Sea Horses!!!

[Manderin]

Oh my gosh!

The new store I'm going to has Black Sea Horses! I would love to get two! I fave the perfect 29 gal that I could use!! Does anyone have any usefull info that I could use, I started reading on them. However I would like to here from people with experience. Any info would be appreciated.

Thank You
P.S. Their $119.00 is this resonable?

[Travis L. Stevens]

If you want seahorses, then you are in for a serious project. Once they are eating prepared foods, they are rather easy, but you have to keep a vigilant eye on maintenance and feeding. If you can't get them to eat prepared foods, then you are in a long and hard journey. Also, it is a very wise idea not to buy wild caught sea horses. Make sure that they are tank bred. Or at least captive raised. If you visit the Seahorse and Pipefish Forum (http://reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=35) here on Reef Central and look through all the information at www.seahorse.org you will find a ton of information on them. Also, make sure that you have their scientific name and that the identification is accurate. This could mean the seahorse's life.

As an answer to your P.S., I think that is outrageously expensive. Here in Oklahoma, I can think of three seahorse suppliers. One source is bred and sold by the same person for $50 a piece and garuntees them to be eating prepared food before they are sold, another one used to sell them for $89.99 but has since dropped their price to the $50 or less (I can't remember), and the other source sells seahorses for ~$35. All of these are captive bred.

[FelipeBastos]

Is the $119.00 Canadian?

;-)

[spoiledcats]

I think seahorses need to be fed like 3 times a day, and it's hard to get them to eat anything but live food. So you have to be around the house most of the time which is why my lifestyle does not permit me to ever have seahorses. Maybe when I'm retired.

[Travis L. Stevens]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7607137#post7607137 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FelipeBastos
Is the $119.00 Canadian?

;-)

D'oh. I didn't see that. It might be right up your alley, cost wise, then.

[sloshesv]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7607193#post7607193 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by spoiledcats
I think seahorses need to be fed like 3 times a day, and it's hard to get them to eat anything but live food. So you have to be around the house most of the time which is why my lifestyle does not permit me to ever have seahorses. Maybe when I'm retired.

My SH eat frozen mysis like all the SH you can get from seahorsesource.

[spoiledcats]

My SH eat frozen mysis like all the SH you can get from seahorsesource.

I know some people can get them to eat frozen stuff, but don't they still have to be fed often because of the way they eat? I just am not at home enough for that. I saw the most beautiful seahorses at a store once (yellow and red ones-gorgeous!), but know that I can't give them the proper care, for now anyway. Also, those mini seahorses are so cool. Okay, I have to stop talking now, cause I'm really wanting seahorses. BYE.

[Salty Bginners]

i paid 39.99 for mine...

[Reistroffer]

Hello,

I currently have 2 sea horses. Both captive raised. I've had mine now for around 6 months. (This pair) Anyways these animals are not as hard to take care of as most would say. IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR DOING. I stress that I newbie will kill them in a week.

First lets start with price. $119 is insaine. Do not pay that.

I bought both of mine for $60 and they threw in a lawn mower blenny.

Best food for them is mysists. Mine looove them. Took awhile to get them away from brine shrimp...but once i did it was easy. Keep in mind they were on dead brine. not live.

Biggest thing to worry about is water flow. To much they'll get stressed out...to little no filtration. You have to find a happy meeting point. I suggest a filter for a 50gal tank on a 20 gallon tall sea horse tank. Trick is to make a spray bar that spreads around the tank to spread out the flow...took me an hour to make.

They like rocks they can hang on. They are very smart animals and will watch everything...90% of the time i sit by the tank they are watching me. My cat loves them :)

as for feeding...they should be fed once a day. Some will need twice a day. I feed mine once a day personally. Some agree some dont...mine are very happy and very active...so i know for mine ..it works

if you have any indepth questions PM me.

good luck!

also remember you cant keep anything else with sea horses ..other than VERY passive creatures...

[geo]

[moved]

[mark0933]

You folks in the States have it made, here in Canada $100 per horse is a decent price (Big Als sells Reidi for $150 each!!!)

As for your question here are the questions to be asked of the LFS:

Are they captive bred or wild caught.

Ask the LFS what breed they are, if they say "black seahorse" then they really have no idea what they have, and won't be able to help you out much should you have problems.

If you have any other Q's from one canadian to another, please feel free to PM me.

Mark

[pledosophy]

I would suggest that you seek advice on the open forums instead of in PM's. In the open forums we can all share the knowledge with each other and you can hae the advantage of several people's experience.

Usually IME a seahorse labled by color is a WC. WC's are doable, but they do take extra work. They need to be QT'd for a longer period. They should recieve a fresh water dip of at least 8 minutes, a treatment of prazipro, and a treatment of fenbendazole to remove the dangers of parasites.

Many WC seahorses take a long time to train to frozen food, some never do.

IMO you are going to be better off looking for a CB aquacultured seahorses that is already trained to eat frozen mysis. A CB may be more expensive up front, but I assure you will be less expensive in the long run if you factor in the costs of meds, and the potential cost of years worth of live foods.

A 29g is a good size tank for them. You can use tonga branch rock to double as liverock and as a hitch. IME I have found that seahorses do have a larger bioload then most fish of similiar size, but they ar very possible in tanks of that size.

The turnover of the tank should be around 5x per hour. You can increase this some by the use of spraybars or multiple returns but having all of it come out of one return will create to strong of a current.

You also need to keep the tank temp down a little compared to a reef setup. 74F is a good starting point. A little lower is better, I would not go higher IMO.

Do do some reading it will really help you out. If you have any questions feel free to post in this forum.

Good Luck.

[MAthU]

you can get seahorses here in ontairo for 35-50$.......at alot of different FS

[cb9tunerguy]

my lfs just got 20 or so black sea horses in they are all crammed in a 30 gallon breeder. i think they are $21.99 a peice. they look absolutly miserable. i asked the store manager what they were thinking when they placed that order. the store manager replied "i get credited for the ones that die before they are sold so i dont really care"- sad, very sad. needless to say they lost my business.