1" feeder fish for seahorses?

[gnasher]

I saw 1" saltwater feeder fish for sale online today and they were advertised as being attractive to seahorses. I don't know much about seahorses, but that sounded a bit large to me. Does anyone know if this is reasonable?

 

[st0ned0g]

The do eat fish larva, but that is not very practical in a tank. I would think Ponies move to slow to eat full grown fish.

 

[pledosophy]

Depends on the seahorse and the fish I suppose. I tried feeding salt water mollies but just ended up with a ton of mollies.

 

[flsvedlund]

I doubt a seahorse would go after live fish that large. Way too big and too fast. If you want to feed live food, I would recommend some live brine (preferably gut loaded) or maybe some small ghost shrimp.

 

[btreyes]

Some of my big seahorses will eat small guppies, but a lot of them won't even try.

 

[Don Quixote]

Guppies and feeder fish are terrible for seahorses, they have a poor nutrition profile and are outside their natural diet. They would need to be enriched and I don't know how well that would go. As a small snack they might not bad, but as a stapel they're worse than poor.
Regards,
The Don

 

[btreyes]

I always gut load mine with fancy flake food that have a bunch of carotenoids.

 

[rayjay]

Unfortunately carotenoids aren't what the seahorses need. Fresh water fish do not have the proper fatty acid profile needed for marine fish.
Too much of this deficient food and you end up with diseased fish that have a severely shortened life span.
I just tried to find an archive for a piece by Dr Ron Shimek from way back when times, but haven't been successful.
It wasn't about seahorses, but marine fish in general.
Maybe someone else has the right link.

 

[btreyes]

I give it to mine to help them stay bright orange colors, normally I just use ghost shrimp gut-loaded with flakes instead of guppies. I think food and nutrient diversity is very important and I'm sure seahorses would eat small baby fry in the seagrass beds too. I remember reading one paper hypothesizing that seahorses could not produce their own carotenoids and had to rely on their diet to supplement it, which is why I supplement for color.

 

[knap_123]

Skeeter larva for a fun treat

 

[rayjay]

I'm sure seahorses would eat small baby fry in the seagrass beds too.

The difference is in the fact any small baby fry in the seagrass beds or any place in their natural habitat, would be marine fry and therefore have the same fatty acid profiles as the seahorses.
Guppie fry aren't found in their natural habitat and DON'T have the proper fatty acid profile.
Same problem exists with long term feeding of goldfish to lionfish.
The BEST enrichment you could use for any live foods being fed to your seahorses is Dan's Feed from seahorsesource.com.

 

[btreyes]

Wow, you really are living up to your forum reputation.

 

[pledosophy]

Unfortunately carotenoids aren't what the seahorses need. Fresh water fish do not have the proper fatty acid profile needed for marine fish.
Too much of this deficient food and you end up with diseased fish that have a severely shortened life span.

IME I fed a WC Reidi live fresh water ghost shrimp exclusively, and that seahorse lived to be approximately 8 years. The seahorse had no health issues to speak of until it seemed to go blind.

I don't really eat what I am supposed to, and I am in descent health. I think the same can go to an extent for fish. Sometimes to much book knowledge can lead us astray IMHO.

 

[rayjay]

It may be because freshwater shrimp are similar to salt water versions as nutrient profile goes, while the same can't be said for fish.
Back in the day when this was a big topic, that was mentioned but I don't remember by who.
If it was Shimek that would give it some credibility but I still haven't been able to find the information that used to be here.