Seahorse Club
Aquarium & Livestock

Feed Ezy Frozen Mysis

Seahorse Club
Aquarium & Livestock

Feed Ezy Frozen Mysis

Seahorse Club
Aquarium & Livestock

Feed Ezy Frozen Mysis

Seahorse Club
Aquarium & Livestock

Feed Ezy Frozen Mysis

Seahorse Club
Aquarium & Livestock

Feed Ezy Frozen Mysis

Seahorse Club
Aquarium & Livestock

Feed Ezy Frozen Mysis

Feeding question…

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  • #1853
    llovsbarbie
    Member

    So I have been researching to start up my first seahorse home and was wondering other than the twice a day feedings, do I need to provide anything else? Ive came across one forum were someone had stated that he had put copods (sp?) in the aquarium were the seahorses would be going to give them something to eat through out the day. Ive been read over and over they must eat constantly. Is this necessary and if so, how do you go about it? Thank you.

    #5222
    Pete Giwojna
    Guest

    Dear Barbie:

    Is true that seahorses hunt more or less continuously throughout the daylight hours in the wild. This is because they are lay-in-wait "ambush predators" and it can take a long time for a suitable prey item to blunder within striking distance of them in the vastness of the ocean. So they are accustomed to eating small, bite-size meals at infrequent intervals throughout the course of the day in the wild.

    But that’s not the case in the aquarium, where the attentive aquarist provides his or her prized ponies with all of the gourmet frozen Mysis they can eat once or twice daily. In other words, it doesn’t matter if the seahorses are being fed to satiety once or twice a day in the aquarium, or if they are very gradually filling up with many small mouthfuls spread out over the course of the day in the wild — in both cases their nutritional demands are being met quite nicely.

    In short, Barbie, in the aquarium seahorses do not need to eat constantly, but rather do very well when they are given their fill of nutritious Mysis once or twice each day.

    Having said that, it is also true that many seahorse keepers like to keep an abundant population of pods (i.e., copepods, amphipods, and the larval stages of various crustaceans) in their seahorse tank or an attached refugium in order to provide their ponies with an opportunity to graze on live prey between meals. But this is done primarily as a means of behavioral enrichment for the seahorses rather than to improve their nutritional support. Enriched frozen Mysis meets all of the long-term nutritional requirements of your seahorses and then some.

    In fact, Barbie, frozen Mysis enriched with a good supplements such as Vibrance is such a nutritious diet — so high in unsaturated fatty acids and other lipids — that it is advisable to fast the seahorses one day a week in order to make sure they don’t get too much of a good thing. That’s why it’s customary to leave the seahorses unfed one day each week, in order to safeguard their health and well being.

    Because of their lazy lifestyle, our pampered pets are susceptible to a debilitating affliction commonly known as "fatty liver disease" or hepatic lipidosis when they are given a diet that’s excessively rich in HUFA (highly unsaturated fatty acids) and other lipids. Mature seahorses that are no longer breeding are at greatest risk from hepatic lipidosis. Young seahorses need a high-fat diet to sustain their rapid growth and development, and breeding pairs that are churning out brood after brood of fry likewise need all the energy they can get. But once they reach sexual maturity, their growth rate slows markedly, and nonbreeding adults that receive a high-fat diet will begin to store excess fat in specialized cells called adipose tissue (Tamaru, Sep. 2001). Eventually these fatty deposits will begin to infiltrate the liver cells, hence the name fatty liver disease (Tamaru, Sep. 2001).

    In severe cases, adipose tissue can become so thick that it can literally hides the internal organs, cloaking them within a cocoon of fat, and distending the abdomen (Tamaru, Sep. 2001). When the seahorse’s liver or hepatopancreas becomes badly infiltrated with fatty deposits, it interferes with the organ’s ability to perform its vital role in digestion, food absorption, and detoxification of the blood, which has dire consequences for the affected seahorse.

    Fasting one day a week helps prevent such problems, but providing our ponies with a good meal of unfed, unfortified adult brine shrimp, which has negligible fat content, works just as well in terms of protecting seahorses from fatty liver disease. That’s what I prefer to do, rather than fasting my seahorses.

