Seahorse Tank

[MaroonFish]

I guys,

I have setup a 30G long seahorse tank over the last 6 months. I just got 3 seahorses on the weekend.

I got some (CB) Hippocampus barbouri Zebra-snout Seahorse from LFS then edded up with (WC) Hippocampus Kuda's.

I have had them (3 of them) for 2 days now they will not eat frozan Mysis or Brine Shrimp. I picked up 20 feeder shrimp from my LFS (I think they are ghost shrimp) they seem to like them.

I have setup a shrimp hachery and they shrimp sould be hatched and enriched in a few days.

I am not too sure what to feed them. What is the best thing to feed theses guys?

Also can I get a pipefish in a few weeks? Whould they get along with my Seahorses?

Thanks for the help.

 

[pledosophy]

The best thing to feed a seahorse is frozen mysis. The second best is live fresh water ghosts IME.

There is no shrimp that you can hatch and have as food in a matter of days for an adult seahorse. I don't care what you enrich them with, or what you ahve read it is not possible.

I have no idea how you mixed up a zebra, species which has never been available on the market, with a Kuda. Or how you assumed they were CB if they were WC.

Did you treat them for internal parasites? Have you done any of the suggested treatments for WC seahorses? It is much different then buying from a reputable CB breeder, which is why we stress so much that you need to buy CB from a CB breeder. I guess there is nothing to do from that now. You need to read up onthe protocol for introducing WC's into a home aquarium. thankfully they are not in your display yet. Good job on the QT.

On the pipefish idea, you need to chill on adding anything for awhile. Why not do some research before you buy the fish. There are several threads in this forum pertaining to the mixing of species. read up and find if you find the risk acceptable.

Just remeber that if you play Russian Roullette with 6 people, that 5 are going to tell you it is safe and you will never hear different from the 6th. that is my opinion on mixing species, Sure there are a few lucky ones, but the ones who had tragic results don't speak up often enough.

Good Luck.

 

[luvabunny]

Unfortunately, you should probably return the horses to the LFS where you purchased them, and wait for some CB horses. If you thought you were getting CB barbs and ended up with WC kuda, you have a legitimate leg to stand on. However, I don't know of anyone actively raising CB barbs, so your LFS may have just been trying to make a sale, and looks like it succeeded. You will not be able to hatch and raise enough shrimp to feed adult horses. Even if you do, it is not an acceptable food item long term. You will have to resign yourself to purchasing appropriate sized live ghost shrimp to feed them every day, until you can train them to frozen, which may be never. After 6 months of cycling, there will not be enough pods in your tank to sustain them for long.

With a 30 gallon tank and 3 seahorses, you are at your maximum capacity. You should not add any other horses or pipefish, especially if you have very much rock taking up space. Most pipefish require more room than 30 gallons, but those who can survive in 30 gallons will probably never train to frozen food, and your tank will not provide enough pods to sustain them. It's a vicious circle.

If you decide to keep the horses you have, I would suggest finding several ready suppliers of live ghost shrimp. Usually, most LFS in town get their fish from the same supplier, so once the supplier is out, every LFS in town is out. You will have to find the LFS who use different suppliers, or buy in bulk and keep them yourself.
Give the horses up to 6 months to get used to being in captivity before changing ANYTHING else in your tank. This is especially true of adding other fish, or corals, and redecorating your tank. All of the above cause stress, which your WC horses will have enough of already. If, after 6 months, you still have 3 healthy horses, then you can think about possibly making changes, or adding other fish.

 

[Swanwillow]

PS: its too bad you got your horses from the LFS: but since your incalgary, it wouldn't have mattered...

seahorsesource IS offering CB Barbs from Australia... but you SHOULD NOT EVER mix CB with WC... especially in your situation.

I agree to bring them back, since they are not what you were purchasing. Call the LFS, tell them that your bringing back your fish and for the reasons you are... that they lied, and due to that the sale is not withstanding, etc etc. If you have to hold a lawsuit over thier heads to get your money back, so be it.

the biggest question is, how much did you pay for them? In Canada, for wild caught horses, the price would be 50-80 bucks, and captive bred would be 100+ (if I did the math right...)

 

[williams-crist]

Probably, you will have to get the wild caught seahorses to eat live food before you can work on getting them to eat frozen.

I would keep feeding them the ghost shrimp if they are eating them well and then mix a few pieces of frozen mysis shrimp each time you are feeding the ghost shrimp. I have heard each horse should eat about 8 shrimp per day. So you will need a lot of ghost shrimp.

You will have to work on training the seahorses to eat dead food which will likely be a time consuming and expensive project. Seahorses in the wild eat only live food so they have a hard time recognizing the frozen stuff as food.

Years ago I bought some wild caught seahorses only to watch them starve to death because they would not accept frozen food and I had a hard time providing them with live food they would accept. It was heart breaking!

I now have captive breed seahorses that are doing quite well.

I'm guessing the LFS told you that you can feed brine shrimp to the seahorses. This is true but the brine shrimp aren't very nutritious and do need to be enriched if you are going to feed them. The problem is that if your seahorses are big enough to eat ghost shrimp they may not be interested in eating newborn brine shrimp. They may only take large full grown brine. I live in Des Moines Iowa a pretty big place yet no LFS in town sells full grown brine.

Let me tell you raising your own large tank of brine shrimp can smell pretty bad!

If I were you I would start to look online for possible ways of getting some more live food for your horses. You can order live mysis shrimp from Sachs aquaculture and probably ghost shrimp too.

I would work on making sure you can acquire and care for as many ghost shrimp, amphipods or mysis that you can. Your seahorses are going to need the nutrition until you can train them to frozen.

I would hold off on the pipe fish until you know your seahorses are eating well

Good luck to you!

Debra