JulieAnnx33
New member
if i purchase a black or brown seahorse, can it change to a yellow or orange color if given brightly colored hitching posts and live rock?
color change
- Thread starter JulieAnnx33
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It has the possible potential to. Although live rock typically doesn't help a great deal. All mine have turned black as I run a reef tank with lots of live rock and corals. And they don't show any interest towards turning even with the red/yellow seafan 
Honestly for colours, fake aquarium plants/corals are the way to go I reckon. I've got a long term goal to bring back the colours in my seahorses, but it's probably a long lost dream...
edit: Also depends on species btw, some are naturally more colourful than others, what have you got? And if you don't know post up a picture
Honestly for colours, fake aquarium plants/corals are the way to go I reckon. I've got a long term goal to bring back the colours in my seahorses, but it's probably a long lost dream...
edit: Also depends on species btw, some are naturally more colourful than others, what have you got? And if you don't know post up a picture
You can only try to influence the color of a seahorse by putting in colored hitches. In reality, it's up to each individual horse to be what color it wants. I have had seahorses for several years and have learned to look past their color to their personalities. Their personalities become the most important aspect to the point that you forget what color they are... they can be little characters...
JulieAnnx33
New member
i ended up purchasing 2 "estuary seahorses" they are a bright yellow when it is time for feeding and if i leave the light off for a long period of time. I love them and their personalities are so funny. you're right it doesn't matter what color they are their personalities are what counts.
jennifish120
New member
+1 about brightly colored hitching posts. I filled my SH tank with a lot of bright yellow/orange plants (fake) and I have a yellow female who has remained yellow and my male who was black, was starting to turn yellowish before he passed 
I've also heard that a bright blue background helps. Unfortunately, I found this out too late as I had already painted my background black.
I've also heard that a bright blue background helps. Unfortunately, I found this out too late as I had already painted my background black.
Allmost
New member
there are a couple of thoughts on this, and I have experimented with all haha
so personality and moode is the most important. I have 2 red ones, 2 yellow and 1 black !
the black female and yellow male mate all the time and when they do, the yellow make turns black ! when stressed they all turn white.
when they are EXTREMLY healthy, they can change color to match suroundings.
lastly and in my opinion most importantly, is the diet they are getting, I have read on seahorse web sites, that seahorses can not produce color pigments that easily like other fish can, and they need to have those in their diet ! at first when my horses colors faded, I started experimenting with different stuff, one of which was carrot juice cause of its high amount of Vit A and carotenoids. carotenoids are red/yellow color pigments, and mysis soaked in it helped my seahorses color up ! I have then experienced with V8 and carrot juice fed to brine shrimp , Selcon, and nutriplus which contains marine vegies which contain color pigments. I find this to be the most important.
when I stop enriching their food, their colors fade or get dark, and when I do enrich the food they get the original color back !
Vibrace which is sold by pcean riders works wonders, but I cant get my hands on them, so trying to figure a way to make it myself got the Idea of carrot from my little cousin turning red after I fed him too many carrots haha
hahaso personality and moode is the most important. I have 2 red ones, 2 yellow and 1 black !
the black female and yellow male mate all the time and when they do, the yellow make turns black ! when stressed they all turn white.
when they are EXTREMLY healthy, they can change color to match suroundings.
lastly and in my opinion most importantly, is the diet they are getting, I have read on seahorse web sites, that seahorses can not produce color pigments that easily like other fish can, and they need to have those in their diet ! at first when my horses colors faded, I started experimenting with different stuff, one of which was carrot juice cause of its high amount of Vit A and carotenoids. carotenoids are red/yellow color pigments, and mysis soaked in it helped my seahorses color up ! I have then experienced with V8 and carrot juice fed to brine shrimp , Selcon, and nutriplus which contains marine vegies which contain color pigments. I find this to be the most important.
when I stop enriching their food, their colors fade or get dark, and when I do enrich the food they get the original color back !
Vibrace which is sold by pcean riders works wonders, but I cant get my hands on them, so trying to figure a way to make it myself
got the Idea of carrot from my little cousin turning red after I fed him too many carrots haha
namxas
Things With Stings R Us!
rather than spending big bux on Vibrance, go to the health food store and buy some astaxanthin, a carotenoid powder, which is the purported color-enhancing ingredient in Vibrance. mix it with some beta glucan powder and you have the extra immuno-boosting ingredient in Vibrance II.
namxas
Things With Stings R Us!
we love the liquid beta glucan that Dan has...it's way easier to work with.
Allmost
New member
I have been told this !!! but couldnt find it
lolwould you happen to know what its called or what section it can be fond in or what it is used for ? thanks
do you have any new ways of enriching frozen foods ?
Allmost
New member
thanks Greg, I will try it again tonight, hopefully can find it lol
Allmost, you have chosen a task which will almost certainly prove to be fruitless unfortunately.