    What I’m trying to say, Barbie, is that many seahorse keepers like to offer their ponies live prey at times as occasional treats because it is healthy and fun for the seahorses to chase down the live food, and entertaining and fun for the aquarists to watch them do so. But this is done in order to provide the seahorses with a welcome diversion rather than as a necessity…

    In a nutshell, providing occasional meals of live prey is good behavioral enrichment for our seahorses. As you know, I feel Hippocampus is intelligent enough to become bored or jaded in captivity at times, and for this reason I think it’s important to provide them with a change of pace and liven things up for them once in a while. Imagine how tiresome it would be if you had to eat the same thing for every meal day after day for the rest of your life. No matter how nutritious the meals may be, dining on the same thing every day would eventually make your meal times pretty uninteresting. The handfeeding sessions I engage in with my seahorses help to break up the daily routine, and I also try to provide my seahorses with live foods regularly so they have an opportunity to experience the thrill of the hunt and the chase once in a while as they do in the wild.

    So nowadays, rather than fasting my seahorses once a week, I offer them a meal with a nutritional value that’s virtually nil instead: unenriched, unfed adult brine shrimp. As you can imagine, brine shrimp in this condition have very little fat content and should be considered nutritionally barren for all intents and purposes. Feeding them the brine shrimp a fun alternative to fast days that I feel is far easier on the hobbyist and his pampered pets alike.

    So once a week, instead of depriving my seahorses, I now serve them up a generous portion of unenriched adult brine shrimp. They get the thrill of hunting and eating live food and I get the fun of watching them chase after it. Instead of going hungry, my seahorses get to fill up on empty calories, while I get to avoid a guilty conscience. It’s a win-win situation. Everybody’s happy.

    It’s a neat way of "fasting with a full belly," which I feel is healthy for the seahorses in more ways than one. Not only does it help guard against hepatic lipidosis from a high-fat diet, it also provides a little extra excitement for the seahorses and helps improve their quality of life in captivity.

    That’s why many seahorse keepers prefer to provide their ponies with unenriched adult brine shrimp, or similar live fodder, once a week rather than fasting them — it’s fun for both the seahorses and their owners, and does just as good a job of helping to prevent fatty liver disease.

    This is what I normally advise home hobbyists regarding feeding their seahorses, Barbie:

    <open quote>
    Feeding & Enriching Frozen Mysis

    There is no simple answer to the question, "How many frozen Mysis should each of my seahorses be eating per day?" That depends on the size of the frozen Mysis, which varies considerably from brand to brand, the size of the seahorses themselves, and the size of their appetites, which is also quite variable from one pony to another, as well as a number of other factors. Mustangs and Sunbursts (Hippocampus erectus) of average size usually eat between 2-7 of the big Piscine Energetics Mysis relicta per feeding, but rather than trying to keep track of how many frozen Mysis each of your seahorses has eaten, it’s a better idea to check them for well-rounded abdomens after they have eaten a big meal and to observe their fecal production in order to make sure they are all getting enough to eat on a daily basis, as discussed below.

    In addition to cycling your aquarium and setting it up to create an ideal environment for seahorses, you will also need to line up a good source of frozen Mysis before your seahorses arrive. Frozen Mysis is available in several different brands from a number of different sources. Gamma brand frozen Mysis is good, Hikari frozen Mysis is quite acceptable (although often fragmentary) as is San Francisco Bay brand frozen Mysis and the Omega One Mysis, whereas the Mini Mysis by H2O Life is great for small seahorses, and Piscine Energetics frozen Mysis is no doubt the best in terms of nutritional content and quality control. Your local fish stores should carry one or more of these brands.

    I have noticed that seahorses can sometimes be very selective when it comes to the size of the prey they prefer. For instance, the jumbo PE Mysis relicta are of course quite large, and it’s certainly possible that young seahorses may balk at the jumbos simply because of their size. Some seahorses are very particular in that regard, and tend to reject food items that are significantly larger or smaller than their preferred range of prey. For example, I’ve seen some seahorses that rejected the smaller Hikari Mysis with great disdain, yet which greedily gulped down the jumbo Piscine Energetics Mysis relicta. On the other hand, I’ve had small seahorses turn up their snouts at the jumbo PE frozen Mysis because it’s too large for their liking, and attack the small Hikari frozen Mysis with great gusto.

