Breeding

Dear Brad:

If your Hippocampus erectus are one and a half years old, sir, they are fully mature and capable of breeding. This species normally hit sexual maturity around the age of five or six months and some Hippocampus erectus seahorses breed successfully as young as 4-6 months of age, although young, inexperienced pairs often produce unusually small broods at first.

Hippocampus erectus has an enormous range of the wild, crossing many lines of latitude, with a normal gestation period of anywhere from 14-30 days, depending primarily on water temperature. In the aquarium, gestation for erectus is usually 2-3 weeks. Furthermore, it is typical for a breeding male to re-mate within 24-48 hours of delivering his latest brood, so mated pairs will often produce a new brood of young about once a month during the breeding season.

In the wild, the breeding season for our native American H. erectus begins in April and lasts until the seahorses move into deep water with the onset of winter, with late spring through late summer being the heart of their breeding season in the wild. But the Southern populations of erectus may breed year-round, and that’s also often the case when they are kept under aquarium conditions, although breeding still may taper off during the winter months.

Best of luck with your seahorses, Brad. Here’s hoping that they will soon begin producing regular broods for you.

Respectfully,
Pete Giwojna, Ocean Rider Tech Support