AN UPDATE Sept 10 2004 : My seahorses

[DOO-E]

Wow thanks i think i might convert my 25 gallon i have sitting around into a seahorse tank but i will wait until i get more experience.

[ltay]

Just an update that all the seahorses are now trained to eat mysis and particularly one of the yellow ones will follow my tong all over and nipping at the tip of it trying to get a message across that he wants some more.

[Ken]

It is such an inspiration to read that you are able to keep seahorses. This is such a great example of dedication in keeping animals that are difficult to rear. With such success as you have, it would inspire me to one day set up an aquarium for these delicate creatures. Regards Ken

[ltay]

Update : All the four adult seahorses now would follow my tong with the thawed mysis and they are making a competition there to fight over the tong... weird. Two of them, the red and yellow one would curl up the tong and hitch hiked everytime..... the yellow one still follows my tong like an obedient dog even with the tong has no mysis.
Seeing it is believing.. wonder anyone interested to have a peek at my tank in action (bring some free caulerpa if you want to get rid off.. My tang has depleted them) I can't believe it myself. I wonder if only these particular species would be so easily trained.

As for the two black kudas, they are hard to train and only eat cyclopees and brines.

I have a baby red seahorse, still need to train her. She eats whatever small that is crawling in the tank. I believe the refugium helps..

[Beverly]

Itay,

Sounds like you spend a great amount of time daily with your seahorses. Glad to hear that you are so dedicated I'm glad you posted your update to share with us your success.

I have a question for you - how much time do you spend on a daily basis feeding and caring for your seahorses? I ask so that people thinking how cool it will be to their own will understand all the work they require. Knowing the details of your daily care regime might help people decide if SH keeping is for them or not.

[ltay]

Hello Bev

After work at 4:30pm , reach home 4:35pm. I work close to office... lucky.

5pm-5:30pm: Water the large rooftop garden and the kitchen deck garden. Lots of flowers blooming now....
Feeding seahorse daily : around 2 hours or so... I did enjoy looking at the those beauties during the feeding sessions. Waited until 8pm-8:30pm, another round of final feeding before light goes off at 9:30 pm.
During this hour, I also need to care for the 175 g tank and the refugium.

Easy Preparation:Quick rinse in clean seawater to remove soaking solution of selcon and vitamins. The mysis would have already been soaked right through with selcon+vit during the previous night before sleep. This way, I would prevent too much excess organics introduce into the water. I noticed if I do this, the water quality is better.

Mysis are dropped into tank or using tong -one by one (to doggie train them) or into the feeding station at the last serving to see the frenzy. They all now love to gather around the feeding station the moment I am near. Cute.

Larry.

[Beverly]

Larry,

Yup, that sounds like the amount of work I put into my SHs At first I didn't mind the special care they needed, but after several months, it wore thin for me I hope you are able to sustain your interest over the long term

[DOO-E]

Ya know everytime i look at those picture i am amazed of the amount of technology change the marine hobby as has had. Back when it first started people could bairly keep clowns alive for 3 weeks. Now look at us we are breeding clowns successfuly, keeping seahhorses and SPS corals wow. Round of aplause

[ltay]

I NEED HELP/ADVICE. My two male seahorses are so pregnant. I witness the mating ritual.
The 1st batch two weeks ago all died. Got up too late in the weekend morning and left only a few in the tank. I have just bought a breeder tank (acrylic) to put into the seahorse tank to share with the same water now and to await for the 2nd wave of babies. Anytime now..this week.

Larry.

[Beverly]

Two places that are dedicated to SHs:

http://www.syngnathid.org/

http://www.seahorse.org

Each has a forum for rearing fry. Good luck!

Oh, and depending on what species you have, you will have to either get a brine shrimp hatchery going or a rotifer set up going. The larger the SH, the smaller the fry and the smaller the fry food. I can't tell what species you have, but if they are H. kuda or similaryly sized SHs, you will need rotifers for the first 1-3 weeks. After that, they will need newly hatched bs for a few weeks.