How much should Seahorses eat?

SINNERMF

SINNERMF

New member
My mom has had a large Seahorse for a few months now, and so far he is only eating live Ghost Shrimp and Guppies. If you give him the chance he will eat 12 Guppies a day!! She feeds him a couple Ghost Shrimp or Guppies a day. Is there a way to maybe switch him to frozen?? Please let me know.
Thanks,
Mike
 
i'm sure it would be hard to get him to switch, i had to soak my frsh and dead stuff in the same solution to get them to switch over when i bought one from an LFS
 
they should eat atlest twice a day some say three... which is better ... seahorse don't have stomachs so they don't store food. i would try soaking your ghost shrimp in selcon feed it for a few days that way. then slowly add less ghost shrimp and more frozen mysis (continue soaking both).
 
Many questions..Tank size? How long has the tank been established or set up? Seahorses only in the tank? Where did the horse come from, Marine dealer or Seahorse farm?
Do you know what kind of seahorse? Has Mom offered the horse thawed frozen mysis shrimp?
She should not feed the horse guppies, in my opinion. It is not a proper food and will not help to move the horse to frozen foods. If it will eat ghost shrimp now, then stick to that.
Weaning a seahorse to frozen food is never a sure thing, but it can be done.

Is there a good grass bed and live rock in the tank?
 
IME a single adult reidi would eat 6 to 8 live ghost shrimp a day.

Training to frozen can be diffucult.

Try moving the horse to a bear bottom with no LR and only mechanical filtration. Feed live ghosts, then injured ghosts, then freshly dead ghosts blown around with a turkey bster. From there you can try fully thawed mysis lso, being blown around with a baster. This process can take a few weeks.

IME it is not necessary to gut load the fresh water ghosts. JME.
 
pledosophy, can you please call my horses and tell them 6 to 8 ghost shrimps a day is enough, LOL

they are pigs eat more than that and snack all day

why do I keep spoiling this little pigs :)

oh yeah I like them

SINNERMF I never try guppies, but if the horse is healthy....

Poniegirl, I did not know there was proper food LOL,
I see it as junk food, maybe not good, but we all like it :)

Jose
 
Jose [/B][/QUOTE] I see it as junk food, maybe not good, but we all like it :)

SO, right, Jose, and if we want our children to eat "proper" food, we have to train them right!
 
On the guppies, I came across a paper from a researcher breeding bangais a few months back. He was feeding his brood stock guppy fry as part of the conditioning for breeding. In the paper he stated that they have a good nutritional profile, but gave no details.

Food for thought (if only a small snack) :D

Fred
 
Fred I think you may read more scientific articles than I do, you always have a literature reference. :) Part of the reason your input here is so valuable.

>Sarah
 
Too funny Sarah! Your the scientist! :lol:

I suspect you read a lot more scientific litterature than I do, just not on fishy stuff.

Fred
 
Sarah and Fred, since we are in the reading portion of this post :)I read somewhere that feeding fresh water food such as guppies and FW ghost shrimp did not give SW fish the nutrients they need, something to the fact that FW lack the same amount of fats that SW fish have..blah blah blah

your thoughts please

thanks

Jose
 
I do not like to give my horses freshwater foods. I do use mysis when I'm stuck, but I am lucky enough to have an endless source of marine ghost shrimp, as well as amphipods up to a 1/2 inch long and juvenile marine shinners in the spring.

If one breeds guppies for use as seahorse food and they are given a high quality marine flake, wouldn't that make them more suitable
 
ahhh it must be nice living close to the sea ahhh

ok so, I am not so lucky, and I also feed about 1000 SW ghost shrimp to my horses, but I been doing some reading( ok so I was looking at the pics. :) ) and there seem to be a connection beetween unexplained deaths of CB horses and SW Ghost shrimp, this applies to CB horses not WC.

Jose
 
I would assume it may be parasites or disease they have not been expossed to from being in a closed system or it may be possible that some shrimp or the outer shell get stuck in the throat.
 
I acually keep them contained in eelgrass outdoors for most of the summer. Bring them back in for fall. The size put on by constant natural food is amazing. So it would be the same thing as wild caught. They adapt in and out with no trouble at all.
 
Plastic mesh tied on galvinized fence piping to form a pen. bricks sandwiched netting on bottom. It does take an occational beating. Also have a 4' x 4' x 4' mesh pen and pvc pipe that is tied to the dock that is completly grown over and full of pods and shrimp
 
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