    Whatever brand of frozen Mysis you obtain, for best results, it’s a good idea to fortify it with Vibrance before feeding it to your seahorses. Vibrance is an enrichment formulation that was designed by a research team of nutritionists and fish biologists especially for use with frozen Mysis shrimp in order to meet the dietary requirements of seahorses, and it has been developed specifically to provide a long-term balanced diet for these unique fishes. Depending on which Vibrance formulation you use, it includes additional highly unsaturated fatty acids (especially the DHA Omega 6 DHA series), along with Vitamin C and essential minerals, in the proper proportions to further enhance the nutritional profile of the protein-rich frozen Mysis. Studies indicate the DHA it includes is essential for high survivability, nerve development, stress management, and proper reproduction. Vibrance is a bright red-orange powder that gets its characteristic color due to its high content of carotenoids, which are an abundant source of Vitamin A and act as natural color enhancers for yellow and red pigmentation. It is the only enrichment product that includes beta glucan as an active ingredient. That’s important because beta glucan is a potent immunostimulant that provides important health benefits for fish.

    In order to enrich it, the frozen Mysis is carefully thawed out and rinsed well to remove any excess shrimp juices, and then a VERY light dusting of the Vibrance is added to the Mysis while they are still just a bit moist. The Vibrance is then gently worked into the frozen Mysis and it usually adheres very well. The end result should be whole, completely intact Mysis shrimp that have acquired a reddish tinge to their head or anterior end. In actual practice, there are probably as many different ways of successfully thawing and enriching frozen Mysis as there are aquarists that use them; most everybody works out their own method of preparing the frozen Mysis that works best for their needs and busy schedule.

    Here are Ocean Rider’s usual feeding suggestions to guide you at mealtime:

    Feeding Tips

    In general, it’s a good idea to offer one morning feeding and one mid-to-late afternoon feeding, if possible, but there are no hard-and-fast rules when it comes to easy-to-feed, farm-raised horses. Some hobbyist prefer to give their seahorses two feedings a day, while others prefer to give them their quota of frozen Mysis in one big meal. As long as they get their fill, there is really no right or wrong way to go about this — just stick with whatever works bests for your particular ponies and their eating habits as well as your busy daily schedule.

    As you know, the feeding regimen that generally works best for most captive-bred seahorses is to provide each of them with 2-7 frozen Mysis relicta twice a day, enriched with Vibrance, and then to fast your seahorses entirely once a week. In other words, your seahorses should each be eating a total of around 4-14 frozen Mysis each day, depending on the size of the seahorse and the size of the Mysis. But those are just rough guidelines and there is a lot of variation in how much Mysis healthy seahorses eat each day.

    A large seahorse naturally eats more than a smaller pony. And jumbo-sized Mysis will fill up a hungry seahorse faster than smaller shrimp. So a seahorse that’s scarfing up king-sized Piscine Energetics Mysis relicta does indeed need to eat fewer shrimp than a pony that’s dining on the tiny Hikari Mysis or the miniscule H2O Mini Mysis.

    Aside from size, some of the other factors that determine how much a seahorse eats are water temperature, the age of the seahorse, and whether or not it is actively breeding at the moment. The warmer the water temperature (within the seahorse’s comfort zone), the higher it’s metabolism, and the more calories it needs to eat as a result. Young seahorses that are still growing rapidly typically eat more than mature seahorses that have reached their full growth. As you might expect, breeding pairs that are producing brood after brood every few weeks need to eat a lot because so much of their bodily resources go towards producing clutches of eggs or nourishing a pouch full of developing young.

    So don’t get hung up trying to count every morsel every seahorse in your tank scarfs down. Just make sure all your seahorses have full bellies at the end of the day, as indicated by their well-rounded abdomens. After a good feeding, the seahorses belly rings should be flush or even slightly convex in cross section when viewed from head on. (We never want to see sunken, severely pinched-in abdomens on our seahorses! Concave belly rings are a sure sign of an underfed seahorse, with the sole exception of a female that has just transferred her eggs.)

    So if you want to check whether your seahorses are eating well or not, don’t look at their profile — just examine them head-on and check out their gut. Their abdomens or belly plates should bulge out slightly or at least be flush with their flanks, not pinched in or sunken. In other words, when viewed from the back or from head-on after a good feeding, the cross-section of their abdomens should appear convex "( )" or flush "l l" rather than concave ") (" or pinched in.

