Dear Angela & Jennifer:
Ocean Rider is still working all of their lines of captive-bred-and-raised seahorses, including Zulu-lulus, their strain of cultured Hippocampus capensis, but in the case of the Zulus, they are not raising them in commercial numbers for the aquarium market at this time. Rather, they are raising enough of the H. capensis to maintain their broodstock and to eliminate any concerns about inbreeding, and to provide display animals for the aquaculture facility, but they aren’t raising enough surplus specimens to offer them to hobbyists. That is likely to remain the case with H. zosterae and H. procerus for the foreseeable future, but they generally offer the Zulus (H. capensis) at least once a year, so I asked Carol and Craig to give me a timeframe regarding when the next crop of H. capensis will be ready to market.
Carol informs me that they are not planning on offering the Zulus to hobbyists in the season because they are concentrating on other breeding projects right now, but that Ocean Rider should be doing another commercial run of their captive-bred-and-raised H. capensis next year. So it looks like the next crop of Zulus that will be available for hobbyists is still a year away.
Best wishes with all of your fishes in the meantime. Contact me off list ([email protected]) if you are looking for some alternatives to the H. capensis in view of this delay and I can suggest some other options for you.
Respectfully,
Pete Giwojna
Ocean Rider, Inc. is an Organic Hawaiian-Based Seahorse Aqua-Farm & Aquarium that Follows Strict Good Farming Practices in Raising Seahorses and Other Aquatic Life.
