Barbouri Seahorses Harder to Find?

[bluekoi]

Hello again,
Back when I got my first two seahorses, the guy at the LFS said they were both kudas. I've always doubted that because "yellow girl"'s sides were not smooth like the pictures of the kudas I've seen. I ended up sending a picture to Dan U for verification and he said she's Barbouri. To me, it seems they are harder to find available than Kuda and Erectus. Is that so? Are they harder to breed or have fewer fry? Or it could just be that I look at the sites when none are available.....
Because I was told she was Kuda, I had bought more Kuda for her tankmates, which hasn't been terribly successful. She still has one Kuda tankmate, but the Kuda girl hasn't flourished/grown as much as I'd hoped. So, going forward I don't want to mix the species.
thx!

 

[rayjay]

Well, they definitely do have very small numbers at birth compared to most standards we have at about 8 to 10 times as many and even more.
However, it may have more to do with the fact the breeding stock is not as available to us here in North America as they are not found in any waters close to us.

 

[TamiW]

I've seen mix-ups occur with the tank raised seahorses from asia. I'm not sure how it happens; if wild caught ones slip through the cracks or if they are getting some other species from breeders and they get mixed up at the distributors. I know that there are a few places that breed species we don't commonly see (And I WISH they'd send them here on purpose!).

You may want to try South Watch Seahorse if you can't get them from Seahorse Source - I know at least one person got them from there.

 

[bluekoi]

cool, I will contact them.