Please ID this horse
- Thread starter yraveh
- Start date
yraveh
New member
Yes.
And is she eating thawed mysis shrimp? [/QUOTE]
I am not sure.
In the store I saw him eating live go shrimp. At home I give him go shrimp and he seems to attemp to eat them by hitting them with sucking blow. He definitely kill them but I cannot say he devour them. I also add (hysterically) live brine shrimp and frozen mysis daily. Again I am not sure he consumes any.
The tank is ~20 gallons. Only two horses. I take them both out to a smaller container for feeding. I do not know if that is necessary.
They both seems to be very active , wandering around the rocks.
I will try to photo #2 for ID.
Wow, I expected to see a very similar seahorse to the one in the first photo!
This second SH looks more like h. capensis, except that the coronet seems more pronounced. She isn't as spiny as the first, is she?
If she is capensis and the other is an erectus, you may have a couple of issues going on here.
1) If your pet store got these horses from a breeder, they would likely be the same species. They don't seem to be the same species, and this concerns me that they are wild caught (WC) and not captive bred (CB).
A WC horse is (MUCH) more difficult to keep because they are not trained to thawed mysis, and so you will have to feed newly hatched brine shrimp (preferably gut loaded) to give them nutrition. Brine shrimp (live or frozen) have no nutritional value once the yolk sac is depleted, after about 48 hours after hatching. This can be an exhausting way to have to feed seahorses.
You are doing your best by mixing thawed mysis with the live baby brine. You need to be sure they eat at least twice each day. If your tank has a copepod population, the horses will be able to at least hunt these for some nutrition.
If they are WC, they may eventually except the mysis as a food source, but it could be a long road.
You are probably doing your water quality a huge favor by removing the horses from the DT to feed them, but they might eat better (less stress) if you feed them where they live.
2) If these are the species I think they are, you have some temperature issues to think about. h. erectus is a tropical species, comfortable in a wider range of temp. The h. capensis is a sub-tropical species and needs a lower temp. If you can keep your tank at a lower temp (72-74f?). The most important thing is to keep the temperature STABLE, don't let it yo-yo.
Do these horses have tankmates?
This second SH looks more like h. capensis, except that the coronet seems more pronounced. She isn't as spiny as the first, is she?
If she is capensis and the other is an erectus, you may have a couple of issues going on here.
1) If your pet store got these horses from a breeder, they would likely be the same species. They don't seem to be the same species, and this concerns me that they are wild caught (WC) and not captive bred (CB).
A WC horse is (MUCH) more difficult to keep because they are not trained to thawed mysis, and so you will have to feed newly hatched brine shrimp (preferably gut loaded) to give them nutrition. Brine shrimp (live or frozen) have no nutritional value once the yolk sac is depleted, after about 48 hours after hatching. This can be an exhausting way to have to feed seahorses.
You are doing your best by mixing thawed mysis with the live baby brine. You need to be sure they eat at least twice each day. If your tank has a copepod population, the horses will be able to at least hunt these for some nutrition.
If they are WC, they may eventually except the mysis as a food source, but it could be a long road.
You are probably doing your water quality a huge favor by removing the horses from the DT to feed them, but they might eat better (less stress) if you feed them where they live.
2) If these are the species I think they are, you have some temperature issues to think about. h. erectus is a tropical species, comfortable in a wider range of temp. The h. capensis is a sub-tropical species and needs a lower temp. If you can keep your tank at a lower temp (72-74f?). The most important thing is to keep the temperature STABLE, don't let it yo-yo.
Do these horses have tankmates?
yraveh
New member
wow. U do know a lot about these horses.
I try to keep it at 74. The weather here is different than yours. It's hard to actively cool the tank.
the h. capensis seems too youn for dating. Is it important to have mates of the same species for h. capensis ? the store did have several babies.
It's hard to tell - she is so small.
He is not the common LFS owner, in my opinion. He does go boating a lot. So it could be WC. I saw the baby and the H. erectus eating ghost shrimps. I had a lot of live rocks in the tank. It made it hard for me to determine that they feed inside the tank. On the other hand, it's stressful for them to be taken out for feeding. Last night I took the rock out and put in plenty of live ghost shrimps. They do feed on them. I need to handle the organic load, though.
I try to keep it at 74. The weather here is different than yours. It's hard to actively cool the tank.
No tank mates. I am looking for a male mate for the erectus.
the h. capensis seems too youn for dating. Is it important to have mates of the same species for h. capensis ? the store did have several babies.
ann83
New member
Please ask the LFS owner where he got the SH. If he caught them himself near Miami, they could only be southern erectus, zosterae or possibly a Reidi that has moved further north than usual. We really need a clearer picture of the side of the second seahorse (like the first you posted of it, only not blurry). From what I can see, the SH doesn't look like any of the seahorses local to the waters around Miami. Could be a very young Reidi, but I doubt it. If you do have a capensis, you will need to bring the temp down lower than 74. 68-70 would be the temp that might cross over between the two. You'll probably need to buy a chiller in order to do this. Definately don't buy another one of the juivenilles until you identify their species, because if they are caps, they are temperate horses that need very different water temperatures from the erectus, and 70 is actually at the high end of their temp requirements. I seriously doubt you have a WC capensis though, considering they are the only seahorse species on the protected list and are only found in one area in the world. Check out the gallery on seahorse.org, here http://gallery.seahorse.org/main.ph...2_GALLERYSID=7c968228cb94037dad756ca12c08957b and see if you can narrow down the species.
ann83
New member
Some people have been able to pull it off, but many people have had bad results. Different species of seahorses carry different strains of bacteria without showing symptoms. One species can be resistant to a strain of bacteria, but the other species may not be and is likely to get sick. Problems seem to be worse when mixing other species with erectus, probably because erectus is one of the more hardy species and is less likely to be showing symptoms. So, if you read up now, you can work towards keeping your seahorses healthy, and once you are aware of the risk, you will hopefully catch any problems in their early stages. Here is a good thread on mixing species http://forum.seahorse.org/index.php?showtopic=26202&hl=mixing+species
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If I may, that baby will need some one on one feeding. She is too small to feed on ghost shrimp. While the snout is a bit maliable, it won't accomodate food that your erectus can eat.
You will need to continue her on the newly hatched artemia (live baby brine) until you can train her to thawed mysis shrimp. She should feed at least twice daily.
What a little doll!
You will need to continue her on the newly hatched artemia (live baby brine) until you can train her to thawed mysis shrimp. She should feed at least twice daily.
What a little doll!
panmanmatt
New member
That first picture is Hippocampus reidi, not H. erectus.
I have to vote reidi on the larger seahorse. Erectus have a more robust, thick chested frame, have more of a striped pattern and a different pattern to the saddles. If you can get a better shot of the cornet that would be a way to tell for sure. Looks U shaped in that pic but its not real clear.
pledosophy
Active member
First seahorse is a reidi
Second Seahorse is a Kuda. Would like a better clearer shot of the second horses cornet to be sure.
JMO
Second Seahorse is a Kuda. Would like a better clearer shot of the second horses cornet to be sure.
JMO
