Mollie fry to feed seahorses?

[Hoobahans]

I was looking at sealifeflorida.com today and noticed that their giant seahorses (h. erectus) apparently will eat feeder guppies. Now, I keep mollies in my reef to eat algae and to produce fry to feed my clownfish and anemone...so I thought that it might be possible to set up a tank with a breeding population of mollies with a couple seahorses that would feed off of the young. Does that sound plausable?

By the way, the seahorses were removed from the website in the last hour...

 

[Poniegirl]

I also have SW mollies that are breeding. I have thought about putting them in the DT...I just don't have the heart YET.

Seahorses will absolutely feed on fish fry. I don't think it's a good idea to keep it as a staple or a constant. I'm not sure why, maybe too much of a good thing? With their digestive systems as simple as they are, it just seems like overkill.

The mollies would be decent tank mates, though, I'm sure.

 

[Hoobahans]

Do you think that the fry would be worse that anything else, though? When they are young all their bones are still cartillage, so that wouldnt be a problem. I have heard that feeding fw fish to sw animals of all types causes liver damage, but I am pretty sure that mollies that have been acclimated and the fry that have only lived in sw will not have the same effect... I have always wanted to try keeping seahorses but I have to be away from my tank for up to two weeks at a time because I am going to school. It seemed that having a continual supply of food being produced in the tank would allow me to keep seahorses even if I had to be away.

 

[ReefNutPA]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8781977#post8781977 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Hoobahans
I have always wanted to try keeping seahorses but I have to be away from my tank for up to two weeks at a time because I am going to school.

Quite honestly, I'm pretty sure you know it wouldn't be fair to the animals for you to expect them to thrive while you're gone for such long periods of time. I'd suggest you wait until classes are over and you have the time each day to care for them.

Tom

 

[Hoobahans]

Ill be at school for the next three years...and then med school. So there wont be a time when I wont ever have to be away. I care for my tanks on a daily basis (great for procrastination), but when I have spring or summer vacation I need ot leave them alone for periods of time, just like anyone who owns a tank and goes on vacation would. Also, I am not actually planning on doing this right now, I was just sounding the idea. In anycase, it seems like an interesting idea to feed seahorses while there isnt anyone to feed them. I would feed them on a regular basis, but would it be a bad idea for a couple weeks now and again? Dont get me wrong, I am not trying to half-*** my aquarium care, this is a hobby that I love, but I am trying to think of interesting ways of setting up tanks.

Oh yeah, to clarify, I go to school at a liberal arts school thats 1500 miles from my home, so its not like to go off to school for two weeks at a time, its that I leave school for two weeks at a time to take a trip home.

 

[pledosophy]

If you want to keep seahorses I would suggest making a fish friend to care for your charges in your absence. Many things can go wrong over a couple of weeks. Even a fully automated system needs to be looked at.

Creating enough molly fry, or even introducing large numbers of feeder salt water shrimp might seem like a plausible solution, however IME it is problamatic. I don't think it is a workable solution.

If you were going to be gone for a couple of days, feeder shrimp could work out, but weeks at a time, there is just to much that can go wrong, even in the best designed and established system. A pump failure, top off unit malfunction, a transformer accident which causes the loss of power for 50,000 people for several hours (happended here last night) could all easily wipeout your entire system.

Sorry I can't give you a better anwser.

Good Luck.

 

[Hoobahans]

Yeah, for my workstudy job I take care of all the aquariums at my school. Over break I usually move my tank to the biology building and the guy who looks after the tank while I am away also checks up on my tank, although he wont really do anything with it unless it's an emergency. I actually was driving over the pass durring the storm when all the power was out for Seattle last friday (took 9 hours going 25 miles an hour) so I know the power outage problem. My school, Whitman, has a generater in the bio building, so thats a good thing. Anyway, if I do this I will have to put a lot more research into it.

 

[sloshesv]

I feed my seahorses mollies/guppies about once or twice a month. They looooooove 'em.

 

[Poniegirl]

I've heard really good things about Whitman! Congrats!
The frequency that seahorses need food is pretty prohibitive. Small amounts, 2 to 3 times daily is more than most friends are willing to do.
If you throw a bunch of fish fry in the tank you have instant issues of feeding them, as well, if you want them to be live food for two weeks. Fish fry are fairly ravenous little creatures, too.

Another block I could see is the seahorses gorging on the fry. Not a good thing either.
In nature a fish fry meal might happen for a seahorse every great once in a while, but not by any means are they food that is readily available in nature.

 

[pledosophy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8798831#post8798831 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Poniegirl
[B
In nature a fish fry meal might happen for a seahorse every great once in a while, but not by any means are they food that is readily available in nature. [/B]

Agreed. My WC reidi did not even recognize the fry as food.

 

[Hoobahans]

Humm, well maybe I will have to wait on the seahorses until I am done with undergrad...and then med school...seahorses, here I come!!!....In 15 years...

*tear*

 

[pledosophy]

By that time you'll have read enough and be able to get a really nice system up.

 

[RichardS]

After seeing what my wife went through getting through med school, I'd say just forget about keeping a tank and worry about med school. Then residency and then you can pay someone to maintain a really cool aquarium for you to look at.