First off, whatever enrichment you use, very little will get taken up by the frozen food you are enrichening and almost all of whatever it has when it enters your tank water will be washed off.
When you are seeing changes that coincide with changes in your enrichment of food, it is highly improbable that it is a result of any enrichment attempt via frozen foods.
For best results you need to gut load a live food like mysids or brine shrimp, with brine shrimp being the cheapest and easiest by far.
That being said though, you cannot influence the colour of the seahorse by enrichments like astaxanthin (NatuRose). They are meant for colour enhancements, not to affect colour change.
At this time, there is NO documented method that can influence colour other than that of the seahorses choice itself.
While it is known that environment including colours of surroundings and possibly temperatures involved, I've seen nothing to indicate we can make the seahorse change to the colour we want, even to change it back to an original colour it came with. We CAN influence colour changes sometimes by altering colour of environment but at this point we can't control what colour/shade they change to. Usually we are most likely to be able to either darken or lighten the colour of the seahorses involved.
You made a statement in an earlier post in this thread, "when they are EXTREMLY healthy, they can change color to match suroundings" that I would like to see documentation on. As far as I know, they CAN change to match surroundings but it is not determinant on being extremely healthy.
Being extremely healthy doesn't mean they will change to the colour of their environment. Also, I don't know of anyone that has been able to get seahorses to change to a specific colour by placing them in surroundings of colours they want the seahorse to be. I have been experimenting in this area also.
First off, whatever enrichment you use, very little will get taken up by the frozen food you are enrichening and almost all of whatever it has when it enters your tank water will be washed off.
When you are seeing changes that coincide with changes in your enrichment of food, it is highly improbable that it is a result of any enrichment attempt via frozen foods.
For best results you need to gut load a live food like mysids or brine shrimp, with brine shrimp being the cheapest and easiest by far.
That being said though, you cannot influence the colour of the seahorse by enrichments like astaxanthin (NatuRose). They are meant for colour enhancements, not to affect colour change.
At this time, there is NO documented method that can influence colour other than that of the seahorses choice itself.
While it is known that environment including colours of surroundings and possibly temperatures involved, I've seen nothing to indicate we can make the seahorse change to the colour we want, even to change it back to an original colour it came with. We CAN influence colour changes sometimes by altering colour of environment but at this point we can't control what colour/shade they change to. Usually we are most likely to be able to either darken or lighten the colour of the seahorses involved.
You made a statement in an earlier post in this thread, "when they are EXTREMLY healthy, they can change color to match suroundings" that I would like to see documentation on. As far as I know, they CAN change to match surroundings but it is not determinant on being extremely healthy.
Being extremely healthy doesn't mean they will change to the colour of their environment. Also, I don't know of anyone that has been able to get seahorses to change to a specific colour by placing them in surroundings of colours they want the seahorse to be. I have been experimenting in this area also.
Allmost
New member
Ray, I completely understand but please dont be too literate on the words
every living organism likes and wants to be healthy and will function better when its healthy.
lets say u have 2 horses, one is fed BAD diet, one is fed GOOD diet enriched. they both decide to change color to red, who will turn red faster ? the healthier seahorse with better diet right ?
about enriching frozen food, I know I alot of it goto waste. or as I like to think they become food for corals and other creatures.
I sometimes soak and thaw frozen in different mixes, let it sit, and then rinse it with RO water and feed, so what ever is to be washed off is washed off by the rinse and I hope some would make it to the seahorse.
I really should start growing Brine shrimp :S I just cant find a nice guide on how much to feed them daily, my BB done change size in 2 weeks ! and seahorses dont recognize them as food
every living organism likes and wants to be healthy and will function better when its healthy.
lets say u have 2 horses, one is fed BAD diet, one is fed GOOD diet enriched. they both decide to change color to red, who will turn red faster ? the healthier seahorse with better diet right ?
about enriching frozen food, I know
I alot of it goto waste. or as I like to think they become food for corals and other creatures. I sometimes soak and thaw frozen in different mixes, let it sit, and then rinse it with RO water and feed, so what ever is to be washed off is washed off by the rinse and I hope some would make it to the seahorse
.I really should start growing Brine shrimp :S I just cant find a nice guide on how much to feed them daily, my BB done change size in 2 weeks ! and seahorses dont recognize them as food
Yes, but being healthy doesn't influence the colour that it will be other than it won't be showing it's stress colour that would be evident if it was extremely unhealthy.
I don't accept that.
and nuisance algae and bacteria, with bacteria possibly being raised to the level of dangerous to the seahorses.about enriching frozen food, I know
Obviously you can do what you want but to me, there won't be enough left to be of any value whatsoever.I sometimes soak and thaw frozen in different mixes, let it sit, and then rinse it with RO water and feed, so what ever is to be washed off is washed off by the rinse and I hope some would make it to the seahorse
You have to realize that the amounts of enrichment the seahorse need to affect any positive outcome for the seahorses is far greater than you can possibly do in that method.
