Hi RayJay. Thanks for the article. I haven't got to read all of it yet but read much of it. Excited to study the rotifer section in greater depth later as well. Thanks.
Check this article out
http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles/SeahorseFoods.php
Brine shrimp and freshly hatched brine shrimp are used in both aquaculture facilities, mariculture facilities and by home breeder to feed seahorse fry. For many species of seahorse bbs is the first introductory food. The bbs being less then 4 hours old so it is small enough to fit into the small mouths of some species of fry, and it still holds the protein from it egg sac. Other species need rotifers.
Fry are moved on to enriched brine shrimp and then on to larger foods.
This is used for the practices of raising seahorse fry to adulthood. Once there juvies it's time for them to eat big kid food. Human fry can live off of breast milk alone, but you don't see many teenagers keeping that diet right?
Gut loaded brine is often recommended on different boards for feeding fry, feeding sick seahorse in order to give a medication or introduce a smaller food, or as a first food to a WC seahorse who cannot take live mysis due to snout snize.
I have not seen it recommended in some years as a daily food for adult seahorses. 5 years ago yes, but not anymore. If you want to enrich the brine so they have some nutritional value then it is a source of nutrition, but IME the people who have the best luck at keeping seahorses longterm feed larger crusteceans such as mysis, or even fresh water ghost shrimp. A few years ago the average lifespan of a seahorse in captivity was 1 to 2 years, we now have people that are 5 years plus regularly, IMO a better understanding of nutrition plays a role here, as well as a few other factors.
IMO there are other issues at play with feeding adult brine also, mainly introduction of disease, but that's a different debate really.
BTW I don't enrich my foods. I am stuck feeding live but have found that live unenriched ghost shrimp is a fine diet for a seahorse. There was a time period or two when I added beta glucan. I did try vibrance for a bit, but noticed no difference from the vibrance IME.