Cautionary note re: seahorses for anyone who is considering them

[albert_dao]

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.

[seahorsecanada]

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.

[tang daddy]

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!

Originally Posted by trilinearmipmap

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.
.

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!

[nanoreefer]

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,

[Lydia]

Originally Posted by nanoreefer

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,

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