food enrichment

[fourts1]

Just got 4 reidi and am feeding hikari mysis and hikari ocean plankton. Do I need to enrich the food and if so how often and with what?

[Rays]

Mysis alone is pretty rich, but I also believe the Hikari mysis is vitamin encapsulated already. I usually wll take one day out of the week and feed hikari frozen brine, which also is vitamin encapsulated. This is just to give them a break from the week long rich diet.

[FishGrrl]

I think a varied diet is more important than enrichment. Much of the food available for seahorses comes from freshwater sources, which has the wrong type of HUFA's which can lead to fatty liver disease.

If you can get them to eat other food sources, that would be idea. For instance, H. erectus is pretty good at taken anything you give them, so cutting up squid, shrimp, etc . . . would help vary their diet. Hikari "plankton" is actually small krill, another good source of the correct HUFA's. However they have a hard shell so some seahorses don't take to it.

You can also enrich live brine shrimp a couple times a week if all else false. I like Algamac, but you have to buy it in pretty large quantities. Super Selco is also a good choice if you can get your hands on it.

[David123]

I have never heard of seahorses taking things like cut up squid, how do you cut it up so that they find it atractive.

Mysids tho oftimes fresh water are not responsible for fatty liver, it is rather the quite high HUFA, not the make up.

If you use selco you are only adding the the adults very high free fatty acid profile, instead, use such things like spiralina, chlorela, astaxanthin and beta glucan.

[FishGrrl]

Originally posted by David123
I have never heard of seahorses taking things like cut up squid, how do you cut it up so that they find it atractive.

Todd Gardner was the one that turned me on to the idea of using squid. He grates it with a cheese grater, I believe. I've used it with H. erectus, I just chopped it very finely. I've only had H. erectus take it, though I've heard H. capensis will take pretty much anything. And now that I think about it, I suspect H. ingens would as well.

Mysids tho oftimes fresh water are not responsible for fatty liver, it is rather the quite high HUFA, not the make up.

I'm not so sure about that. The EPA to DHA ratio is very important to marine life as they can't break down EPA into DHA. Freshwater fish can, which isn't surprising as your ratio of naturally occurring EPA to DHA is much higher in freshwater systems. In saltwater systems, DHA is much higher, though the levels vary. Excess fatty acids that are there wrong DHA/EPA ratio are where the problems with fatty liver "disease" come in.

If you use selco you are only adding the the adults very high free fatty acid profile, instead, use such things like spiralina, chlorela, astaxanthin and beta glucan.

Whoops. I meant to say DHA super selco. Specifically enriching for the DHA.