    Another good way to tell if your seahorses are getting enough to eat is by observing their fecal production. Ponies that are producing well-formed fecal pellets regularly are receiving good nutrition.

    The recommended feeding regimen is to provide each of your seahorses with 4-14 frozen Mysis shrimp daily, enriched with a good food supplement, and then to fast your seahorses entirely once a week. Some hobbyists prefer to give their seahorses two or more feedings a day, while others prefer to give them their quota of frozen Mysis in one big meal. As long as they get their fill, there is really no right or wrong way to go about this — just do whatever is most convenient for you and also keeps the ponies fat and sassy.

    However, many hobbyists find that their seahorses feed best during the morning, so if you can only feed your seahorses once a day, try to make it a morning meal. Whether it’s their biological clocks, something built into their natural circadian rhythm, or whether they’re simply hungriest shortly after waking up, seahorses do seem to feed more aggressively in the morning, and hobbyists should try to accommodate them, if possible. Breakfast, it seems, is the most important meal of the day for our aquatic equines as well as ourselves.
    <Close quote>

    Okay, Barbie, that’s the quick rundown on feeding seahorses with frozen Mysis. Suffice it to say that you do not need to worry about feeding seahorses constantly; they will thrive as long as you give them their fill of frozen Mysis once or twice a day. Feel free to offer them live treats on occasion as a way to enrich their quality of life in the aquarium, but it is not necessary to do so in order to meet their nutritional requirements.

    Happy Trails!
    Pete Giwojna

    #5223
    llovsbarbie
    Guest

    Wow! That was very informative!! Thank you. I feel so much more at ease and actually can breath a sigh of relief. Thanks again!

    #5224
    Pete Giwojna
    Guest

    Dear Barbie:

    You’re very welcome! You needn’t be concerned about feeding your ponies — in fact, you will soon find that feeding them is one of the highlights of your day.

    Seahorses are one fish that can become a true pet, and I’m convinced this is because they are more intelligent than most fishes. The highly domesticated Mustangs are real personality fish and many of them actually enjoy being handled. Unlike most other fish that back off when you approach the aquarium and flee in terror if you place your hand in the tank, seahorses soon learn to recognize their keeper and will come out to meet you. They quickly learn to take food from your fingers, and as you will discover, having your pet ponies literally eating out your hand is a very rewarding experience. When one of these shy, enchanting creatures — whose very survival in the wild depends on concealing itself from predators at all times — comes trustingly up to the surface to eat right out of your palm, it’s a thrill you won’t soon forget. The training sessions and daily feedings required for this tend to forge a close, personal relationship between the aquarist and his charges, and hand-fed seahorses often become special pets. Many times they will even include you in their daily greeting, flashing their recognition colors and parading back and forth and at the front of the tank, performing their dancelike displays for your benefit.

    The first pair of captive-bred seahorses I ever owned were Mustangs, and my ‘stangs quickly learned to recognize me as their feeder, whereupon they would often interact with me at dinnertime by turning on their greeting colors. My original pair are still going strong several years later, and I have watched them go through a number of color phases from month to month. One has settled on gray-green as its base coloration for the moment, and the other ranges between rust, burnt umber, and orange, but always with contrasting beige bands. Last season, the male adopted a rich ochre yellow as his everyday attire (still with the same beige bands, though), while the female displayed a dark purplish ensemble with definite greenish highlights. When courting, they consistently brighten to a pearly white and a creamy yellow respectively. They make a handsome couple, and I find my erectus to be very attractive specimens in all their guises.

    I set up my pair of these spirited steeds in a brand-new 30 gallon (tall) aquarium all their own, and that tank has been my most entertaining, trouble-free exhibit ever since. With a simple setup like theirs, I prefer to target feed my seahorses. That allows me to observe them closely on a daily basis, monitor their health, keep track of exactly how much each specimen is eating, and remove any leftovers immediately.

    Led by the female — by far the bolder and most outgoing of the two — the Mustangs were soon literally eating right out of my hands. (I know, I know — sensible aquarists should always strive to keep their mitts out the aquarium as much as possible, but handfeeding is a thrill I find difficult to resist, and hey — nobody ever said I was sensible!) Of course, I’m very well aware of the risks involved and extremely diligent about taking all the necessary precautions beforehand. And besides, there are major advantages to handfeeding that more than offset any minor risks.

