TamiW

From my experience, there is no such thing as affordable captive bred seahorses. They are difficult to raise, expensive to feed, and take a long time maturing. And they are not easy to sell, because of their specialized requirements, so there are not many

Sorry I've had a busy few weeks, so I just am first getting a chance to catch up now. Sure, I can do that! I'd also love to hear from all of you how you're keeping your seahorses. I wonder what differences are between how we keep seahorses in the US and how they are kept there. I recorded a quick video to show how I currently raise baby seahorses. It's not an ideal setup, but it works. I have plans of building a shared system which will reduce the amount of labor, but until it gets done, this is what I will continue to use. As for tips, off the top of my head: Minimum 30 gallons for most species (114 liters) Keeping seahorses at cooler temperatures helps combat bacterial infections. In general, tropical species are kept between 70-74F (21-23C). Frozen (thawed) mysis shrimp is the staple diet, but variety is encouraged, including small krill, live amphipods, and enriched brine shrimp Higher flow rate is recommended these days; seahorses do better with a turnover of 10-20times/hour the overall tank volume. Some people do even higher, though I haven't experimented with that. For babies Enriched artemia nauplii is the only artemia that should be fed. What you enrich with is very important. You want something that is high in DHA. Here, that's algamac-3050, or Dan's Feed. A lot of species can't take baby brine shrimp from birth because the food is too big. Rotifers are the right size, but they don't move "right" for seahorses, so they aren't a great choice. A pelagic copepod that is small enough is ideal. bacteria can overwhelm babies, so its important to keep the rearing tank clean, including wiping away any biofilm (films of bacteria and algae) that accumulate. A some seahorse breeders are starting to use blue round tubs to grow baby seahorses: http://www.fusedjaw.com/breeding/seahorse-fry-system-build/ I will add more as I think of them.

Wild seahorses are just notoriously hard to keep alive. Not impossible, but it's quite challenging and even in the most experienced hands they often do poorly. Captive bred seahorses, on the other hand, have turned around the way people keep seahorses in the US. Because our laws are so strict about importing, captive bred seahorses are by in far the most popular. I still wouldn't call them easy, per say, but many beginners have success with them because they are just much more hardy than wild caught seahorses. If you've struggled with seahorses in the past, and only have tried wild caught ones, I strongly recommend trying your hand at captive bred ones. They don't have parasites, have fewer bacterial issues, and aren't fussy about eating. A lot of people have trouble with wild caught seahorses, even if they do everything "right". They just never adapt fully to aquarium life. They may never learn to eat frozen food, and starve, or may get stressed which causes secondary conditions like bacterial infections.

Do you have captive bred seahorses available to you there, or only wild caught ones? Yes, bacteria is a big killer. Here in the US, many keepers have taken to keeping their tropical seahorses between 70-74F (21-23C) because it keeps bacteria from proliferating so quickly. It does seem to make a big difference.

I wish I could send some seahorses! Unfortunately international law makes it very difficult. I can't even sell to Canada even though I could literally drive them across the border because of how close I am. You can get CITES certified to ship outside the US, but from what I hear, it is very difficult to do so. I am not a full time breeder, believe it or not. It's just a lifelong hobby that has taken up a bunch of space. I've actually had some health issues as of late so have had some friends helping me clean up the aquariums. I feed frozen (thawed) mysis as their staple diet, but I also feed enriched live brine shrimp 1-2 times a week, and I offer amphipods I collect from my sumps. I sometimes give them small krill too, though they aren't nearly as fond of that.

Here are some pictures of the fish room: I'm going to try to get a video walk through of it this weekend or shortly thereafter. I will post that here when I am done.

Thank you! I'm very proud of them. Some of them are going on display at a local zoo.

Hi everyone - I hope you don't mind that I have joined your forum. I am from the US, and I have been keeping and breeding seahorses for the past 15 years. I write about them a lot too, and am trying to understand what different seahorse keepers face around the world, thus my reason for joining. I am hoping you will have me, but if this is inappropriate, I will leave, no hard feelings. I have a fish room dedicated to my seahorses. Right now I keep H. erectus, H. comes, H. zosterae, H. taeniopterus (kuda) and a single H. trimaculatus because I have been unable to find another for sale. I'm raising H. erectus and H. comes at the moment. Here are some pictures of my seahorses: H. comes: H. erectus: H. erectus juvenile with interesting coloring: H. trimaculatus: H. comes juveniles I raised: H. comes newborn I don't have any good pictures of the H. zosterae or H. taeniopterus yet.