Sea Horse Popsicles

[rykna]

Had an idea.
My LFS suggested thawing a bunch of mysis shrimp~baby shrimp~etc., and mix in the vitamin/nutrion supplement and refreeze the cubes.
When dinner time comes , it gets annoying when half the food floats away...
My daughter and I just made popsicles...why not make SH popsicles. By the freezing the shrimp with a toothpick in them you can lodge the food on a rock or shell. I just tried it...it seemed somewhat succesful. just wondered what you thought :happyfish

 

[teresaq]

be carful refreezing mysis. it can become tainted with bactieria. one of the keepers on the other site just adopted a horse from someone that has been eating refrozen shrimp, and it is very sick.

 

[rykna]

Yikes!!! Never mind......
I did succesfully stick a regular cube of mysis on a tooth pick, and I stuck it to the food dish. You should have seen Valiant's tummy!!!! I thought he was going to pop!!!
So if you to put in additives you whould feed them right away and DO NOT refreeze...

 

[monalisa]

Geez Rykna...I read the title of this thread and thought maybe your heater went out or something!!! :scared:
Don't DO that!!

Lisa :happyfish

 

[bill109]

Originally Posted by TeresaQ
be carful refreezing mysis. it can become tainted with bactieria. one of the keepers on the other site just adopted a horse from someone that has been eating refrozen shrimp, and it is very sick.
yep but i buy freshwater mysis.. my fish love it and little to no harmful bacteria.. btw i feed it to my fw fish as well.. very nice food :happyfish

 

[rykna]

Originally Posted by MonaLisa
Geez Rykna...I read the title of this thread and thought maybe your heater went out or something!!! :scared:
Don't DO that!!

Lisa :happyfish

:hilarious

Well, he looked likr he was going to pop after he polished of the cube of mysis I stuck on the toothpick for him!!!!!
Sorry about that!!!

:happyfish

 

[poniegirl]

Rykna, be sure the shrimp is entirely thawed before feeding.
It's best to feed him much smaller amounts at least twice daily (three times, if you have the freedom to do so), rather than one big meal. Try just a 4th a cube at a feeding, at the most.
Seahorses have no stomach and do not store nutrients in any traditional manner.
They are designed to hunt ALL DAY, feed where they can find it and remain sleek. Live food keeps them healthy because it is just elusive enough that they cannot gorge on it.

 

[rykna]

Wow....do you have more information about the digestive system of a SH??? I had no idea...but that is a big piece of the puzzle regarding the feeding of seahorses! No wonder they hunt all day. Thanks for letting me know.

 

[poniegirl]

Originally Posted by Rykna
Wow....do you have more information about the digestive system of a SH??? I had no idea...but that is a big piece of the puzzle regarding the feeding of seahorses! No wonder they hunt all day. Thanks for letting me know.

I'll look around for some good info..
I do know that digestion takes place in the intestines, that they process food quickly and large meals are wasted for that reason. They literally can have foods pass through undigested, which only leads to more waste in the tank without having benefited the horse. Not good.
This is also why, when a horse is off it's feed, or refuses to eat for whatever reason, it is very hard to make up that lost nutrition.

 

[rykna]

Wow!!! Since I know he likes to hunt pods, I'm deffinately going to order a live batch to excel the population. In my experience, most critters with specialized feeding do best when they can feed on their own. Like when I had little green anole lizards....their personal favorite is fruit flies...try hand feeding that!!!! I just released the tiny flies into the cage and watched the anoles feast. I will definately continue to offer baby brine and other shrimp, but I think by using a main diet of pods it will keep the tank cleaner, and Valiant happier & healthier.
I hope you can find some info and pics of the internal anatomy of the SH. I found tons of stuff regarding external..but very little reguarding internal, except for the info you have already given me.