    For one thing, the seahorses seem to enjoy the experience every bit as much as I do. They head for the feeding station as soon as I approach the tank, a series of color changes betraying their excitement, and queue up at the dinner table looking their best and brightest. Of course, they both try to snap up the first morsel — even pair-bonded ponies are not big on sharing or waiting turns — so I no longer offer them one mysid at a time. I offer them a handful of individually thawed Mysis in my upturned palm instead. They know the drill and happily perch on my fingers while snicking up the shrimp as fast as they can.

    Secondly, feeding your seahorses by hand permits the aquarist to conduct a close-up, daily inspection of every specimen in his tank, and I like to use the opportunity to give ’em a good once over. These detailed examinations make it difficult not to notice any subtle changes in my seahorse’s appearance or behavior that might signal impending problems with disease or the water chemistry. That’s a big advantage, since the sooner such potential problems are detected, the easier they are to cure or prevent, and I recommend other hobbyists do
    the same.

    Take a moment to enjoy the show when feeding your seahorses. Make sure they’re all eating well, and use this opportunity to look them over closely for wounds, injuries, or signs of disease. Seahorses are natural-born gluttons. Ordinarily, these galloping gourmets are ALWAYS hungry, so when a seahorse is off its feed, that’s often an excellent early indicator that something’s amiss in the aquarium. Early detection of a potential problem can be the key to curing it, so it’s a good idea for the alert aquarist to observe his prize ponies while they put on the ol’ feed bag. Make sure they all show up for mess call, are acting normally, and have a well-rounded abdomen when they’re done eating. Handfeeding makes it hard to miss when one these chow hounds is off its feed, tipping off the alert aquarist to a potential problem.

    Best of all, handfeeding is pure, sure-fire, 100% unadulterated fish-keeping fun! Feeding time for my seahorses is always a high point in my day. Having your pet ponies literally eating out your hand is a very rewarding experience. These daily feedings tends to forge a close, personal relationship between the aquarist and his charges, and hand-fed seahorses often become special pets.

    As much as feeding time brightens up my day, I have no doubt it livens things up for my seahorses even more. They genuinely appear to enjoy interacting with me, and I believe in enriching their captive environment as much as possible. No doubt it’s the food they’re looking forward to, not the food giver, but our daily encounters are always eagerly awaited and they like to linger on my hand long after all the food is gone. They would allow me to lift them out of the water when I withdraw my hand if I didn’t gently shoo them away first.

    The only thing I don’t like about handfeeding frozen Mysis to my seahorses is the obligatory fast day. The problem with fasting is that the Mustangs don’t seem to realize it’s good for them — that it’s absolutely in their own best interests, essential for their long-term health. Whenever I make an appearance on fast day, they insist on parading back and forth in front of the glass in their greeting colors, begging for a handout. Before my butt hits the upholstery, both of them will be dancing at the feeding station, impatiently awaiting their gourmet shrimp dinner. When it doesn’t materialize, they forlornly abandon their post at the lunch counter, and come up to stare at me through the front glass. When I still don’t take the hint, the female paces back and forth at the front, looking her brightest and most conspicuous, as though trying to attract my attention, while the male reverts to his drab everyday attire and dejectedly resumes his futile vigil at the feeding station. If not for their well-rounded cross-sections, one would think they were dying of hunger, making it difficult to resist their puppy-dog antics. Just sitting there ignoring them makes me feel like a first-class heel. Sheesh — talk about your guilt trips Dang! I hate fast days.

    Best wishes with all your fishes, Barbie!

    Happy Trails!
    Pete Giwojna

    #5227
    llovsbarbie
    Guest

    I am patiently setting up a 56 gal tall tank that will be kept in my master bedroom. It has been running since this weekend and I am testing every day. Dont plan on putting coral in there so I added base rock and fake corals. As soon as I feel comfortable with the chem test and etc, I will be ordering from you guys. This is the best sight I have seen for sh and recommend you to all my fish forums. Thanks again. Any advice is welcomed.

    #5228
    llovsbarbie
    Guest

    Is it necessary to quarantine these seahorse. I currently setting up the sh tank, but haven’t set up a QT yet.

