During your homework and researching the needs and requirements of seahorses before you take the plunge is always the best approach, and reading up on the pertinent discussions in the forum is one of the best ways to get started! You can search the forum for information on any subject you would like to learn more about. There is a rectangular window in the upper right-hand corner (just above the page numbers) on the forum with the words "search forum" in it. Just type the word or phrase you are looking for into that window and press "Enter" on your keyboard, and the results of your search will pop up in just a few moments. For example, if you type in "newbie" or "new to seahorses" or "cycling the aquarium" or "tank set-up advice," you'll find some detailed discussions explaining how to set up a new seahorse tank and create an optimum environment for seahorses in your aquarium.
Best of luck cycling your aquarium and getting it ready for seahorses, Suzanne! Just let us know if you have any questions in that regard.
Happy Trails! Pete Giwojna
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KarenS
User Coastal Cruiser
Posts: 23
Karma: 4
Re:Welcome - 2007/05/27 14:18Hi, my name is Karen and I have kept seahorses in the past. I purchased a large pair of wild horses in about 1997 ( I think they came from brazil and they were bright orange). I kept them for several years before they died of GBS. (back then nobody knew how to treat it. I tried everything!) . Their eating habbits were very fussy. They only ate sea lice or small live feeder shrimp. They would not eat brine shrimp or baby guppies or baby crayfish or crabs. I had to go fishing in rock pools for their shrimp. There were no aquaculture companies then to buy them from. It took a LOT of patience to teach them to feed from my hands first with live shrimp, then dismembered shrimp, then frozen mysis shrimp from hands, then frozen food in water. Eventually they would eat frozen cubes of mysis which were floating on the surface and then they would even eat frozen mussel and would even nip at flake food! But it took a LOT of time and patience.
Anyway, I just want to say that I love your site and I think it is great that there is somebody like you to curb the sale of wild horses to the public to slowly starve to death. I remember seahorses in aquariums for sale with sunken bellies and with the end of their snouts missing from calcium deprivation. I wanted to buy them so that I could save them but knew that if I did that then I would be funding the problem. These aquariums used to give me dying seahorses to save which were about to pass their "use by date." They were always quite far gone though and would die. You know, an aquarium just down the street from me (in Brisbane, Australia) still sells seahorses and still tells the public that seahorses live just fine on brine shrimp. IT MAKES ME SEE RED! It should be illegal.
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I'm very impressed with how well you did with your wild-caught Brazilian seahorses (Hippocampus reidi) back in 1997. Brazilians are notoriously finicky eaters and it is remarkable that with a lot of patience and effort you were eventually able to train your specimens to eat a variety of frozen foods. I know all too well how difficult that can be and you deserve credit for accomplishing a remarkable feat. Well done!
If you could manage to do all that back in 1997 and keep your H. reidi thriving for years, you should be very successful keeping the latest generation of hardy, easy to feed, captive-bred-and-raised seahorses. You'll find that seahorse keeping in the 21st century is a lot more user friendly and eco-friendly.
I know just what you mean about trying to save pet shop ponies that are in dire shape. All too often, seahorses are purchased from the LFS not because they're the picture of health but rather because they appear to be at death's door, and some kind-hearted hobbyist brings them home on a mercy mission, hoping that with plenty of TLC and plenty of tempting live foods, he can resurrect the half-starved ‘horses and give them a second chance at survival. I know because I am that sentimental slob. Being a soft-hearted seahorse lover myself, I've returned from local pet shops in rescue-mission mode many times over the years, rushing to get my latest reclamation project home to the Intensive Care Unit (my reef tank, which is specially set up just for seahorses) where they could benefit from the natural surroundings, optimum water quality, and all of their favorite live foods they could eat.
Sadly, more often than not, my attempts to rehab these poor ponies were a dismal failure. It appears that at some stage these pitiful patients are simply too far-gone to save; once they reach the point of no return, irreversible damage has been done to their digestive system, and there's no bringing them back. I call that tragic condition starvation syndrome, and after years of hard experience, I've learned the hard way to tell at a glance which emaciated seahorses still have a chance and which ones will never make it. The terminal cases develop what I can perhaps best describe as the “far look,” a sort of vacant stare as if their eyes were focused far away on some distant object.
