Seadragons?? Do people keep them?

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dhost

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My girl friend wants a seadragon and she wants to do a seahorse tank with a seadragon. Has anyone had any luck with keeping these, if so where do I buy it?
Thanks
 
I enquired about getting these animals several months ago. They are available but you have to get a permit from the Australian government. Which I was told costs about $10,000. Then the SeaDragon it's self cost close to $5,000 and you must put half down before they collect the animal. So I never got one for that price they are better off in the Ocean.
 
Not illegal, just difficult and expensive. Tank requirements of the successful keepers goes well beyond the average home aquarium. If cost and setup weren't an issue, the next hurdle would be finding someone who will sell you them. Most will not sell to just anyone.

Dan
 
And keeping them requires a rig costing so much only a few of our nation's aquaria can keep them even a little while.

Tell her the ordinary seahorse and pipefish will have to do!
 
First I should say that I don't personally have any experience with them, so I am in no way an qualified expert on this. I do have a friend and know others in the industry that have them. From what I understand, some of the major issues are:

Having the proper setup. Almost everyone who I have talked to has felt like they needed a bigger setup. One would think a 6 - 8 foot tall tank with a 5 foot diameter would be big enough.

Feeding. The preferred food seems to be live Mysids. These can be quite expensive, espescially with the amount they eat. I don't know if they were trained to frozen if that is enough to meet their dietary requirements. Still a lot to learn about them.

Maintaining the health of the animals. Most non institutional keepers don't have the knowledge or the diagnostics available to keep up with them. Those that do, are still learning.

There are other issues that have been discussed in the professional research forums but that goes beyond the scope of this forum.

Dan
 
IME at least Weedy's can be trainded to frozen fairly easily. Not that I had my own but I took the tour at the Aquarium of the Pacific and talked to the guy who takes care of the syngnathids. They were also feeding brine, but that could hae ben for spectator show.

Also breeding wise there is a problem relatied to the eggs sticking to the males. They are very hard to breed with few institutions having succsess.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8272696#post8272696 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CeaHorseMaShell
as far as I know they are illegal and endangered
Click to expand...

They are legal in every country except Australia, and they are 'data deficient' - meaning there is not enough known about them to list them as endangered or not.

Having said all that:

They are avalable to non-institutional organisations ( ie private keepers ), and the prices are coming down as more and more people are successful with them. In the USA you are now looking in the region of $2000 each.

They need deep more than big, but the current recommendations are 6x6x4, although I personally know a pair kept in an 8x4x3 for over 18 months.

They usually convert to frozen very easily. Sealife centres convert them in about a week. This diet is not adequate, and should be suplemented with live foods fed with stuff like spirulena flakes. Ghost shrimp /river shrimp injure them, so soft shelled shrimp are best.

They do try to breed if they have 5 foot or so, but they dont seem to be able to get the eggs to stick to the male. This appears to be something to do with depth - they need more time to get it right, and time = depth.

Fry are born about an inch long, and eat mysid shrimp, conversion to frozen is also fairly easy, and typical survival rates from captive bred are around 20% whilst the survival from while caught males is around 90% so there is something missing in the aquarium setup.

They like dark tanks with little (no) current, as they scare themselves to death if they bump into the glass walls. The successful breeders seem to keep them in tanks with solid walls so they can see clearly where their boundaries are. Sudden light changes are detramental, as are sudden noises transmitted into the tank.

They appear quite hardy, then suddenly die. So it is a chance you take. Temperature is critical. Sealife centres had sudden massive losses one week after a power outage caused the tank temperature to get to 21c. So a powerful chiller with powerbackup is a requirement.

The costs of keeping them equate approximately to those costs of the massive reef systems of 500 gallons up. ( except the dossing and lighting bills... )
 
Ive also heard that if you try to keep one with out getting a permit, and you get busted, you can get fined $500,000. Also they are hard to keep and I would say just leave them in the ocean. If you want something kind of similar you could get a dragon wrasse. Sorta the same look.
 
I live in adelaide south australia (the home of leafy and weedy dragons) there is one man who has had major success breeding weedy varieties and owns many leafys, lfs's NEVER stock them the because of permits required and people are not allowed to remove them from the ocean. not sure if it will help but yer.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8300009#post8300009 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mdog3000
Ive also heard that if you try to keep one with out getting a permit, and you get busted, you can get fined $500,000. Also they are hard to keep and I would say just leave them in the ocean. If you want something kind of similar you could get a dragon wrasse. Sorta the same look.
Click to expand...
You are in the USA. There is simply no truth that you need a permit to keep one. There is no fine for keeping one. They are not that hard to keep if you setup correctly.
 
I am in AU also, Sydney. And had a friend find a weedy sea dragon in a LFS about half hr from me for $500. This was a few yrs back and I have never seen it myself but my friend was interested in them and found one a store but because she doesnt even have the commitment to keep a goldfish alive she decided against spending the $500.. I now wonder if it was there legally or not. I had not heard anything about needing a permit though before seeing this thread.
 
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