Training seahorses to eath frozen

[omppu]

Hello! I recently totally changed my live stock upside down swapping almost all fishes, corals and anemones with my LFS to 5 healthy H. Reidis.

At the moment my tank (50g) includes 5 H. reidis(2 males 3 females), a tiny S. segmentatus and a pair of P. kaudernies.

Three of the reidis(two males and one females accept frozen mysis with a great appetite whereas two of the females refuce to eat totally. The ones which refuse to eat froze accept live mysis. The problem is that I have to order live mysis from Germany( I live in Finland) and there is no guarantee of live arrival. They also cost a good amount of money.

So I would basically appreciate any hints how to train a seahorse to accept frozen food. Please share your ideas if you have!

 

[JLynn]

First of all, it sounds like your seahorses are tank-bred/wild-caught. If this is the case, and you have not already done so, quarantine your seahorses for several weeks and de-worm them. Check for signs of malnourishment and common diseases in this time. It would be best if you could post some pics here so that more experienced eyes can check them for visible disease/malnourishment as well. Your tank sounds a bit overstocked, too. Make sure you have plenty of filtration and be diligent about water changes (15-20% weekly), ok? Seahorses are incredibly messy, so maintaining water quality is an important part of keeping them successfully.

Anyways, moving on to the issue of feeding your horses. A turkey baster with clear tubing is probably the best feeding tool there is. If you don't have one already, I would suggest getting one if at all possible. The baster can be used both to train your picky eaters to accept frozen mysis and to train those already eating frozen mysis to eat from a feeding station, which makes tank maintenance easier and also makes it easier to ensure that your seahorses are being fed sufficiently. In a 50g tank, sprinkling food all over is an inefficient method, and chances are that your seahorses are not getting as much food as they need. Especially if you are not feeding them 2-3x a day. So a feeding station is very important. As for how to train the horses, dangle a bit of frozen mysis from the tip of the baster and move it around a bit in front of them so that your picky eaters are tricked into thinking it is live. Do this before feeding them any live mysis. If they accept the frozen mysis, continue to feed them frozen mysis until they refuse it. To train horses to eat from a feeding station (which can be an upturned shell or perhaps a certain macroalgae/coral, basically just anything that will keep the food in place and provide a hitching post for the horses while feeding), do the dangling trick again, but this time use the dangling mysis to lure the seahorses over to the feeding station, which is filled with more mysis. It may take a while for the seahorses to get used to the feeding station, so be very patient with them.

Lastly, try culturing live mysis to feed to your seahorses while they are being trained to accept frozen ones. A google search should turn up many helpful articles on culturing live mysis. This way, you can stop worrying about how to feed your finicky seahorses and save money while you are at it. Furthermore, variety in food sources is important for seahorses, so it would be a good idea to get a hold of frozen brine shrimp to enrich and supplement their diet with, as well as live brine shrimp (decapisculated) to gutload and feed as treats. Larger species of Copepods and amphipods are also good choices for culturing. A variety of food sources will ensure that your seahorses have a balanced diet and remain healthy and well-fed. Investing in a small army of snails is another good idea. They will make a nice, seahorse-safe cleanup crew. Good luck!

 

[omppu]

First of all, it sounds like your seahorses are tank-bred/wild-caught. If this is the case, and you have not already done so, quarantine your seahorses for several weeks and de-worm them. Check for signs of malnourishment and common diseases in this time. It would be best if you could post some pics here so that more experienced eyes can check them for visible disease/malnourishment as well. Your tank sounds a bit overstocked, too. Make sure you have plenty of filtration and be diligent about water changes (15-20% weekly), ok? Seahorses are incredibly messy, so maintaining water quality is an important part of keeping them successfully.

Anyways, moving on to the issue of feeding your horses. A turkey baster with clear tubing is probably the best feeding tool there is. If you don't have one already, I would suggest getting one if at all possible. The baster can be used both to train your picky eaters to accept frozen mysis and to train those already eating frozen mysis to eat from a feeding station, which makes tank maintenance easier and also makes it easier to ensure that your seahorses are being fed sufficiently. In a 50g tank, sprinkling food all over is an inefficient method, and chances are that your seahorses are not getting as much food as they need. Especially if you are not feeding them 2-3x a day. So a feeding station is very important. As for how to train the horses, dangle a bit of frozen mysis from the tip of the baster and move it around a bit in front of them so that your picky eaters are tricked into thinking it is live. Do this before feeding them any live mysis. If they accept the frozen mysis, continue to feed them frozen mysis until they refuse it. To train horses to eat from a feeding station (which can be an upturned shell or perhaps a certain macroalgae/coral, basically just anything that will keep the food in place and provide a hitching post for the horses while feeding), do the dangling trick again, but this time use the dangling mysis to lure the seahorses over to the feeding station, which is filled with more mysis. It may take a while for the seahorses to get used to the feeding station, so be very patient with them.