Thank goodness those dismal days are over now that domesticated seahorses are readily available.
Best of luck with your next seahorses, Karen!
Happy Trails! Pete Giwojna
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KarenS
User Coastal Cruiser
Posts: 23
Karma: 4
Re:Welcome - 2007/05/28 15:13Yes I know that look they get where they just sit and stare off into the distance and they don't move. And I remember ponies with transparent snouts and ends of tails and sunken bellies.
The problem is that over here, there are still aquariums selling ponies where the owners of the shop still think that all horses need is brine shrimp. Maybe the shops here are still selling wild caught horses. ???
Karen
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Yes, you're quite correct -- pet shops and local fish stores (LFS) are certainly still offering seahorses, and often times the specimens they have for sale are wild caught rather then domesticated seahorses.
Seahorse keepers that are shopping for their livestock at their LFS should therefore proceed with caution nowadays. Don't assume that the new CITES regulations protecting the genus Hippocampus automatically assures that the seahorses sold at your LFS are cultured animals.
If the seahorses in question are over 4 inches in total length, there is a strong possibility the seahorses were harvested from the wild. It's a mistake to assume that since CITES regulations to protect the genus Hippocampus went into effect in 2004, all the seahorses now being exported to the US have been captive-bred-and-raised. Plenty of wild-caught seahorses are still entering the country, destined for the pet trade.
The CITES regulations currently use a size limit to manage the seahorse fishery. Seahorses smaller than 10 cm or about 4 inches in length are illegal under CITES and cannot be imported or exported by member nations. However, wild-caught seahorses larger than 4 inches can still be imported legally if the necessary permits are obtained. Also, CITES regulates only the international trade in seahorses, so Hippocampus erectus and Hippocampus zosterae and Hippocampus reidi collected in US coastal waters are exempt from the regulations and can still be marketed freely within the US.
So when you purchase seahorses from your LFS there is a good possibility that they may have been procured from the wild or pen-raised rather than born and raised in captivity at an aquaculture facility. It's fine if you want to give the new seahorses at your LFS a try, but because of the uncertainties surrounding them, be sure to play it safe and quarantine them before introducing them to your main tank, just as if they were wild seahorses. Assume they are wild or at best pen-raised and take all the necessary precautions so you won't get burned. And I would also be a very sensible precaution to set up a new tank just for them, rather than mingling them with your existing captive bred livestock.
One other thing to bear in mind when you are ready to purchase the livestock for your seahorse tank is that it is very desirable to purchase the animals directly from the breeder, rather than from a wholesaler, online outlet, or retail outlet. Given a choice, it's always better to eliminate the middlemen and order your seahorses directly from the breeder in order to obtain the healthiest possible livestock. When you obtain your specimens directly from the breeder, you know that they have been fed and handled by seahorse experts from the moment they were born until the moment they are shipped to the hobbyist. You are thus assured that the seahorses will arrive well-fed and in top condition. Seahorses from a High-Health aquaculture facility such as Ocean Rider are certified to be free of pathogens and parasites, and will thus reach you at the peak of health.
That's may not be the case when seahorses are obtained from a wholesaler, online source, or your LFS. When seahorses are kept at a retail outlet, they are typically held in aquaria that share a common filtration system with all the rest of the tanks in the store. This means that the seahorses may have been exposed to pathogens and/or parasites carried on fishes from all the corners of the globe while they were in the holding tanks at your LFS or the wholesaler be obtained them from, making them potential disease vectors for a wide range of health problems.
And, of course, it's very likely that the seahorses will have been fed improperly during their stay at the LFS. I agree with you completely, Karen -- any pet shop proprietor that advises his customers that seahorses can thrive on a diet of brine shrimp in this day and age should be taken out and horsewhipped!
Best wishes with all your fishes, Karen!
Happy Trails! Pete Giwojna
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It should be illegal.
