I'm going out of town for the weekend in February. I was thinking of purchasing a large lot of copepods to put in my seahorse tank for them to eat while I was gone. Anyone tried this? Or will it work?? I have 3 seaorses in a 50 gallon cube with different macros and a sand substrate. I know a "sitter" is the best thing, but he and his family are going with us on our trip. Thanks for the help!!
Would this work???
- Thread starter FishGuy5
- Start date
Any time you put a large lot of anything directly into your tank, you could be asking for trouble due to the bioload.
I would say if it's just for the weekend, feed them well Fri night before you go, then again as soon as you get back Sun night. They will be fine. Many people skip a day between feedings. Two will not hurt if they are healthy.
I attempted to do much the same thing years ago when seahorses were mostly all live caught and would eat only live shrimp. Knowing I would be gone for a long weekend, I shipped in and added some 50 live shrimp to the tank (this was a large tank with numerous horses). Unfortunately, most of the shrimp did not make the trip well and died before the ponies could eat them. This caused a catastrophic chain reaction which led to the entire tank crashing, and the loss of 9 horses. I will never make that mistake again, and blame myself exclusively for their deaths.
I would say if it's just for the weekend, feed them well Fri night before you go, then again as soon as you get back Sun night. They will be fine. Many people skip a day between feedings. Two will not hurt if they are healthy.
I attempted to do much the same thing years ago when seahorses were mostly all live caught and would eat only live shrimp. Knowing I would be gone for a long weekend, I shipped in and added some 50 live shrimp to the tank (this was a large tank with numerous horses). Unfortunately, most of the shrimp did not make the trip well and died before the ponies could eat them. This caused a catastrophic chain reaction which led to the entire tank crashing, and the loss of 9 horses. I will never make that mistake again, and blame myself exclusively for their deaths.
DanU
New member
Copepods are too small of a food item. It takes a boatload of them to equal the same biomass as mysis.
Many have done something similar using live mysids. A more expensive way to go but more successful. Adding 250 live mysids most would likely be gone in hours but the few remaining would be hunted down relentlessly. Since they are a saltwater species and a detrivore, they should survive in the tank without issue if not eaten.
Not feeding for 2 days would work and would be better than overfeeding the tank by an inexperienced sitter. Seahorses shipped in from overseas typically go 2 to 3 days without eating.
Dan
Many have done something similar using live mysids. A more expensive way to go but more successful. Adding 250 live mysids most would likely be gone in hours but the few remaining would be hunted down relentlessly. Since they are a saltwater species and a detrivore, they should survive in the tank without issue if not eaten.
Not feeding for 2 days would work and would be better than overfeeding the tank by an inexperienced sitter. Seahorses shipped in from overseas typically go 2 to 3 days without eating.
Dan
ChadTheSpike
Reef Engineer
You could add the mysis to a refugium, or a plumbed HOB DIY 'refugium' specifically for this purpose. The mysis 'dose' rate would be slowed down significantly by doing this. (if you have time you could test this and make sure it would work before calling hail mary and trying it.
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