Dwarf seahorse food?

walkietalkie25 · #1 09/18/2007, 05:45 PM

Ok, all you experts out there.....I made a spur of the moment decision (I know, I know, please no lectures! LOL) when ordering a clean up crew, and ordered 4 dwarf seahorses to try and see if they would live in my sump!
My sump is FULL of some critters that swim everywhere as well as things that crawl. I thouht the seahorses could hang on the caulerpa and eat whatever is alive in there to their hearts content! Is that possible??
Also, if anyone can tell me what these swimming critters are, I'd really appreciate it. I'm assuming the crawling ones are amphipods or copepods.
The ones that swim are elongated, clear bodied, have a forked tail and antennae and it looks like four little legs on the body that move constantly while swimming. They are only about an 1/8-1/4 inch in length. They appeared out of nowhere about a year ago in the sump and multiplied rapidly, and have been swimming there every since.
Thanks!!

JetCat USA · #2 09/18/2007, 05:48 PM

seahorses don't fair well at reef temps. they are much more acceptable to disease at temps above 75 IME, if they don't eat what you have in your sump/fuge you should feed Mysis or live brine.

walkietalkie25 · #3 09/18/2007, 06:55 PM

Thanks for the info. Any ideas on what is in my sump?

ReefNutPA · #4 09/18/2007, 06:57 PM

If your seahorses are 1", they are indeed dwarf seahorses. The reason I mention this is many wholesale lists are erroneously listing "tank bred dwarf seahorses" but what they actually are are small (2" or 3") net-pen-raised Kuda seahorses.

If you have dwarf seahorses, they will eat copepods that may be in your sump as well as live newly hatched brine shrimp which you will need to hatch daily.

Unfortunately, I don't personally believe they will fare too well in a sump.... but stranger things have happened.

Best of luck...keep us posted!

Tom

CCall · #5 09/19/2007, 10:24 AM

Dwarf seahorses have to be in a steril environment. Things like bristle worms and bristle star fish will kill them. They need to be in a hydroid free tank. They will eat copepods and live baby brine shrimp (newly hatched and or enriched for a couple of days). They need to be kept around 74 degrees.
Keep us posted!

pledosophy · #6 09/19/2007, 05:51 PM

Hydroids, and isopods will also kill them, the flow will stress them, make it hard to swim and capture food, then kill them. In a typical reef sump, they might last a couple weeks at best.

Sorry just being real

walkietalkie25 · #7 09/20/2007, 10:34 AM

No one answered my question about what was living in my sump, but after hours of searching on the net, I found their picture! Low and behold, they are mysid shrimp!! From what I've read, that is what they eat in the wild, and since these were wild, why would thousands of mysid shrimp not be enough food for them to survive?? (plus there are plenty of amphipods or copepods in there too, but none of the bad things mentioned!)

walkietalkie25 · #8 09/20/2007, 10:50 AM

Another thing I do not understand, especially since these are wild from the Florida Keys, is how the water flow will stress them to death? Are any of you divers? The currents in the ocean are easily as strong as the water flow in the sump. I have watched them swim, and it is slow because of the current, but they do not get swept away either. In the wild, I have observed many species of seahorses and it looks to me like they spend the majority of their time hanging on to something with their tails and capturing food that passes by. Why would they behave differently in captivity, I wonder? Also, the tropical waters they come from range from about 78-84 degrees.
You guys are the experts on these though, not me, so if you say they can't survive this way, I'm sure you're right. However, I cannot create the environment for them you suggest, time will not allow, unfortunately, as I am a NEW business owner, so if any of you have experience in that area, you know you often work 16-18 hours a day. So, if any of you are in Colorado and interested in coming to get them, please let me know! I PROMISE to do my research before I ever "spur of the moment" purchase anything else for my reef tank!!!

CCall · #9 09/20/2007, 11:34 PM

In the wild they only live for about a year and in captivity they can live for 2-3 years. I believe that mysis shrimp is to large for them. Larger seahorses will eat mysis but I have been told that dwarves will not. I only feed live brine shrimp and tiggerpods and occasionally copepods.
I have noticed that when my temp goes above 75 degrees they don't move around much. On www.seahorse.org a lot of people have experiment with the temp and came up with 74 degrees is best.
I hope this helps.

cmsargent · #10 09/20/2007, 11:46 PM

They live in seagrass beds in the wild so currents are lower and somewhat buffered. You are right that they spend most of their time hitched to something and snick food that flow buy. In a captive setting though they usually isn't enough food for it to be constantly floating by. They need to be able to swim around and hunt. Its not that they can't swim in stronger currents but if they have to expand lots of energy to swim it will eventually wear them down and exhaust them. They'll become skinny and stressed.

Your sump may be crawling with life now and that may sustain them for awhile but they will eventually deplete the pod life there and you'll be back in a low food environment.

As for the temp. Yes they can live at reef temps. The issue is disease. Seahorse get Vibrio infections quite easily and it the most common cause of seahorse death in captivity. Vibrio grows best at higher temps. If you lower the temp to less than 74 Vibrio doesn't grow well at all. This help prevent the seahorses from getting vibrio. The dynamic between bacteria and the seahorse hosts are different in the wild then they are in our small tanks.

walkietalkie25 · #11 09/24/2007, 10:42 AM

Thanks for all the useful info!!

yiliyang · #12 09/28/2007, 08:59 AM

The little things that swim in your sump are pods and mysis shrimps.
Amphipod; They crawl all over, rarely swims. seems to walk on its left or right side laying down;

isopods: I never seen them ever swim, like to crawl on all 8 legs;

coppods: swims mostly, in a jerkey hopping motion;

mysis shrimp: They do not crawl, but swims, they like to hover over solid surfaces, but they swim over with swimlets, not crawling with legs.

All are great food for critters.

Good luck with the horses, the flow maybe too much for them, put in baffles may help.