Brine shrimp are available from time to time in the GTA by at least one of the Aquarium Services outlets and you could avail yourself of that.I really should start growing Brine shrimp :S I just cant find a nice guide on how much to feed them daily, my BB done change size in 2 weeks ! and seahorses dont recognize them as food
Once you buy them, enrich whatever portion you are going to feed each time with a suitable enrichment.
Selco products if not outdated can do some good but nowhere near as good as something like DAN'S FEED which has all you are wanting and more. And, Dan ships to us here in Canada with reasonable postal rates but it just takes a while to get here, but not normally more than 2 weeks.
As for growing out your own brine shrimp, you have to get them to almost adult before the seahorses are going to be bothered with them. At hobby growing of two weeks they are not large enough to attract the seahorses.
For feeding them, there isn't any exact quantities one can specify for you because so many things affect the amounts like size and number of brine, quantity of water, how many times a day you feed.
There are feeding quantities out there but they are for aquaculture companies that are doing it large scale.
For me, it was just experience that led me to where I am now with feeding. For feeding I use spirulina powder blended in water and added 3 times daily according to needs. I buy it from Brine Shrimp Direct in 1 pound packages/jars.
While you are unlikely to grow them on the scale I do, my brine page may help you in your quest to grow them.
Growing faster requires heating the cultures but I have too low of a yield due to bacterial problems at higher temps to I grow them as cool as I can but it takes seven to eight weeks to get full grown. You can use them before completely grown if the seahorses will accept slightly smaller artemia.
RAISING ARTEMIA TO ADULT
namxas
Things With Stings R Us!
i do agree that a SH will turn whatever color they want, generally regardless of environment, but sometimes i think they can be 'nudged', but not to the point where i'd say it makes a difference.
for instance, i've had bright yellow reidi that went very pale in a tank of light LR, but when i added green live macro, they went yellow again, but not green.
we have a barb that goes from dark to tan, and sometimes green with no changes to the tank.
our current reidi have been tan, dark, white, yellow, orange, and pink at will.
we've also had erectus that have been yellow, white, orange, tan, brown, and a really nice copper color.
what can i conclude? that ya never know what color a SH will turn.
like rayjay, my experiments with colored backgrounds and hitches did nothing to influence SH color.
just tossing out some anecdotal info...
for instance, i've had bright yellow reidi that went very pale in a tank of light LR, but when i added green live macro, they went yellow again, but not green.
we have a barb that goes from dark to tan, and sometimes green with no changes to the tank.
our current reidi have been tan, dark, white, yellow, orange, and pink at will.
we've also had erectus that have been yellow, white, orange, tan, brown, and a really nice copper color.
what can i conclude? that ya never know what color a SH will turn.
like rayjay, my experiments with colored backgrounds and hitches did nothing to influence SH color.
just tossing out some anecdotal info...
Allmost
New member
lol yea, I always get annoyed by the noise of air pump in my room after a week or so and dump them all lol
not meant to be for a 1 bedroom apartment. lol
for some reason, my seahorses look better when I enrich their frozen food. so I';m gonna continue doing so.
as you know, in seahorse facilities, they also RAISE temp while makign the background and hitching posts different color for seahorse to change color. so maybe the temp is the reason for back ground not making a change. I'm gonna make my background red soon, but not sure how it would look lol
not meant to be for a 1 bedroom apartment. lol
for some reason, my seahorses look better when I enrich their frozen food. so I';m gonna continue doing so.
as you know, in seahorse facilities, they also RAISE temp while makign the background and hitching posts different color for seahorse to change color. so maybe the temp is the reason for back ground not making a change. I'm gonna make my background red soon, but not sure how it would look lol
You would be doing your seahorses a big favour if you get live brine or mysid or small ghost shrimp or cherry shrimp and gut load them with Dan's Feed with Beta Glucan. It will be FAR better than what you are doing now.
No, I don't know of anyone that raises the temperature but some breeding facilities like Aquamarine International operate in hot climates so the temperatures are hot for that reason. Breeders like seahorsesource and seahorsecorral do not raise temperatures to get certain colours as far as I know.
I don't know what other facilities do for hitching and background but Aquamarine International, according to the owner Yohan, says that all he does is makes sure there are no browns and blacks in the tanks. His temperature is in the 80's but because of his sophisticated systems he is able to do so, unlike our small bacteria laden tanks.
I have 6 of the AI reidi's that were red and orange with one lemon yellow and they have turned yellowish to brownish red with the lemon yellow remaining lemon yellow.
The tank bottom is bare bottom and painted orange red, and all the decor is predominately orange red and I added an orange red painted background.
This pic was before I added the painted background.
