Seahorse feeding

[tHeHEYzeus]

Will seahorses eat live rotifers?

[Madreefer]

Originally Posted by tHeHEYzeus

Will seahorses eat live rotifers?

I beleive only the fry that are big enough to eat them. Mine would only eat mysis shrimp. Lots of experts on seahorses that will chime in so don't take my word for it.

[fsjman]

most like baby brine shrimp.1-2 day old with the egg sack still attached is the best . rotifers are small enough for them to eat so I dont see why not they are pretty hard to get them to eat any frozen foods but no impossible .I have dwarf seahorses and they will only eat the brine

[viperfish]

Baby brine shrimp is too small for the larger species. I have Reidi Seahorses and the love PE Mysis.

[Triggz]

Most captive bred seahorses should take to a frozen food. I was feeding my reidi's hikari mysis shrip as I found PE was a little to large for them and would cause them to choke on it sometimes. However, Hikari frozen foods are not easy to find anymore. PE is supposed to be coming out with a smaller size Of mysis sometime soon. You might also want to consider soaking your food in selcon. They would benefit from the extra vitamins and amino acids.

Hope this helps.

[rayjay]

As mentioned, bbs are not suitable for normal seahorses but work for fry of benthic seahorses like erectus or barbouri and as the second for for pelagic fry like reidi, with rotifers being best choice of pelagic fry first food.
ALL LIVE FOOD should be enriched first of all as even the fatty acid laden egg sack of the newborn nauplii doesn't provide a proper DHA nutrient profile which is necessary for long term survival.
Rotifers can be enriched in two to eight hours, the same as adult brine shrimp, with the longer time necessary for proper DHA levels of enrichment.
Newborn brine shrimp cannot be enriched until they molt to the second instar stage where they develop a mouth and anus so after a day to hatch out, put them in an enrichment container, allowing a day for all to develop to instar II and then add the enrichment.
Enrichment of newborn is a long process as it takes two 12 hour sessions with new water and new enrichment for the second 12 hour stage.
The best enrichment available now is sourced at seahorsesource.com and can be found under enrichment in the food section.
It is called Dan' Feed with Beta Glucan.
For those with Dwarfs, Dan Underwood of seahorsesource has found better longevity and survival rates with better reproduction when all live bbs are ongrown and enriched before feeding to the dwarfs.
Even copepods that some use as an additional feed will be better nutrition wise after enrichment but it's uncertain at this time just what length of time is best for the various species of copepods.