Sea Horse Question

[chopper]

I just woke up and my sea horse was laying dead on the bottom. He fed regularly on live brine, but the pet store has been out of live brine recently, and I haven't been able to feed since last Friday, about a week. Is that too long for a sea horse to go without eating? I am not sure that he fed too regularly on frozen brine. I noticed he wasn't swimming too well last night, and was getting blasted by the power heads whenever he ventured into their current. Was my current too strong? I posted a thread on Mon, and gave my tank specs, and a few people said my two MJ 1200's were fine. I am looking for any answer, as I just returned from vacation on Monday and 3 pieces of coral died, and I posted a thread for help on that, now this. I am tired of things dying, I just lost $200 this week, pretty much. I don't know what the hell I am doing wrong, if anything, please any help.

[Reefer Addict]

Well, first of all, I offer my condolences... it's tough watching things die in your tank... makes one feel pretty helpless.
I'm not sure if seahorses are compatible with the water flow in a reef... most of the seahorses I've seen have been in a species tank with very light water flow... even though you have what is considered 'low flow' for a reef, it still may have been too strong for a seahorse.
I'm just speaking from observation... I've never had a seahorse myself, but the wife and I are planning on a species tank just for the little critters once we get our 55g reef stocked.
Secondly, brine shrimp are the equivalent to potato chips in nutritional value... they just don't have what it takes to keep an animal alive if they are being fed exclusively. A lot of people will soak their brine in Selcon (a nutritional supplement) for a while before feeding them to their fish, which gives the brine a chance to 'gut-load' so the fish get more nutrition from them.
Otherwise, you may have just had a sick seahorse...
Wish I could offer more... but don't give up. Once you get on the right track this hobby is very rewarding, and quite stress-relieving.
HTH

[chopper]

Reefer addict to my beckon again. Thanks alot. I was basically working on info given to me by a trusted friend, who had a couple of sea horses in his reef, oh yeah, and the dumbass at the pet store that sold it to me. I checked to see if it was eating before I purchased, and he ate when I got him home from the pet store. The girl who sold him to me said he needed quite a bit of water flow to move, since they are akward with their swimming. I was aware that they are usually advised to be in a species only tank, and I am in the process of obtaining another 55 gal to set under the one I already have for a refugium/sea horse tank, I am just a little late, as usual. I need to stop listening to the a-holes at the pet store, and get on here first. As for the brine, I am a college student at the U of Kansas, and that is about the only live feed I can get here, if even that. Thanks again, any more advice would be appreciated, Land-locked and pissed in Kansas.

[RayPollett]

Reefer Addict did a good job on info.

You may also want to go to www.seahorse.org

Ray

[Mrs Smith]

Hey chopper,

Rock Chalk!

Try frozen Mysis shrimp - if your horses are tank-raised, they will fare much better on mysis. They do need to eat frequently - a common regimen is feed every day for 6 days and fast them the 7th. If they're wild caught, good luck finding other food for them. You can get Mysis at The Reef House (in Westport) and Fish World (in Blue Springs) if you can't find it in Lawrence. They're both excellent shops.

I'd also recommend seahorse.org - very informative folks. And FWIW, there's an active reef club in KC, with some avid seahorse breeders and keepers. We congregate at www.fishheads.org and you're welcome to meet and get to know some of the locals.

Danielle

[TTown]

If all other foods fail, try live ghost shrimp. I've got 1 that just loves to stalk freshwater ghost shrimp. I have a small freshwater tank that i keep the shrimp in till i'm ready to feed, then i feed the ghost shrimp with high quaility food about 10 min. before i feed the shrimp to my seahorse. Hoping this will be a boost in nutrition. So far so good, i've had mine for about 3 months now. I've had no luck with any other foods other than live ghost shrimp. More than likely mine is a wildcaught seahorse, this is prob. why he wants only live food. Also, buy the smallest ghost shrimp the store has, seahorses have small mouths......Keep your water currents low, with some places for your horse to attach and hang out. Water quality needs to be very good, reef settings are a good goal.

[JennM]

Your horse starved to death. They have a very short digestive tract, and are inefficient at absorbing nutrition from their food, so it's important to feed them high quality food. Brine is like popcorn, filling but not very nutritious.

Before you rip on the "a-holes at the pet store" please remember that YOU are the end-user and are ultimately responsible for your choices. Please do not blame them for being uninformed -- while they should be knowledgable, you are the one putting down money and taking on the responsibility for the creatures you buy, not them. I'm not flaming you, but it gets tiring to see people rip on the store personnel for their own choices (I am a retailer, and a responsible one).

Current - my horses LOVE current, BUT they need a place to rest too.

Ghost shrimp are a better live food than brine, introduce frozen mysis before the live foods, and they will learn to eat the frozen too, or better yet, only buy captive raised horses if you can't get them proper live foods, they come pre-trained to eat frozen mysis.

You might also want to check out www.syngnathid.org for more information.

Jenn
TRT's Resident Seahorse Wrangler...

[Jeremy1973]

Chopper...sent you a PM.