Sea horse question

[jc germ]

i went to the shop this weekend and when i got there they were just dropping off new stock and to my amazement they had 2 black sea horses i just had to have them as i had a tank at home just for them to be alone so starting a sea horse tank now
so i have a question as they were just delivered and i took them home and acclimatized them they have been in there since Saturday and have not eaten yet???
is this normal for them are they just stressed out or what gives im giving them baby brine Live
all my prams are correct

 

[dive girl]

Are you able to post some photo of them?
They probably aren't recognizing the baby brine shrimp as food. How small are they? If you can get some live food such as live mysis that would be better and you might have more luck. You can try some frozen mysis and if you are lucky or if they are captive bred, they will eat that.
Would you please tell us about your tank? Not just parameters are okay, but the actual stuff, temp, ph, salinity, etc...
What else is in the tank?

 

[jc germ]

this was my display tank bout 6 months ago it is a 2m hi top there is a bare minimal in the tank now ,a bit of live rock because a seabay is attached to it so could not take it out, the tank is about 2 years old with regular water changes of course sump protein skimmer and all
was a reef tank.. not sure if they are captive or wild ,all prams are fine tested before I went to the lfs
Ph 8,4
ni 0
na 0-10ppm
sal 1,27
temp 77
anything else you need from me

 

[jc germ]

sorry for the picks my cam bat is flat so cell cam photo sucks

 

[teresaq]

Those look like juvi H. Comes
They are most likely net or pen raised and should be wormed.
they are going to need lrger food then baby brine. Gut loaded adult brine or live mysis. You can also try small ghost shrimp.

 

[jc germ]

i have phoned every lfs in my area and not one of them has mysis shrimp what do i do now ???? i got adult brine and fed them not sure if they ate it though they where swimming around when i put it in as i watched from a distance so ill hope for the best

 

[dive girl]

Sweet looking seahorses. I'm with Teresa that they are probably H. comes. Once you get them eating, you might want to go through a deworming process.
When you called the fish stores were you asking for just live mysis or frozen or both? Did you try getting or feeding frozen mysis? One of my H. comes eats her frozen mysis best if I keep it in the water column. The others don't care where it's at.
Did you enrich the adult brine shrimp first?
IMO the temperature is a little high, if you can get it down around 74-75, that's better and will help to keep any bacteria in check. You can keep the tank at 77F, but I think that a lot of seahorse keepers tend to keep the tanks on the cooler side.

 

[jc germ]

ok ill try that then! i asked for both and not one shop has then so I’m stuck to live and frozen brine for now if you say did i enrich it you mean like a garlic solution or what ????

 

[dive girl]

Any vitamin and mineral solution like Algemac3500 (I think that's the name), Selcon, something like that. I wouldn't use just the garlic. Think of adult brine shrimp as like the outer coating of an m'n'm. You need something in the inside to make it yummy (or in our case healthy for the seahorse).
Hey Teresa, do you know if it's okay to use the frozen enriched brine shrimp? I don't use that but I don't know why you couldn't. Hopefully someone that knows more than I do will chime in.

 

[garick]

Order them online and pay for overnight? plus buy the enrichment foods and feed the shrimp directly?

 

[novahobbies]

Originally Posted by Dive Girl
http:///forum/post/3185343
Any vitamin and mineral solution like Algemac3500 (I think that's the name), Selcon, something like that. I wouldn't use just the garlic. Think of adult brine shrimp as like the outer coating of an m'n'm. You need something in the inside to make it yummy (or in our case healthy for the seahorse).
Hey Teresa, do you know if it's okay to use the frozen enriched brine shrimp? I don't use that but I don't know why you couldn't. Hopefully someone that knows more than I do will chime in.
I've looked at it. It's moderately better, but still no good for a long term food. Enriching it provides a higher content of vitamins and HUFAs, but the protein level is still far below what you need for seahorses.