Whats the longest people have kept seahorses.

[megs_clark]

Im thinking of getting a couple seahorses. Before investing the money I was wondering what peoples Success rate was and how long they have kept them for? I would love to hear peoples personal feedback. good and bad

[sphelps]

I think the key to success is finding true captive bred horses. The ones you typically find in LFS are rarely truly captive, even though they are claimed to be they are actually bred in nets within the ocean or similar systems that mimic the ocean environment making them essentially the same as wild caught.

All the horses I kept were bred in labs in Australia and did exceptionally well in a typical reef tank environment. I had them for over a year and I'm sure I would still have them if I did not sell them due to moving. Unfortunately I don't know if the same supplier is still available, I've been told they are not.

[BlueWorldAquatic]

Our suppliers are bred in a tank enviroment.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...ahorses&page=3

we also are LOCALLY breeding them in Edmonton ourselves.

On average, they will last between 3-4 years

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by BlueWorldAquatic

Our suppliers are bred in a tank enviroment.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...ahorses&page=3

we also are LOCALLY breeding them in Edmonton ourselves.

On average, they will last between 3-4 years

Do you still bring in these ORA horses?

[freezetyle]

year and a half so far for me

[rayjay]

I believe the only true captive bred seahorses being brought into Western Canada are the ones from Aquamarine International. They are expanding their line to include more species now but it's not reflected on their website at this time.
In Eastern Canada, we are now getting H. erectus in and they are the highest quality seahorses coming to Canada that I've seen in the 10 years I've been into the seahorse hobby. These originate from seahorsecorral.com in Florida.
The Australian source is no longer open as Dr Mic Payne was unable to sell it and wanted to move on to other things.
I may be getting reidi from Ken as the source here appears to have stopped and I want to increase my herd of reidi and possibly comes.
Properly kept standard seahorses should have no problem living between 5 and 8 years but Dan Underwood of seahorse source has reported on at 10 yrs of age.
If you click on the "My Thoughts...." link in my signature, you go to the bottom and there are some links there to provide information you should know before getting into the hobby.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Several years back, before the CITES ban on w/c seahorses, I kept a black kuda male for well over 2 years.

[Lydia]

I bought 5 captive bred seahorses from a breeder in Vancouver in Sept 2008. I drove from Calgary to Vancouver to pick them up, saw his set up. The last one died in October, so I had her for 4 years. I am now looking for captive bred again, preferably closer than Vancouver! Anyone know any in Alberta?

[rayjay]

If they were ones originating from Aquamarine International, H. reidi, then at that time the quality was pretty good, but lately the quality has been poor and they have been sold too early to be sexed which decreases the odds of success as they are too young.
The H. erectus are the only other ones that are TRUE captive bred, other than the occasional hobbyist who has some for sale, coming into Canada at this time.
Sea U Marine is bringing in the erectus and they do ship. Unfortunately I would guess shipping costs would be extreme to get them out west.

[Lydia]

The ones I bought in Vancouver were erectus, and they were from a private breeder. He had at least a dozen tanks, and I think I found him on a thread on this board about 6 years ago. That was my first batch of seahorses ever, so I wanted to make sure they were truly captive bred and eating frozen (and coming from clean enough tanks). He had a batch born the day before we arrived, too - really neat to see Alas, he has since gotten out of the hobby/business.

Thanks for the info.