia, the point of my post was: I've had 30+ years of fishkeeping experience, bred various fish, done FW planted, have a reef tank thriving for 3-1/2 years, kept various difficult fish corals and inverts, then I went all-out to do a seahorse tank properly and they all died. In other words, don't do seahorses.

^ What he said!!!

Eeek!!! For the horses' sake...don't try to keep them until you've gained a lot of experience with easier marine fish.

I 've kept seahorses in the past for quite a few years at one time and experienced no difficulties other than normal. I had 2 pairs for 3 years at one point. I made sure they were captive bred but other than that nothing special. aside from a planted macro type tank no corals with no live rock except in sump. they did fine and do fine for many people. They are no the most hardy of marine animals to keep you are right, but there are marine fish far more delicate than these people keep with some success. The only problem now is deciding if what you have are WC or CB...which is very difficult. But i would say you have as much chance with CB seahorses as your avg. butterfly. I also personally know someone who setup a cadlights 34 gallon nano and has two seahorses in it, they have been living for 9 months now, he has had no experience with marine animals until he purchased the tank. Other than maturing the tank for 5 months before adding them he did nothin special ether. I know they are CB and i beleive they are Hippocampus reidi. But anyone who doesn't admit to luck being part of the game in captive marine ecosystems is fooling themselves...now as to who had the luck...well who knows me and him good luck and you bad...or the other way. They like anything should not be done without significant forethought and planning as well as a genuine interest in creating an ecosystem your pets can thrive in.

Captive-bred kuda's are pretty common. I've had some for well over a month, some for as much as four months.

Are they really captive-bred? I read on the seahorse boards that most captive breeding places are no longer in business, and most "captive-bred" seahorses are wild-caught, net-pen raised. Can you tell me the name and location of the breeder of your seahorses?

All I know is that they're from New Zealand.

I had them purchased through a transhipper.

Either way, they eat frozen PE Mysis, were doing so within 20 minutes of arrival and have been doing so for a while.

I doubt H Kuda in Canada is CB. Kuda in my city has the lowest price (around $49) comparing to other species, except those WC ones that only eat live food. In South East Asia, seahorse farmers raise large quantity of net-pen kuda. Those seahorses eat pods and shrimps in the ocean. After they reach a certain size, farmers feed them frozen food. A small numbers of them eat. Those are then sent to our aquarium as "tank raised seahorses". Those don't eat frozen food will starve to death and then sold to traditional chinese medicine stores. They are cheap because there is not actually any big cost for raising them. I have been trying very hard to breed seahorses. It is just very very "time-consuming" and "costly".

There was a well-known seahorse breeder "Drace Marine Aquaculture" in USA. The owner Jorge closed the business in Oct 2007. His business was actually making money. The reason why he closed that business is because he had no time for his family! After he closed the business, all other breeders ran out of their H Erectus since then.

Breeding seahorses in Canada is also costly. There is no LIVE brine shrimps or feeder shrimps suppliers in Canada. Seahorse juveniles have to eat live brine shrimp, amphipods, or feeder shrimps when they grow too big to take baby BS but not yet trained to take frozen food. I always have to order my BS from FL. The shipping is 3 times more expensive than the product itself! Also brine shrimp eggs are lot more expensive than those sold in USA. Due to this reason, there is hardly anyone breeding seahorses in Canada. Even they do, the CB seahorse is much more expensive than those bred and sold in USA.

wow intresting to know thanks for your posts!

I know a guy that has live foods in Vancouver for an affordable price I think he sells small pods and some bbs if anyone is intrested please shoot me a pm!

He let me try some for my reef and everything loved it!

Just curious why you wouldnt do something simple like raising your own brine shrimp and fortifying them with supplements, or buying live foods, many varities are available for sale by mail order. If you researched care requirements, you would know that they are finicky eaters and very often require live foods, or alot of time spent convincing them to eat frozen foods.Im not sure if this is the case.... but by your account, it seems as though you watched your seahorses slowly starve to death because they would not eat the "more" convenient food source???
My advice to everyone is, If you dont want to spend the time and money required to keep any marine life with specific and or finicky care requirements, dont purchase them. If you did research this species extensively like you say, did you just hope for a fairy tale ending? That the ones you recived would have no issues with eating frozen and or prepared foods??? I, and many others have had great success with seahorses, but you need to be prepared to put some effort into it, alot of effort!time!and money!

iam looking into seahorses and find this all vary interesting, i asked my LFS if they would be getting in any more seahorses, they had some black kudas last year for $50 i remember but they said they were never getting anymore seahorses sence the 4 they ordered all died and aparently all ate frozen food? but iam willing(and abel)to grow brine for them sence iam doing it now anyway(as soon as i cuture more phyto)to get some new manderins on frozen and i have selcon so i hope i wont have a problem with feeding, iam mainly worried about tempeture and disease,

more info for you
 

HI,

If you haven't seen seahorse.org yet, it's worthwhile checking out. You will find all the info you'll need for feeding (including raising live food), temperature, disease, tankmates, etc. It's a great board!!

Lydia