never had seahorses before need help

elkomom

Member
I rescued 3 seahorses from lfs and need info and help.
I have no idea if they are dwarf or not but was told they are captive raised. They are eating mysis but I'm not sure how much or how often to feed them.Any help will be appreciated.


 

grumpygils

Active Member
Originally Posted by elkomom
I rescued 3 seahorses from lfs and need info and help.
I have no idea if they are dwarf or not but was told they are captive raised. They are eating mysis but I'm not sure how much or how often to feed them.Any help will be appreciated.

Mysis 2 times a day minimum (3 best). Any pods? They have to continuously eat because they have no typical stomach to hold food. Low flow, lots of hitch posts, no stinging corals or too aggresive fish, cautious not to over feed (the tank with left overs) and hurt the water quality so many do it by hand.
Need very good quality water.
Mc
 

mcbdz

Active Member
If they are juvies then you want be able to tell yet for sure. The male will have a pouch from the anal fin down and the female will have a sharp angle from anal fin in because she doesn't have a pouch. The store should beable to tell you what they are if they ordered them. What size are they from crown to straightened out tip of tail?
 

teresaq

Active Member
kinda look like juvi kuda. a 5 gal tank is way to small for them. You will need at least a 29 gal or bigger. They should be ok in there until you can get a bigger tank cycled. but think of it this way, would you like to live in a 10x10 room all your life. They will need room to swim and explore.
Try placing a small glass dish in to bottom of tank, and put thier food there. Make sure you have hitched around the dish for them to hold onto.
I agree they should be feed mysis 2 to 3 times a day. They look rather thin. you could enrich the mysis with selcon or zoecon for better nutrition.
be sure to keep a close eye on your water. syphone out any mysys they dont eat after a while. you woulnt want it to start rotting.
 

elkomom

Member
they're about an inch to an inch and a half and I have 2 tens, 2 20s a 55 and a 150g so they can easily be upgraded when necessary.
 

teresaq

Active Member
Thats good. I would get a 20 cycling asap. They should be ok in that until they are full grown, then they should be moved to at least a 40. I find Kuda to be more active then Erectus. The 55 would make a great tank for them if its empty. sand, a little live rock and macros with lots of pods would make them very happy. good luck with your babies.
TeresaQ
 

monalisa

Active Member
I didn't see if your new charges are eating frozen mysis or not. If they are, I've found that setting up a feeding dish for them works great for feeding and for keeping the water quality in check.
How are they doing?
Lisa
 

teresaq

Active Member
you should defrost the mysis in a cup,. then rinse and then pour into tank. Thier food isnt cold in the wild. hehe
best temp is somewhere between 72 and 77. the lower the temp help keep them healthy. less disease
 

zeke92

Active Member
seahorse.org has everything you need to know as well. great articles for keeping them.
rescueing is sometimes a problem tho, it does save the horses in most cases which is good, but it also encourageas the lfs to buy more. so its' a win loss...
 

monalisa

Active Member
Elkomom,
I agree with Teresa in that you need to defrost the mysis in a cup or a small bowl before feeding in some tank water, ideally with a little garlic for their immune systems. I usually set up meals at least 12 hours ahead of time and place them in the fridge.
I posted on one of my threads how I went about training my horses to eat from a dish, and thus lessening the debris in the water which would fowl the water. I'll post the link to that thread here. You'll be surprised how soon they take to the feeding dish. Posts 336 and 339 are of most interest here.
I'll watch this thread to see if there's anything else that I can help you out with.
Lisa
https://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/show...4&page=7&pp=50
 
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