Lastly, try culturing live mysis to feed to your seahorses while they are being trained to accept frozen ones. A google search should turn up many helpful articles on culturing live mysis. This way, you can stop worrying about how to feed your finicky seahorses and save money while you are at it. Furthermore, variety in food sources is important for seahorses, so it would be a good idea to get a hold of frozen brine shrimp to enrich and supplement their diet with, as well as live brine shrimp (decapisculated) to gutload and feed as treats. Larger species of Copepods and amphipods are also good choices for culturing. A variety of food sources will ensure that your seahorses have a balanced diet and remain healthy and well-fed. Investing in a small army of snails is another good idea. They will make a nice, seahorse-safe cleanup crew. Good luck!

Hello!

Thanks for many good advices you gave.

My seahorses are captivity bred ordered from TMC. What comes for overstocking, what would you change in the livestock? I would like to let you know that my system is 3 tanks connected together. Main tank is with the seahorses and others which I mentioned before. Side tank(20g) is populated by A. maculatus and sump(20g).

I already weed my other seahorses with an feeding station(skeleton of a cup coral).

I have already been checking the fish incase of diseases but they seem both very healthy and I have been checking them at my LFS before purchase for 2 months like twice a week...they ate wery well there...

Turkey baster is something I have had since i started this hobby no worries

 

[JLynn]

Oh, good! In that case, you ought to be alright. The stocking rules are 30g for the first pair and 15g for each successive pair. That is for the seahorses alone. So really, 50g, if of adequate height (about 3x the height of the seahorses; with Reidi you would want about 24 inches of vertical swimming space), would probably be fine- pushing it a bit, but if you have good filtration, no problem. Since you do have other fish with the seahorses, 50g is overstocked. Having the tank connected to a larger system helps, of course. I am a bit worried about the blenny, though. Blenny seem to range from only a bit risky to very risky as far as seahorse tankmates go. You should ask around to see if anyone has had problems with that combo. At it's current size, the blenny probably won't be a problem, but watch for signs of aggression just in case. If the seahorses were eating well in the store, but aren't eating so well in their new home, it may be that one or the other of their tankmates is stressing them out or out-competing them for food. The pair of Bangaii Cardinals are a good choice, though. To help with the stocking issue, I would either sell one of the seahorses or sell/move one or both species of tankmates to a different tank. Unless you have a larger tank lying around to move the setup to, that is. And, like I mentioned above (or at least I think I did), snails are a worthy investment!

 

[omppu]

Oh, good! In that case, you ought to be alright. The stocking rules are 30g for the first pair and 15g for each successive pair. That is for the seahorses alone. So really, 50g, if of adequate height (about 3x the height of the seahorses; with Reidi you would want about 24 inches of vertical swimming space), would probably be fine- pushing it a bit, but if you have good filtration, no problem. Since you do have other fish with the seahorses, 50g is overstocked. Having the tank connected to a larger system helps, of course. I am a bit worried about the blenny, though. Blenny seem to range from only a bit risky to very risky as far as seahorse tankmates go. You should ask around to see if anyone has had problems with that combo. At it's current size, the blenny probably won't be a problem, but watch for signs of aggression just in case. If the seahorses were eating well in the store, but aren't eating so well in their new home, it may be that one or the other of their tankmates is stressing them out or out-competing them for food. The pair of Bangaii Cardinals are a good choice, though. To help with the stocking issue, I would either sell one of the seahorses or sell/move one or both species of tankmates to a different tank. Unless you have a larger tank lying around to move the setup to, that is. And, like I mentioned above (or at least I think I did), snails are a worthy investment!

Thanks for helping out again!

I really think goby is a problem, he is scared off by its own shadow haha ...and I really need at least one effective algae remover in my low current display tank.

Cardinals are really unagressive also, but they sometimes get agressive during feeding time(chasing food) but so does the three well eating reidis also...

What comes to cleaning up crew there is like 20 nassarius snails and about 8-10 strombus snails and bunch of neritas and a few turbo snails. One sand sifting seastar.

