seahorses in the wild

[FishNutty]

okay, so slightly random question, but do any of you know which, if any, of the beaches in florida have seahorses? the reason i ask is i am taking marine biology this year in high school[i'm homeschooled:dance:] and i was just at a thing where i was talking to the spouse of the person who wrote my bio book, and he said that you can find them in the seaweed and they had done it several times. i'm not sure, however, if they are floridians or not and am not sure which beaches, so.......
i thought it'd be a really cool field trip, but first i gotta get some help figuring it out, lol! thanks guys!

 

[TamiW]

I can't help with specific locations, but you may want to try any sea-grass bed, or near mangrove roots. You might also want to try contacting some of the local collectors down there for advice on where to look, like ccritters.com or tomscaribbean.com. I don't know that they'd normally give up such locations, but perhaps if you tell them you're a student, they'd be willing to help out.

 

[FishNutty]

thanks. i e-mailed tom's caribbean, we'll see if they can help at all

 

[DanU]

You generally won't find them at the beaches. Juveniles and dwarf seahorses are easily found in the estuaries around the grass flats if you are patient and persistent. Larger seahorses are typically deeper but often found near the same. Those in the ocean will usually require diving to find them.

Depending upon where you are going, some local knowledge would be helpful. A lot of time the bait shops can tell you where they are found as the fishermen pull them up in cast nets all the time.

Dan

 

[FishNutty]

Tom's Caribbean didn't know anything, they said they get the SH from collectors.
Thanks for the information Dan. I'm in the central Florida area, closer to the east coast, so New Smyrna and Daytona are the closest ones.

 

[Allmost]

probably they dont want to give info out

its their info that is making them money right ? lol

but seahorses must be hard to spot ! I have a hard time spotting mine in a 25G, I'm sure the seahorses in wild have better hiding skills then mine

 

[Baltimore Bryan]

I was down in the keys a month or two ago and I was hoping to find some dwarfs out in their natural environment, but I didn't see one seahorse. I looked at plenty of places right off the road with no people or anything built up, just very shallow (still only 2 feet deep or so about 100 feet out, it was like one giant sandbar) areas with tons of seagrass, floating plants and small mangroves. I saw plenty of gobie/ blenny fish and juvenile fish and needlefish and hermit crabs there, but no seahorses. Now, I'm sure there may have been some and I didn't see any because there was so much ground to cover, but I couldn't see a single seahorse after hours of searching. It wasn't really windy and there were no strong waves either. Maybe I needed to look more in a lagoon type habitat, more enclosed by mangroves? I saw some places like that but I couldn't get out and explore. I did see plenty of man o war jellies though... Good luck finding them, hopefully you will be more successful than me!

 

[listen2bob]

I found some on a local beach up here last summer. Started grabbing small pieces of sargassum and graccili algae and seeing what swam away and found several 1\2 inch puffers, mullet, crabs, and found 3 dwarf seahorses in the last one. It was a good day of hanging at the beach for sure.

 

[DanU]

FishNutty, dropping down to the Banana River or the upper part of the Indian River Lagoon may give you more shallow water opportunities. If you are diving, then off shore probably won't matter.

Baltimore Bryan, if you were diving, I would be surprised if you found them. Very difficult to find them that way. They blend in too well and like to bury themselves in some of the thickest macros. If you were using a net, you really need something smaller than 1/8 mesh. I use a 1/32nd mesh large frame dip net when I want to find them. Generally any area that is shallow, with lots of macro and somewhat protected from predominant winds is usually best.

Dan

 

[Jarred1]

i use to find them in my cast net all the time when i was catching bait! i had a seahorse tank with the ones i cough. i guess i cough a mom and dad because i had babies all over the tank when i woke up one morning! i didnt know much about them and they got sucked up into the filter and died

 

[cpbirds407]

Hello!
Did you ever find the Seahorses in the wild?

 

[knukles55]

I found 1 in key largo in about 15ft of water with sea brushes in the area

 

[barry_keith]

Ive found SH and pipes near siesta key. Always in the grass flats.

 

[grmpfish17]

Grass is the key, I had one that competed with a grouper, and an imprer angle for food. Everyone did not beleave me but he did. My bad, I was cleaning the tank one day and had an extra power head in the tank and he got sucked up:mad2: (the lagoon).

 

[Zoodiver]

Old thread, but yes, in FL you have to find slow moving water in the grass flats. We have them all over down toward the Keys. They are all over on the Gulf side as you go further North. They are hard to spot when you first start looking, but once you get the feel for it, you'll find them more and more.