Where did you get YOUR seahorses?

[pottsburg]

Has anybody gotten their horses from a LFS? If I were to get them locally, I guess the only way to make sure if they would be worthwhile is to drop a cube of frozen mysis in their section and see if they go for it?

What has your experiences been if you didn't get the horses locally?

Thanks guys and gals!

 

[ann83]

The problem with the mysis test at an LFS is that the net pen raised seahorses coming out of Asia are trained to eat frozen mysis and are labelled CB or TR (because technically they are bred in a tank and raised in captivity), but they have all of the disease and parasite problems of wild caught seahorses, and need to be treated as such before they can be put in your aquarium. Most seahorses coming into the LFS right now are net pen raised. While all SH at the LFS should be consider suspect without the name of the breeder, the species you should especially avoid at the LFS right now are Kuda and Kelloggi, as those seem to be entirely net pen raised at the moment and people aren't having very good success with them long term. I would also avoid breviceps, which I have seen coming in recently. They are a temperate species needing much lower temperatures than what they are being kept at by the wholesalers and most LFS.

 

[pottsburg]

I was shooting for kuda or erectus. I don't even know if the guys at the LFS even know what type of horses they are. Last time I went there was a dead SH and a few days later the other one was gone too - dead or sold, I don't know.

I figure I should bite the bullet and buy online.......Is shipping from Hawaii to Florida hairy? I've lost $400 trying to (illegally!) get piranhas shipped from up north to FL. The first time was the sellers fault and the 2nd time the bag in the box broke and DHL decided to take it back to the warehouse (here in town) instead of notifying me and hauling tail. .......So I'm pretty skeptical LOL! where did your horses come from ann?

 

[ann83]

If you're in Florida, look up www.seahorsesource.com. Dan is very reliable and has healthy horses, and I have never read a negative review. Sometimes there is a wait for his most popular seahorses, like erectus, but if he doesn't have erectus in stock, I believe he said he has Reidi, even though it isn't listed on his web site at the moment. Bonus is, he's local to you.

 

[pottsburg]

Roadtrip! Thank you so much for pointing out that SHS is so close to me. I had no idea haha!

My tank is almost 2 months old now with a handful of snails, 2peppermint shrimp and a pearl jawed/yellowheaded goby. A wait is fine for me, I plan on waiting till mid to end summer anyway so that I have a better pod population and I've got the waterchange schedule burned into my week. Thanks so much and I'm sure we'll be talking!

 

[LisaD]

You'll like working with Dan, he is great! You are so lucky to be close to him.

 

[Duddly01]

The only places to truly be certain you are getting healthy tank bred horses are Dan at seahorsesource.com and Jorge at dracomarine.org. I purchased a pair of Kuda from a LFS and 2 months latter the started showing signs of internal parasites. No matter how much I treated them with meds I couldn't save them. I now have a pair of H. Erectus from Draco and they are beautiful.