FEEDING REQUIREMENTS

[maimz]

..what do these creatures eat? how often and what amounts?

[ajx22]

Originally posted by maimz
..what do these creatures eat? how often and what amounts?

Primarily...

MYSIS shrimp!

We are dealing with a new Canadian Supplier for raised live Mysis.

Still working on getting the landed costs...but the pricing should be pretty good!

FYI...Seahorses require a Species tank, as they are SLOW feeders and can not be in competition with much faster eating/moving fish.

As for their feeding times...I will leave that to the others to provide some info...as I have never kept them (yet :) ).

GREG?? REEFIN GEEK?? DMAN?? ANYONE??!?!?!?

:cheers:

[Aaron]

Finally I get my chance. There is a huge differance between the needs of wild caught and captive raised horses. Wild horses need live food, and do not respond to frozen food. The easiest live food to use is Brine shrimp, but it is not nutrionally sufficient. They need a mix of gammurus, mysis shrimp, brine, live guppies, ect ect. There is a need for calcium in their diets to strengthen their armour plating. DO NOT BUY WILD CAUGHT HORSES. As for captive horses, they have been conditioned to eat frozen food. It is best to enrich the food with supplement, but a nice mix of Brine, but most Mysis is the way to go. For a treat they can be offered guppies, live brine, or ghost shrimp occasionally.
Best of Luck and always glad to help.
Aaron:blob: :blob:

[Aaron]

One further follow up to your question. If captive bred they should be fed a maximum of twice a day with once being enough. They should be fed what they can consume with out any being wasted or it will foul the water quickly. in warmer water they require somewhat more food. Some people even suggest not feeding them at all one day per week.
Aaron:blob:

[Wayne's World]

I have spent 8 months preparing a 30 gal aquarium for sea horses. It's full of LR and about 4" of LS. Filtration is primarily an air lift Berlin 90 and an elcipse hood modified for low flow. The aquarium is full of pods and has been the easiest one I have ever done. The only fish in the aquarium is a Leaf fish. Two weeks ago I finally added what I was led to believe where two captive bred sea horses, yellow, about 3". They really enjoy live guppies and completely ignore any frozen mysis or brine. Live guppies have become hard to find and I am looking for advice on how to switch them to frozen or does anyone have live Mysis. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Aaron]

If they do not respond to frozen food there is a real strong chance they are wild caught horses. Live Mysis shrimp are almost impossible to find, however you can get a live brine shrimp culture going easy enough. Try feeding some live brine and mixing in frozen, and see if that helps. Another thing may be to add a Bangaii Cardinal, they are fairly peaceful, and when they eat frozen can trigger a feeding response. The horse will also eat off the live rock. Ghost shrimp are a more available, but more expensive alternative, and seahorses love ghost shrimp. If you go the Brine shrimp route they will not get enough nurishment for this to be there sole source of diet. Hope that helps.
Aaron

[Wayne's World]

Thanks Aaron I'll keep an eye open at my LFS for the cardinal.

I don't mind buying ghost shrimp for them, it's just that any that I can get seem too big for them to eat, same with some of the feeder guppies. They are getting food, lots of pods, so they are constantly hunting and pecking. The pods are quite small however, thus my concern. My supply of guppies is gone at the moment and the Big Al's where I get them won't have any till late next week, thus the food problem.

[Aaron]

If you put in a ghost shrimp they will rip it apart you will be amazed. You can try small worms, but make sure they have not been exposed to pesticides, they usually won't eat wroms but some do. The other thing to do is get a true captive bred seahorses, and he will initiate the feeding response, once one goes the others qquickly follow. I have gauranteed captive seahorses, and they love mysis shrimp.
Thanks
Aaron

[Wayne's World]

Thanks for the advice. I'll try the ghost shrimp for now.
Any idea where I can get "guaranteed" captive bred sea horses.
As you stated mine are probably caught, not captive. I have voiced my dissappointment to my LFS.