Killer reidi

[agood69er4u]

we just added 4 more reidi from ORA and they are killing all the crabs in the tank. They will go into to staelth mode over the crabs and as soon as the crab comes out of it's shell " snick " and it's gone. Our orginal 3 reidi are responsible for eating a twin spot goby... has any 1 else ever had this happen???

 

[Susied]

I've never heard of that happening....did you see the eat it? They are predators when they see what they like but in general they don't even go after their fry which shows they are pretty discerning. Very unusual.

 

[Poniegirl]

What are you feeding the seahorses as a staple food, and how often?

 

[Samala]

They ate a twin spot goby??? I have never heard of a typical SH species eating anything so large.

>Sarah

 

[Fredfish]

From: Natural diet of the seahorse Hippocampus abdominalis
CHRIS M. C. WOODS
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Limited

"Although also consumed, prey items such as copepods, tanaids, isopods (e.g., Cymodocella sp.), euphausids, polychaetes, and teleosts were only minor dietary items in terms of percent volume and frequency of occurrence."

Seahorses do eat other things than shrimp occasionally including fish, though I would imagine only fry that wandered a little too close.

I have not small fish or hermits in my system so I have no personal experience.

Fred

 

[Samala]

Interesting Fred. Only caveat, to be picky, is that the reference is for one of the largest species.. potbellies.. while this guy has H. reidi.

It still seems a crazily huge item for them, but I'll admit it could be possible. My dwarfs have eaten worms and other previously inedible items in my presence.

>Sarah

 

[Fredfish]

It is only one study and not reidi, so I agree. It also states that these foods are minor dietary items.

There is a similar study on reidi, but I could only get the abstract.

Fred

 

[pledosophy]

Where you finding the articles Fred?

IME some molly fry at birth are too large for reidi. I find it hard to see seahorses eating a twinspot unless it was fry. i kept twinspots with my reidi for 3 years. Never a worry, and mine were WC's.

 

[Fredfish]

Search and ye shall find. Although I never seem to find what I am looking for at the time, all sorts of interesting things, including the paper above, pop up.

Fred

 

[rayjay]

Yeah, I know what you mean.
When I do a search, I end up many times spending an hour or so reading material other than the topic I'm searching for, and, my book mark list grows exponentially to the point I probably won't live long enough to read all the book marks I have now, let alone ones I add in the future.
Oh well, maybe, if I retire.........................?

 

[sloshesv]

If it's true, I would loooooove to see it. That's one bad asp snick!

 

[Fredfish]

I know what you mean Rayjay. Over the years I have managed to stop myself from reading too much other stuff while searching, but there is always at least one interesting article to investigate.

I have started saving abstracts and titles on my computer in case I want to read further. A lot of times the abstract is enough.

I've gotta visit you sometime and see your setup. I get down to London a lot to visit family.

Fred

 

[rayjay]

Well, you would be disappointed if you were here. No fancy tanks, tanks that don't get cleaned often enough, and one heck of a mess all over the basement.
I'm one of those people that drop whatever, wherever I finish with it.
I don't like to throw anything out in case I might need it some time. (like maybe 20 yrs from now)
The only point of interest to most people is the brine shrimp room

 

[sloshesv]

If you had a SH that could suck a hermit out of it's shell, I bet he'd be impressed.

 

[sloshesv]

I fed my kudas some molly/guppies of various sizes. It's highly entertaining seeing what they're able to score. And my leaf fish likes the snick-stunned ones that dive bomb him. Good times.

 

[rayjay]

Feeding fresh water live fish to marine creatures is not recommended.
I believe it's because of the type of fat in them can't be handled by the marine fish and it shortens the live of that marine fish.
I wish I could find the link to the comment by Frank Marini but so far I have no print to back up my thoughts.

 

[Fredfish]

I think its the fishy equivelant of eating fried high fat food every night. Too many saturated fats, not enough long chain fatty acids (epa/dha...)

Apparently krill are quite high in huffas, but have reasonable overall fat levels. I am going to give them a try. Maybe my horses will turn out to be killer fuscus and rip those krull to shreds.

Fred

 

[rayjay]

I keep trying krill and have been for about 10 months now, but they never eat them and I have to siphon them out each time.

 

[Fredfish]

Hmm. Some folks on seahores.org have had some success. I will try mixing them in with the mysis and see what happens.

Fred

 

[pledosophy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8622748#post8622748 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rayjay
Feeding fresh water live fish to marine creatures is not recommended.
I believe it's because of the type of fat in them can't be handled by the marine fish and it shortens the live of that marine fish.
I wish I could find the link to the comment by Frank Marini but so far I have no print to back up my thoughts.

I would love to see a link. I fed fresh water ghosts to a WC seahorse for 5.5 years until he died. He was an 8" adult on purchase so he was min of 7 when he died. I think the nutrition from the ghosts was adaquete.

I actually see more isseus with feeding marine animals to seahorses as many small crusteceans are carriers for parasites that then host in the seahorse.

JME

again would love a link.