Seahorses & How much Food???

rykna

rykna

Active Member
I have been searching the web to find an article regarding the healthy amount of mysis per day to maintain a healthy, happy seahorse. So far not much has turned. Most talk about how to feed, what to feed, when to feed, food enhancers, every thing but how much to feed to ensure that your seahorse is getting enough sustenance to ensure healthy physical condition. :notsure:
Fish as we all know will eat as much as you give them, and overfeeding causes water quality to take a nose-dive.
My Kuda seahorse will happily slurp up any mysis I add to the tank. I am conducting a test today. I thawed one cube of mysis, and have been adding apriximately 5~8 mysis every half hour; 5 feeding so far. Everytime Valiant has eaten at least 5 of the mysis.
So, does this mean I have not been feeding him enough? I have had him for almost 2 months now. Generally I feed him twice a day.
There are only 2 fish in the 90 gallon now. Vailant and a fire goby. So competion isn't a problem.
Any ideas
:notsure:
Thanks,
Rykna
 
poniegirl

poniegirl

Active Member
Originally Posted by reefreak29
actually feed a 1/3 of the cube 3 times per day,or a cube a day
I agree with this if you have a good, hungry clean-up crew. For two animals like a firefish and your Valiant, one cube per day is gluttony. You almost have to overfeed the fish to be sure they get enough, and so then depend on the scavengers to take up the slack.
I like the sense of feeding by weight. We do it with dogs, cats.
I will look at the weight of a couple of things and post again. It's a good question and tough to be precise?
 
rykna

rykna

Active Member
Originally Posted by PonieGirl
I agree with this if you have a good, hungry clean-up crew. For two animals like a firefish and your Valiant, one cube per day is gluttony. You almost have to overfeed the fish to be sure they get enough, and so then depend on the scavengers to take up the slack.
I like the sense of feeding by weight. We do it with dogs, cats.
I will look at the weight of a couple of things and post again. It's a good question and tough to be precise?
Thanks, that's a great idea! My Mom is a dietitian, she has tons of tiny food scales. It would be easy to weigh Valiant and Flash in a container on the scale. She would also be able to give me a rough idea of their nutritional needs to maintain the current weight. I can use some online horse sites for weight references.:cheer:
 
monalisa

monalisa

Active Member
So is it wrong to assume the rule of thumb as with other sw fish, that what they consume in 3-4 minutes is adequate...although, I realize that with sh's it will be more times a day?
I've just been browsing the big horse site and came up with a couple of really nice tidbits for my tank...the count down is on :jumping:
It looks like I'll be adding a little clown goby to my tank tomorrow...if they're still at my LFS, AND if they look healthy and happy!
Lisa :happyfish
 
poniegirl

poniegirl

Active Member
Okay, here are some puzzle pieces..
"average seahorse weight" might be 3/4 oz. live weight. That does sound reasonable.
If you feed the horse 20% of its body weight daily, that is about .15 oz, or about 1/8 oz. :scared:
I looked at my frozen mysis and got further confused. The package says 3.5oz, but I don't know if that is per cube, or per package? Has to be per package, right?
So there are 30 cubes in the package. Hmm.
That is .116 oz per cube, or pretty close to 1/8 oz.
Reefreak..that is spooky. And I stand corrected and bigmouthed. (Self-flaming)

I can't hazard a guess on the actual daily intake of my own, because the tankmates were a wide variety and voracity, but the above numbers make a good argument.
Nifty!
Rykna, I still would really like to know if your horse can be weighed (and measured) that would be interesting.
 
reefreak29

reefreak29

Active Member
Originally Posted by PonieGirl
Okay, here are some puzzle pieces..
"average seahorse weight" might be 3/4 oz. live weight. That does sound reasonable.
If you feed the horse 20% of its body weight daily, that is about .15 oz, or about 1/8 oz. :scared:
I looked at my frozen mysis and got further confused. The package says 3.5oz, but I don't know if that is per cube, or per package? Has to be per package, right?
So there are 30 cubes in the package. Hmm.
That is .116 oz per cube, or pretty close to 1/8 oz.
Reefreak..that is spooky. And I stand corrected and bigmouthed. (Self-flaming)

I can't hazard a guess on the actual daily intake of my own, because the tankmates were a wide variety and voracity, but the above numbers make a good argument.
Nifty!
Rykna, I still would really like to know if your horse can be weighed (and measured) that would be interesting.
 
rykna

rykna

Active Member
Originally Posted by PonieGirl
Okay, here are some puzzle pieces..
"average seahorse weight" might be 3/4 oz. live weight. That does sound reasonable.
I can't hazard a guess on the actual daily intake of my own, because the tankmates were a wide variety and voracity, but the above numbers make a good argument.
Nifty!
Rykna, I still would really like to know if your horse can be weighed (and measured) that would be interesting.
I just have to get a hold of a small scale and the rest is simple. It will take a day or so. They can't weigh more than 4 grams or so. :happyfish
 
poniegirl

poniegirl

Active Member
Originally Posted by reefreak29

I SO deserved that smiley!
Rykna Quote:
I just have to get a hold of a small scale and the rest is simple. It will take a day or so. They can't weigh more than 4 grams or so.
I'm a weights and measurements dork (you should see the notes in my cookbooks), so I'll have to find myself a good conversion chart that I can make my brain deal with..grams to an oz, doesn't compute. That's not really math, is it?
Lisa, what tidbits have you come across?
 
rykna

rykna

Active Member
Originally Posted by PonieGirl
I SO deserved that smiley!
Rykna Quote:
I just have to get a hold of a small scale and the rest is simple. It will take a day or so. They can't weigh more than 4 grams or so.
I'm a weights and measurements dork (you should see the notes in my cookbooks), so I'll have to find myself a good conversion chart that I can make my brain deal with..grams to an oz, doesn't compute. That's not really math, is it?
Lisa, what tidbits have you come across?
:hilarious me either!!! weight is more of a conversion chart....the only reason I know much about that is from my mom. I think I have one in one of my cook books..hmm lets see here...ah here we are
1 lb= 454 grams
1 ounce= 28 grams
1 cup= 8 fluid ounces
 
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