Pete Giwojna
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Re:Please Help! Desperate :( - 2008/09/02 20:35
Dear Monique:
I am very sorry to hear that your female was unable to recover despite your best efforts to treat her, and I regret that I was unable to think of anything else to help her. Please accept all my condolences on your loss.
I know only too well how traumatic it can be to lose a seahorse that has become a special pet, Monique. As you say, they are much more personal and interactive than other fish, and we hobbyists invariably become quite attached to our ponies.
It's easy for me to understand the irresistible appeal of these enchanting creatures. Some hobbyists are simply fascinated by the outlandish appearance, complex behaviors, and surprising habits of these amazing animals. They get a kick out of having a pet that's truly a marvel of nature, an anatomical oddity to top them all. These are the aquarists that are bored by average, everyday, run-of-the-mill specimens that are pet-store staples. They're always on the lookout for something new and different, something extraordinary. When it comes to fishkeeping, they favor the oddballs over the ordinary, and the elevated curiosity quotient of these marine marvels is what attracts them about seahorses. There's a little of that childlike wonder in all of us. Heck, what red-blooded American kid wouldn't give his two front teeth to keep such curious critters for pets?
Others are attracted by the legendary status of the seahorse. They're captivated by the chance to keep a fabled beast of mythical proportions that seems more like something out of a fairy tale or a Disney movie than a real, flesh-and-blood animal. For them, a seahorse tank is the next best thing to having a genuine unicorn or keeping winged Pegasus himself in their living room. There's still a little of the enchanted kingdom in every seahorse keeper, too. Everyone would like to believe in magic, and Hippocampus is living proof that some fairy stories do come true.
Many aquarists are excited by the challenge of breeding and rearing these legendary livebearers. Seahorses are easy to sex, they pair up and mate in captivity readily, and their fry are relatively easy to raise compared to other marine fishes. There is nothing more rewarding than a tankful of healthy, homegrown Hippocampus and many hobbyists feel that seahorse husbandry is the key to assuring their ongoing survival. The prospect of culturing these captivating creatures is thus the clincher for many enterprising individuals.
And a lot of seahorse lovers find it especially satisfying to keep a fish that can become a true pet. Seahorses are real personality fish and many of them actually enjoy being handled. Unlike most other fish that back off when you approach the aquarium and flee in terror if you place your hand in the tank, seahorses soon learn to recognize their keeper and will come out to meet you. They quickly learn to take food from your fingers, and having your pet ponies literally eating out your hand is a very rewarding experience. When one of these shy, enchanting creatures -- whose very survival in the wild depends on concealing itself from predators at all times -- comes trustingly up to the surface to eat right out of your palm, it's a thrill you won't soon forget. The training sessions and daily feedings required for this tend to forge a close, personal relationship between the aquarist and his charges, and hand-fed seahorses often become special pets. Many times they will even include you in their daily greeting, flashing their recognition colors and parading back and forth and at the front of the tank, performing their dancelike displays for your benefit.
So when you lose a seahorse to an illness or injury, it has more of an impact and is harder to accept than the passing of most wet pets. It's not at all like that dimestore goldfish that you can unceremoniously flush without a second thought when it goes belly up...
But I promise you the same things that make the loss of a pet seahorse so devastating are the very things that make them so rewarding to keep in the first place, Monique, and if you stick with captive-bred-and-raised seahorses that you obtain directly from the breeder when you're ready to give it another try, just as you're planning, I'm sure you will have far fewer problems and much more success the next time around.
Respectfully,
Pete Giwojna
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