Anyone have WC Seahorse?

[littlegym]

I have been caring for 3 beautiful and very healthy WC Seahorses for over a month. They are all a little over 6" My first thought was H. Errectus but dont think so. I got them from a local fish store. They were not providing live food and figured they would learn to eat frozen on their own if they got hungry enough. NOT They are considered Black Giant SH. One is a Beautiful yellow never changed colors female. The other female is black and loves to explore. The Big Beautiful male is Grey with white to black spots also never darkens or changes coloring much. They all LOVE to hunt for their food.
Downside is due to my location its costing me a fortune for live food... Does anyone else here have WC Seahorses that they care for? If so any advice with some easier methods of food? I've tried the garlic extreme, didnt work they know if its frozen or live. They do go runing to the food bowl but the live food quickly swims out and they go ahunting. Possibly someone may be interested in caring for them better (easier) than I could. I wouldnt want to "sell" them just cost of shipping. I can post pics if needed. May help determine age ect. Thanks for any help you can offer

 

[ann83]

If you post pictures, we can help you identify species, and maybe that could help with advice offered or with finding someone who can care for them.

I know pledosophy had a WC Reidi for several years, but from what I remember, he never took to frozen foods.

There is a forum dedicated to WC seahorses here http://forum.seahorse.org/index.php?act=SF&f=32&st=0&changefilters=1 with several threads on different methods of training WC seahorses to frozen. Definately check out the pinned threads, if I remember correctly, they both deal with training to frozen as well.

 

[dexterd]

Where in OK do you live? They might be ingens with the color and spots. Are they long and slender? pics would help. I have had good luck getting wc to eat when they have horses that eat dead with them. Depends on age of fish and what they have been fed.
Teresa

 

[littlegym]

Dextred, I have looked for you on COMAS lol April told me about you. They are not Engens. I have pics posted on SH.org. Sorry if I'm not supppose to say that here. They are in the split from Engens discussion.

They are still not eating frozen, I have tried everything. Now hatching brine shrimp will feed babies, trying to purchase white marine shrimp and they are eating ghost shrimp. Iwill also enrich the larger brne shrimp.

They are H. Errectus as I had thought and I have new ones coming form Draco his last stock in a few days. Hopefully after quarantine they will help teach the others to eat frozen....sigh Keeping my fingers crossed.

Will you be at CRASE? Would love to meet and talk with you.

 

[littlegym]

Oh and I live in Woodward.

 

[ann83]

littlegym,
I would caution you against mixing your WC erectus with the CB erectus from Jorge until you do a thorough reading of the threads about mixing seahorses. Mixing WC with CB can cause the death of some or all of the seahorses. Usually what happens is either all of the WC die or all of the CB die, or both groups die. This is because the WC have been exposed to one set of bacterial strains and built up a resistance to them, and the CB have been exposed to a different set of strains and built up resisitance to them instead. When mixed, the WC are not exposed to the strains the CB are carrying (asymptomatically) and the CB are suddenly exposed to the strains that the WC are carrying (asymptomatically) and one or both become sick or die. Remember in history class when you learned about the Europeans bringing disease to the Americas and wiping out the natives because the natives had no immunity. Or, for a more recent example, it is the same reason why you would get sick drinking the water in Mexico, but Mexicans do not.
The disease issues are compounded by the fact that many WC seahorses also carry parasites. If you are going to try this, it would go a long way for you to de-worm your WC seahorses in a QT tank, have a long QT for the CB seahorses and get them feeding well and nice and fat, and then start slowly introducing water from each QT tank to the other to gradually introduce them to the bacterial strains. And do not QT the CB in a tank that the WC have previously been in.
There are lots of threads on here and on sh.org about it, so please read up first, and there are also de-worming instructions in the WC seahorse forum on sh.org in several different places.