I am thinking of is selling kaudernis, it would make sense but they are too fast to catch :S

 

[JLynn]

No problem! Well, good luck with whatever you decide! I see you already realize the benefits of a small army of snails.

 

[omppu]

No problem! Well, good luck with whatever you decide! I see you already realize the benefits of a small army of snails.

Haha yeah thats what I ve learned since I started this hobby ...what do you think about the sand bed do you think it matters not only conserning as a source of potential food but generally?

 

[JLynn]

Personally, I prefer deep sand beds simply for their role in the nitrogen cycle.

 

[rayjay]

As I don't have any need of a sand bed for the cycle, preferring live rock in the sump, I go bare bottom for ease of cleaning.

 

[omppu]

Today I gave one of the non eating seahorses gubby fry, she ate 3, then she ate one frozen mysis and 2 guppies more. Other one didnt eat any guppies nor frozen mysis :/

 

[JLynn]

Yay! Progress! Sounds like at least one of them will accept frozen fairly easily. Good luck with the other one!

 

[omppu]

Does anyone have experience on feeding guppy fry to SH? I ve started to reconsider if it was a wise think to do...I have found several sites where people are discussing that if that kind of live food develops liver provlems when fed to SH?

I was planning to gutload gyppy fry with newly hatched brine shrim and let the picky ponies have some...as they are not eating anything else really at the moment..

 

[Allmost]

use a turkey baster and dangle the frozen mysis in front of it ... takes some time to get used to the turkey baster but once you do its easy to entice them.

 

[timinnl]

Greetings from Amsterdam,

Are you sure they are true captive bred ones? TMC likes to mix the term captive bred and tank raise together so if possible make sure what you really have. I am leaning more towards tank raise/wc just because one has not taken to frozen food yet. What size are they?

If possible, get some live mysis and gutload them with flake food, pellets, cyclopeeze and/or feed the mysis enriched artemia with something like Dan's feed with Beta-glucan.

1: Put the live mysis in a turkey baster (with tank water or clean saltwater.) and add one or two mysis at a time in an area with some flow.

2: Try to feed from the same location and just keep feeding them the live ones for about a week or so.

3: After a week, they should be used too seeing the mysis coming out of the turkey baster and follow the turkey baster around.

4: Then while giving them their morning feed, add a few live one in the tank and slowly add some frozen mysis that you rinsed well into the tank at the high flow area. With luck you can trick them into taking the frozen mysis.

It will take some time before they switch over and you just need to keep at it until they do.

Once the take to eating all frozen mysis, you can train them to eat from a dish.

Kind Regards,

Tim

 

[timinnl]

Does anyone have experience on feeding guppy fry to SH? I ve started to reconsider if it was a wise think to do...I have found several sites where people are discussing that if that kind of live food develops liver provlems when fed to SH?

I was planning to gutload gyppy fry with newly hatched brine shrim and let the picky ponies have some...as they are not eating anything else really at the moment..

For the short term or as a treat it is ok. Also feeding them salt water adjusted mollies it an option you should consider.

You could try culturing gammarus for them.


Kind Regards,

Tim

 

[timinnl]

What is the tank temp running at?

Kind Regards,

Tim

 

[omppu]

Hello again and thanks for the responses!

I will definitely try gut loading live mysis and tricking the picky ones. I think that the problem will be the more active ones as they will probably reach mysid faster then the others. Should I isolate the picky ones in another tank during the feeding?

I have also sold my p. kauderni pair so there is no other fish than reidis and one small goby in the tank

What comes to the guppies. I have acclimated one female guppy in my display tank and she has now been swimming there for a week now. Seems very happy and healthy. Searching for something to eat very actively. I think that I could succes in acclimating one female and one male more for random production of guppy fry as live food for the ponies, what about that?

 

[omppu]

Yea I forgot to mention the temp.

I have set the temp to 22 celsius, but weather here in finland has been very warm for a few weeks and the temp raised to 25. Now it has settled in 23-24 I have ordered a cooling fan to fix that poroblem!

I know that the temperature will affect pathogen formation but do you think that it would have any role in feeding?

 

[rayjay]

With respect to feeding guppie fry, it is ONLY suitable for very short term duration as the guppies do NOT have the proper fat profile that salt water fish need, especially seahorses, ending up in many cases of liver disease.

 

[JLynn]

I have heard that seahorse who are uncomfortable with the temperature will stay at the bottom of the tank and not move much if at all; not even to eat. Other than that, I can't think of why their feeding habits would be particularly affected.