Seahorse Food

[JLynn]

I am currently in the early planning stages of a seahorse tank, and while researching the live foods they eat and various methods of culturing them, I came across an interesting little tidbit: mussel larvae are a viable food source for seahorses. This was... eyebrow-raising, to say the least. It is the only time I have seen any mention of it in my research, and may not be true at all. But, out of curiosity, has anyone heard about this? Or used mussel larvae to feed their seahorses? I would dismiss it out of hand due to a sheer lack of support, but it isn't entirely baseless. Considering that seahorses often live in seagrass meadows, which are also common habitats for mussels, and a nursery for many species, it may well be that some seahorses snack on mussel larvae in the wild.

It's really just idle curiousity: if mussel larvae are indeed a viable alternative to standard food sources, how would one go about culturing them? What would the yield be like? How does the nutritional value measure up? Has anyone tried this? Is the entire idea completely preposterous? Are there any other unusual food sources people have heard about/used?

 

[DanU]

They are opportunistic feeders. They will also eat barnacle larvae and many other larvae if they are appropriately sized. Most of the larvae foods are when they are very small fry. Once they grow some they begin to ignore smaller foods and prefer larger foods.

Dan

 

[pledosophy]

I have tried mollie fry with some succsess, but not all seahorses seemed to appreciate it

 

[JLynn]

Thanks! Nice to know. Also, I was wondering if any of you use the system outlined in the Aqua Medic Plankton Reactor for an automated food chain. Or, alternatively, if anyone uses their reactor made specifically for brine shrimp. How is it? I read a few reviews and all the reviewers were very pleased with the product, so I am considering getting some for my own system-to-be. It seems like a good way to more evenly space out my horses' meals and/or give them snacks, since I am gone most of the day.

 

[rayjay]

I don't know of any way to completely automate the feeding of live food to seahorses, at least at the hobby level for sure.
The final stage of enrichment means the live food needs to be separated from the culture water before being added to the tanks.
I don't use any reactors as I found it much easier to just feed blended spirulina powder to my brine shrimp, rotifers, tigger pods, and nitokra lacustris.
Enrichment is done using Dan's Feed.

 

[JLynn]

The final stage of enrichment means the live food needs to be separated from the culture water before being added to the tanks.

What do you mean by this? I was already planning on culturing plankton on my own; is this applicable to enrichment via live plankton as well?

As for automation, it isn't completely automated, but it is more hands-off, which is nice. This is the instruction manual for the reactor. The system I am referring to is outlined in the last few pages. ************ was particularly complimentary of the product. It is fairly expensive, though, so I will definitely check in to DIY versions, but the basic setup seems very nice. If I were just planning a reef tank, the article would have convinced me, but since I am planning I seahorse tank, I figured I ought to check with people who keep seahorses and get more specific opinions. Plus, if any part of the system outlined in the manual would be inappropriate/dangerous for seahorses, I definitely want to know ahead of time!

 

[rayjay]

What do you mean by this? I was already planning on culturing plankton on my own; is this applicable to enrichment via live plankton as well?

As for automation, it isn't completely automated, but it is more hands-off, which is nice. This is the instruction manual for the reactor. (http://www.aqua-medic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Plankton-Reactor-Manual.pdf) The system I am referring to is outlined in the last few pages. ************ was particularly complimentary (http://************.com/2012/11/08/aquamedic-plankton-reactors/) of the product. It is fairly expensive, though, so I will definitely check in to DIY versions, but the basic setup seems very nice. If I were just planning a reef tank, the article would have convinced me, but since I am planning I seahorse tank, I figured I ought to check with people who keep seahorses and get more specific opinions. Plus, if any part of the system outlined in the manual would be inappropriate/dangerous for seahorses, I definitely want to know ahead of time!

Well, I received notification of your post but couldn't find it here when I linked on so I copied and pasted the quote.
If you are going to feed live brine shrimp grown from this reactor you are mentioning, you won't get much in the way of any quantity of brine.
First, the brine will need up to 8 weeks to get to adult (in any meaningful culture density, and depending on temperature and quality of food provided)
Professional Aquaculturists in the marine food industry can grow them in about 8 days, but they have $$$$ of equipment and specialized feeding systems to accomplish this. It can't be done that fast on a hobbyists budget, unless you have a VERY light density of brine in the culture.
What could be grown in that little reactor won't provide much especially considering that the brine would wipe out all the phyto in that reactor in less than a day, and that being with a not very dense culture of brine shrimp.
While you can grow the brine on a single phytoplankton, like nanno for instance, the nutrition levels will not be sufficient for the needs of seahorses.
It will take probably at least 3 specific types of phyto to get the proper mix of nutrition, and that can't be done in one reactor as they need to be grown separate.
For me, I MUCH prefer the ease of growing and enriching with blended powders instead of growing the large volumes of phyto needed to sustain meaningful brine cultures.
You also need to rinse/sterilize the live food before adding to the tank to lessen the chances of passing the bacteria from the food cultures to the seahorses that are so susceptible to bacterial diseases.

 

[JLynn]

Ah. I'm glad I asked, then; nothing I've read about culturing has mentioned the need to sterilize the food before feeding! I guess plankton reactors food chains are out, then. Oh well, a little extra work won't hurt. It's kind of a moot point now, but I don't plan on messing with brine shrimp much- if at all. It seems to me that Copepods and Rotifers are a better idea to begin with. Given all the work that goes in to brine shrimp and the lower pay-off, I don't really see the point in culturing them if you are culturing other, healthier alternatives. Unless you have dwarves, that is. Anyways, thanks for the help!

 

[rayjay]

The reason I use brine shrimp adults is because they are readily available in many stores, and if we grow them we can have much more dense cultures produced in a much shorter time span than we can other live foods.
Also, they can easily be enriched to increase the already high protein level, or to add the DHA component so necessary for seahorses, as well as adding vitamins or medications if needed.
Rotifers too need to be enriched, but are only good for feeding pelagic seahorse fry for the initial week or two.
They are too small to use as food for dwarf seahorses as it would take an inordinate amount of them to have any nutrient value to the seahorses even when enriched. MUCH MUCH worse for standard sized seahorses if you could even get them to be bothered with rotifers.
As for copepods, you need to use larger ones that will interest grown seahorses because they normally don't hunt smaller foods, and again because it would take an inordinate amount to be of any value.
Copepod cultures are slow growing so even a large culture is probably only going to be good for occasional treats for the seahorses.
I use copepods for additional food variety in raising fry and juvenile seahorses.
If I wanted to have an expanded food source for adult seahorses I would use amphipods and gammarus over copepods, but again, they are slow to culture and get meaningful numbers.
As for sterilization, not everyone does it, but if you have problems at some point, and haven't sterilized, then it's just another thing to consider as a cause for the problems because brine shrimp cysts are known to harbour nasty bacteria like the vibriosis species.