Seahorse SOS

roguemonk · #1 12/21/2007, 01:12 AM

I have a seahorse who, despite the claims of the LFS owner, does not eat anything but live food. I have some I can provide and will order some more, and will try the techniques documented on FAMA and Seahorse.org to train him to frozen. But that may not work, so I want to offer him up to anyone who is willing and (what is less likely) has a setup where he would be guaranteed long-term survival even if he does not take to frozen.

He's about 8-9" and the LFS owner said he is H. erectus (he looks like he is to me, but I am not an expert and I haven't counted his rings...). He's black with brown/beige striping and a few white patches. He may be a bit emaciated but generally looks like the photos I've seen. I'll be working hard to fatten him up at any rate over the next few weeks.

If no one can take him, I can use the well-wishes of everyone and the advice of anyone who has actual experience (I think I know what one can learn without actually going through it!).

Thanks,

Brad

rehnberg · #2 12/21/2007, 10:22 AM

Can you take it back to the LFS?

stugray · #3 12/21/2007, 01:16 PM

How much do you want for him?

I am in Longmont, and have a 75 Gal frag tank hooked to my main system. It is teeming with life. Do you think he would eat mysid shrimp? I also have one pack of brine shrimp eggs.

I would even consider caring for him in the frag tank where he would have a decent supply of live food.

Stu

jonthefb · #4 12/21/2007, 01:24 PM

Brad you might try to see if any of the shops down there offer ghost shrimp, or even saltwater feeder shrimp. I know that there are a few wholesalers that we order from who sell saltwater feeder shrimp. Also look into the hawiian red shrimp. They are a bracksih shrimp, but you can keep them reproducing, and the seahorses go nuts over them. Also, are you feeding PE Mysis?
best of luck
jon

roguemonk · #5 12/22/2007, 01:48 AM

Jeremy,

Taking him back to the LFS won't do much good since the LFS had been feeding mysis and he wasn't eating (he was in a tank with a damsel, also, too aggressive to allow him to feed). I think I can give him a better chance than that, because I can dedicate my time to his care. No LFS has that kind of time, I wouldn't think.

Jon,

I'm going to try all varieties of frozen that I can find locally. I've ordered some saltwater feeder shrimp online (but the vendor seems slow to respond, possibly everyone is on vacation -- sigh). It's tough from Longmont to tour the LFS because all of them are a "fur piece" so I think I'll go online for needs other than obvious staples. But if anyone knows if Aqua Imports or one of the Greeley stores has a good variety of frozen foods I'm interested in knowing. Thanks!

Stu,

I know the rule says I need to set a firm asking price, but in this case I consider him a "charity case" so I don't think it would be right. I paid $65.00 but I certainly don't expect someone to pay me to give him a better shot at survival. Besides, I'm not really aiming to sell him so much as to open the door to someone who is willing and has an obvious advantage in being able to care for him long-term.

I haven't witnessed him eating anything but he did snatch at something once or twice in the algae that I couldn't see. I think he was eating amphipods or mysids because I know they were swarming in the tank when I put him in there. He was hunting last night under some structures where I know there were some mysid swarming, so possibly he did snick a few.

I'll keep your offer in mind, but I think I'll see if he loves the shrimp and then I'll try the tricks to get him trained (I have a pair of horses coming that are "guaranteed" to eat frozen, and that's one of the best ways to train according to what I've read -- if he sees other ponies eating frozen he'll be more inclined to try it. That will be best for him if it works, I think. I may have hit the panic button a little too early, but if you were breeding feeder shrimp I would gladly turn him over. Brine shrimp really aren't a good food for them long-term and I'm not sure how much real estate he needs to generate a sustaining population of food items, so I wouldn't want to gamble on that.

I hope I'm not stringing anyone along, but if you stay tuned I would like to take your offer under advisement as things progress.

Thanks everyone.

Brad

roguemonk · #6 12/23/2007, 10:17 PM

The online shrimp vendor has no stock and is closed until February. Anyone know of a source locally or online of any of the higher-quality feeders: white shrimp (penaeus vannamei), red shrimp, or even live mysis?

Thanks,

Brad

DrMilhouse · #7 12/24/2007, 06:07 PM

argh!! I have a home for him, but I'll have to find the person. Do you have it still?

DrMilhouse · #8 12/24/2007, 06:15 PM

She's up in your area too. Give me a call at the number I PMed you. I've got a message out to her and hopefully I'll have her number in the next little while.

DrMilhouse · #9 12/24/2007, 07:39 PM

and that would be someone who would be more than happy to coach you on keeping them if you aren't wanting to give him to long term care. She's awesome, she's been keeping seahorses for years and years.

bmb527 · #10 12/25/2007, 11:57 AM

Check with Ki @ Key's Island. I think he has live food for his ponies.

roguemonk · #11 12/26/2007, 11:05 PM

I've moved him into the refugium for a couple of days and if he wasn't going to eat anything in there he's probably too far gone. But there's now reason to be optimistic. I put him back in the show tank yesterday and he went under some rocks and it looked like he had been feeding because he was leaving divots in the sand--and that's one area where I had noticed mysids shuttling about when the tank was fallow, so it stands to reason he'd find them there. Tomorrow I plan to add two seahorses and they should be ready to eat frozen mysis, and that is according to the experts one of the best ways to induce a stubborn one to eat it. Hopefully the company will do him good and get him eating. I still have the refugium to fall back on if he fails to respond in the short term, and then I'll start again to make a different plan for the long term.

Thanks,

Brad

roguemonk · #12 12/28/2007, 01:35 AM

Update:

Herman (the original as named by my son) has now been joined by Henry and Mathilda, who are much smaller but are eating mysis (when they can fit it into their mouths). They've been checking each other out ("are you my daddy?") and hopefully they'll hang out a bit and Herman will learn from them that mysis is good food!

I'll keep you posted.

I took some cute photos and I'll put them in a new thread.

Thanks,

Brad

roguemonk · #13 01/02/2008, 02:53 AM

Update:

Today Herman ate two frozen mysis! I can't be certain it's a permanent trend as he checked out but did not go for two more in the same feeding. It did seem to perk him up a bit...

In a related development: Henry is actually Henrietta, I think. So I have one big male and two small females (we'll see how THAT works out in the end).

Thanks,

Brad

roguemonk · #14 01/03/2008, 02:48 AM

Update: Herman the finicky seahorse did eat one or two pieces of mysis at today's feeding, and then just looked around--might have snatched another but it looked like he might have missed...

I think we're making progress and hopefully he'll be out of the woods soon.

Thanks,

Brad

roguemonk · #15 01/04/2008, 01:11 AM

Update:

I don't know if anyone's still paying any attention, but I'm too excited to keep quiet! The finicky seahorse Herman ate four PE mysis tonight, and if another two hadn't floated into corners where he found it hard to get his head (eventually they were blown away) he probably would have taken more. I think he's pretty much trained and should have great prospects for being one of our favorite pets for a very long time.

Thank you all for advice and offers of help! I'm sorry if I got anyone's hopes up or strung you along--I just wanted to make sure this guy got the best possible shot at a good life in captivity. It feels like a happy ending already...

Thanks,

Brad