| Getting Started |
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Getting Ready For Your Ocean Rider Seahorses Make sure to read our Beginner's FAQ's and our article on Tank Cycling.  By choosing Ocean Rider sea horses, not only are you getting a superior pet free of parasites and pathogens typical to wild caught sea horses, you are making an eco-friendly choice because your purchase helps to protect the wild populations and their marine habitats. We hope that you find the following information helpful and that it gives you the confidence you need to set up your saltwater aquarium tank just for oceanrider sea horses. You will find that it is well worth the effort, and that the expense is minimal for the enjoyment that your sea horses will bring you. Make sure your tank is cycled! Feeding All Ocean Rider sea horses are pre trained to feed on frozen mysis shrimp from Piscine Energetics enhanced with Ocean Rider Vibrance. Forget about live food!Our recommended feeding regime is: 2-5 frozen mysis shrimp enhanced with Vibrance per sea horse per feeding 2 times per day, 6 days per week with one fasting day . Not only is this diet easy to use, but it will ensure long term survivability, high health, high mating frequency and beautiful, vibrant colors. Make sure you have a good clean up crew and that you siphon out left over feed within 15 minutes. If it isleft in the tank, you risk serious water quality problems. Live Foods Ocean Rider does not recommend the feeding of live foods except as an occasional, once a month treat. When you do feed live foods, we recommend our iron horse feeds. Live brine shrimp must be enriched with Vibrance. Unenriched brine shrimp lacks essential nutrients and may be harmful to your seahorse. Social Behavior Ocean Rider Sea Horses are social, vertically oriented animals that do best in groups in a dedicated sea horse only tank with plenty of comfortable hitching posts and low currents. Ocean Rider sea horses do pair bond, but will court and mate with others when in a group situation, which means you will have the opportunity to witness this magnificent mating dance frequently! With proper care and set up Ocean Rider sea horses will mate every 25 to 30 days. The males are not territorial but will spend a lot of time showing off! Natural History Ocean Rider Tropical Sea Horses will mate every 25-30 days in the right conditions. The lfry are born looking just like adult sea horses! The average life span is from 4 to 6 years! How to Distinguish Male from Female The male will have a smooth soft pouch like area at the base of its abdoman between where the stomach meets the tail on the front side. He also has a fin here but it is less obvious. He will point his trunk down and blow up this pouch during the mating display. Males may show off like this to each other, but will not harm each other in the process. The female will have more of a pointed stomach with a very obvious fin at the base of the stomach.  Color  Damsels, Triggers, Tomato Clowns, Anemones, and any aggressive fish. Clean Up Crew: These include Nazarus snails, turbo grazers, sea cucumbers, various cleaner shrimps, brittle stars, starfish, and hermit crabs Helpful links for saltwater aquariun basics: wetwebmedia.com Tank Setup Examples from some Ocean Rider customers: * Susan * David * Craig * Terry Ocean Rider Acclimation Procedures Please check that your basic water quality parameters are within acceptable range (temperature: 68F -80F, Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, PH 8.2 - 8.4, Specific gravity 1.021-1.025, saturated oxygen). Please acclimate your sea horses slowly, but do not take more than 45 minutes to complete the procedure. Open your box away from any bright lights. Check temperature upon arrival and turn off aquarium lights. The best way to acclimate is to: 1. Float the bag in your tank for about 10 minutes to equalize temperatures. 2. Then partially open the bag, clip it to the side of the tank and add 1 cup of tank water. (Do NOT aerate the shipping bag during acclimation) 3. Wait 10 minutes. 4. Remove 1 cup of water and add another cup of water from the tank. 5. Wait 10 minutes. 6. Repeat this procedure 1 more time. 7. Gently net and release the sea horses into the tank, discarding the water left in the bag. Feeding & Care Procedures All Ocean Rider® Sea Horses are pre-trained to feed on frozen mysis shrimp from Piscine Energetics enhanced with Vibrance®. Our recommended feeding regimen is: 2-5 frozen mysis shrimp enhanced with Vibrance® per sea horse per feeding 2 times per day, 6 days per week with one fast day per week. Don't worry about feeding the sea horse immediately upon arrival. Give them 24 hours to adjust to their new home before introducing the frozen mysis. These sea horses are very well fed before leaving the farm and can easily go a day or two without food. Feeding: Sprinkle a "pinch" of Vibrance® onto the frozen mysis. Allow the mysis to thaw. Gently mix the Vibrance® into the mysis so that the head is now red. Apply the feed to sea horse tank. You will see that they recognize this food quickly and will even take the mysis off the tank bottom. This high quality frozen mysis shrimp, combined with Vibrance® creates a food that is very high in HUFA's (especialy the DHA Omega 6 DHA series) and cartenoids which are essential components to the diet of the sea horse. This is such a good diet that we recommend that you "fast" your sea horses one day per week. Feeding of live food is for your entertainment and is not necessary. Ocean Rider does not recommend feeding live foods more than once or twice per month. If you do choose to feed live, please use our Iron Horse feeds or live brine shrimp enriched with Vibrance®. Feeding marine shrimp (or any other live food) from the wild may introduce pathogens to your seahorse tank. |
