<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9395512#post9395512 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Bemmer
Seriously, were are you guys coming up with the 74-75F temps. From what I have read, I can keep seahorses at temps between 75-77F and they will be fine. Do I really have to go down to 74-75F?
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9395654#post9395654 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Fredfish
It is from personal experience of a wide range of seahorse keepers.
It is also well documented scientifically.
Many pathologists, microbiologoists and marine biologists conduct studies on the growth rate of particular strains of bacteria in regards to temperature as well as salinity and pH.
There is a pathologist Dr. Belli who is also a seahorse enthusiast who has spent years performing necropsies on a number of seahorses (the published notes were of 40 hobbyist horses, but the number of necropsies in his data is much higher now) and documenting the strains of bacteria that are most common to affect them. His preliminary notes were published in a book called "Working Notes", although day to day updates on his work are available with a paid membership to another site. He was the featured seahorse speaker at IMAC a couple years ago.
After cataloging the species of vibrio most common to affect seahorses Dr.Belli grew cultures of the different strains under different temperatures and found that the bacterias most common to cause illness to seahorses grow significantly slower and are much less aggresive at temperatures lower then 74F.
While the data in direct relation to seahorses is not published in any scientfic journal I know of, there are several publications that are bacteria strain specific to back up these findings with authors who are pathologists, microbiologists, and marine biologists. Since the data exsists, is published, and not disputed that these bacteria's grow at exponential rates and are far more virtulent even altering there make up and the proteins they release at higher temperatures, it is not a stretch IMO to then deduce, the same bacteria would not preform differently in there affects on seahorses that then they do with every other species they have ever been studied with. JMO.
While the collective info shows that there is a definite risk when keeping tropical seahorses at higher temperatures, it is not scientific research with controlled experiments and lots of replicates.
True, and it probably never will be. Seahorses aren't a food fish so the money is just not there to fund the research. The money to research seahorses is wisely being spent else where to save them and not being spent to kill them, there is no purpose there IMO. However we do know how the bacteria behave at varying temperatures, pH, and salinity from scientific research, and how the bacteria affects other organisms (including much research on the affects of vibrio on bi valves, tuna, shrimp, copepods, and humans). This information has been published thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands is more appropriate) of times in numerous scientific journals.
HTH
