a pair of h. eructus into my LPS BC29?

N

nbsdsailor

New member
I have been keeping marine fish and corals for over 2 years now, and I feel that I have a good handle on the hobby. My LFS sells captive bred 3-4" h. erectus and h. kuda and they have sparked a new interest for me in the hobby. The tank that I am thinking of putting them in is a 29G bio cube that I modified to be rimless and it doesn't have any cover over it (problem? seahorses don't jump, right?). It has a 150w MH and with led lighting over it. I have acans, chalices, zoas, a meteor shower, ricordeas, a toadstool leather and 2 lobos in the tank atm. I will put a large colt leather into the middle of the tank for them to hitch to. This tank has been set up for over 2 years and I change the water weekly, religiously, 5g at a time. There is 1 purple firefish, 1 green mandarine (2 years old and fat!) and an engineer goby. I would put the engineer goby into my 75g sps tank because I fear he would out compete the seahorses for food. Would the firefish and the mandarine be ok? I keep this tank at a steady 74 degrees, too hot for them? I don't want to go any cooler than this because of the coral. For flow I have an mp10 set at about half power on lagoon mode. I already feed the tank mysis soaked with selcone and bloodworms. Do you guys think this tank would be a good fit for a pair of h. erectus or h. kuda? which one of the two species would you recommend?
 
First thing I would recommend is to find out who the breeder of these seahorses is, because there are FEW truly captive bred seahorses sold in LFS's, even though there are many claims that they are.
If they are true captive bred then the store will not hesitate to tell you that info.
You will have to make the decision on whether or not to put seahorses into this system because while occasionally it can work, most times it does not.
For the best chances of success in keeping seahorses it is recommended to keep a seahorse species only tank and at temperature range of 68° to 74° F.
You can find a lot of start up advice from the links at the bottom of "MY THOUGHTS ON SEAHORSE KEEPING" page.
 
MOST wholesalers don't buy their SH from what I consider to be "reputable" breeders. Instead, they buy SH that have been raised in net pens in the ocean in SE Asia or Sri Lanka as opposed to TRUE CB specimens that have been bred here in the US.

Most LFS that I know of work on about 300% markup for their livestock, so SH from breeders would command a price of around $180 each as opposed to about $30 for "TR" SH. IMHO, it's best to cut out the middle man and get your SH directly from a breeder of hobbyist/breeder, as the cost of ownership of these cheap SH goes way up considering the necessity of prophylactically treating them for parasites as well as their general poor quality.

To the OP:

If that PH you're running doesn't have a guard on it, you'll need one.

The mandarin and the SH will be in direct competition for food, so unless your mandy is on prepared foods, adding a pair of SH will definitely upset the balance of things.

HTH
 
I think there are more "ORA" seahorses sold in LFSs than ORA puts out their doors. It sure helps the sales to claim that source but makes it hard on the true sales of ORA when the bad ones fail at a much higher rate.
Any TRUE captive bred seahorse sold through wholesale is still easily found out, as in Aquamarine International reidis.
I don't know of any other true captive bred being sold through wholesalers at this time.
The remainder are tank raised, not to be confused with true captive bred, but again, many LFSs tell their customers that they are true captive bred.
Tank raised have a lower success rate and should be put through a 3 treatment 9 week protocol for deworming, same as wildcaught.
 
namxas said:
MOST wholesalers don't buy their SH from what I consider to be "reputable" breeders. Instead, they buy SH that have been raised in net pens in the ocean in SE Asia or Sri Lanka as opposed to TRUE CB specimens that have been bred here in the US.
Click to expand...

Are erectus really imported from SE Asia for sale in the US as pets?
 
rayjay said:
Any TRUE captive bred seahorse sold through wholesale is still easily found out, as in Aquamarine International reidis.
I don't know of any other true captive bred being sold through wholesalers at this time.
Click to expand...


Fair enough. No reason to claim your selling CB reidi unless they really are because WC reidi demand a higher price.

I assure you that there are true captive born seahorse being sold in the US through wholesalers. :D

To the OP: I have some ORA horses that are very nice and healthy. They are current in a tank with my horses from Dan.
 
wdt2000 said:
Fair enough. No reason to claim your selling CB reidi unless they really are because WC reidi demand a higher price.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure where you find this because all reports I see of wild caught, they are sold much cheaper.

I assure you that there are true captive born seahorse being sold in the US through wholesalers.
Click to expand...
There sure aren't many true captive bred seahorses being bred in the US and sold through wholesalers as I've been trying to get stores supplied from wholesalers in the US and have been unable to find any.
The ones I've found all use ocean water that has not been treated and filtered sufficiently to meet true captive bred designation as accepted by the hobby today. As such, the only advantage they have over wild caught is that they have been trained to eat frozen foods.
Please let me know of breeders of true captive bred that are selling to whole sale companies so we can have them shipped here.
 
First off, I don't have anything good to say about any company like bluezoo that says seahorses are reef compatible.
Possibly one in a thousand may survive in a reef tank or similar conditions.
On the link you provided as WC150, I see nothing stating that they are wild caught but maybe I have tunnel vision just now.
Anyway, check the org and you will find others experiencing WC prices lower than tank raised and lower than true captive bred. In the seahorse hobby, tank raised is not considered to be captive bred.
Here in Canada we hardly ever see wild caught any more as the tank raised imports are now so cheap it doesn't pay to bring in the wild caught.
Good LFSs though still insist upon true captive bred which are higher priced due to higher cost of treating and filtering the water they are raised in.
 
http://swempire.com/resources.php

Here is my LFS. Scroll down to seahorse section. I know it isn't saying much, but I have known the owner for a while and I trust him. He also orders CB and aquacultured fish and corals from ORA all the time, he knows the ORA guys. A pair of approx 4" eructus are $120. What online breeder would you suggest?
 
Considering the fact that SH Source, ONLY does SH, that's a pretty good recommendation in itself. Also, I've known Dan (DanU) for several years, and he really does "do it right".

For H. erectus, Beth (Peka) usually has really pretty stock. I think she may be doing reidi as well, but I dunno what her yields have been.

I'd get my SH from either of these sources...great stock and SUPER folks.
 
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