    #5229
    Pete Giwojna
    Guest

    Dear Barbie:

    Excellent! A 56-gallon tall aquarium system should make a wonderful setup for seahorses. It will have the superior height that is so important for seahorses as well as sufficient water volume to provide good stability and a very comfortable margin for error. Base rock and artificial corals will work just fine, Barbie — when it comes to corals and gorgonians, seahorses cannot seem to tell the difference between lifelike fates and the real thing.

    In short, it sounds like you’re off to a good start, Barbie, and the best advice I can give you at this point is to recommend that you complete the Ocean Rider seahorse training program while your new 56-gallon tank is cycling. The training program is a crash course on seahorse keeping that will teach you everything you need to know to tackle your first seahorses with conference. It is quite comprehensive and covers everything from optimizing your aquarium to create ideal conditions for seahorses to cycling a new aquarium to feeding seahorses properly, compatible tank mates for your ponies, courtship and breeding, raising the babies, water chemistry and aquarium maintenance, and disease prevention and control.

    It’s a correspondence course consisting of 10 separate lessons that is conducted entirely via e-mail, Barbie, and of course it is completely free of charge. I wrote the training course for Ocean Rider and I administer it on their behalf, so if you decide to give it a try, I will be providing you with detailed information on all of the subjects mentioned above and then answering any questions you may have about the material at present so that everything is crystal clear. If you decide to participate in the training course, I will be working with you personally until your new aquarium is up and running, completely cycled and well-established, ready to receive your new seahorses, regardless of how long that may take.

    So if you would like to give the free training program a try, Barbie, just contact me off list at the following e-mail address with a brief message that includes your full name (first and last), which I need for my records: [email protected]

    As soon as we have established e-mail communication, I will enroll you in the training program, send you the first lesson right away, and answer any and all questions and concerns you may have as we proceed. In short, the training course will teach you everything you need to know about the care and keeping of seahorses and make sure that you get started off on the right foot.

    Regarding your question about quarantining the seahorses, Barbie, it is a very sensible policy to quarantine all new marine fish before you introduce them to your main tank, but it is not at all necessary if you will be purchasing Ocean Riders from seahorse.com when you’re ready to stock your new tank. That’s because Ocean Rider is the only High-Health aquaculture facility in existence and their seahorses are guaranteed to be free of specific pathogens and parasites. So, no — there is no need to quarantine Mustangs or Sunbursts or any of the other Ocean Rider seahorses, particularly if they are the first fish in the aquarium.

    This is what I normally advise home hobbyists with regard to quarantining new arrivals, Barbie:

    <open quote>
    … the first rule of successful seahorse keeping is therefore to avoid delicate wild-caught seahorses like the plague. The hobbyist can prevent a number of disease problems simply by stocking his or her system with High Health captive-bred seahorses from the beginning.

    High-Health Seahorses

    One of the greatest advantages of Ocean Rider seahorses is that they are all born and raised at a High Health aquaculture facility. Many hobbyists may not be fully aware of what that means or why it is so important. High Health certification is very difficult to achieve and very expensive to maintain, which is why Ocean Rider is the one and only seahorse farm to be awarded High Health status. In order to earn High Health Certification, an aquacultural facility must first prove that it enforces a strict biosecurity program with rigorous quarantine protocols, and that at no stage in the breeding and rearing process are its livestock ever exposed to open systems or wild-caught seahorses. Secondly, it must withstand intense scrutiny by outside agencies — in this case, primarily from the Controlling State Aquatic Veterinary industry. The monitoring done by these Aquatic Health Specialists includes regular sampling of Ocean Rider livestock for complete necroscopic examinations. Periodically, OR seahorses are selected at random by the State Controlling Vet, euthanized, and autopsied. Their internal organs are examined, tissue sections are taken (multi-organ histopathology), and examined microscopically, along with other laboratory analyses. Only then can Ocean Rider seahorses be certified free of specific pathogen and parasites.

    There is a reason that Ocean Rider is the only High-Health seahorse farm in the world and that is because high health certification is very difficult and expensive to attain. It is very costly in terms of the time, energy, resources, and the increased size of the aquaculture facility it requires to meet the demanding high-health standards. You must provide a biosecure area for each species you are working with, follow very rigorous quarantine protocols, and periodically sacrifice a portion of the healthy, mature seahorses you have raised for so many months — just when they are ready to go to market — for complete necroscopic examinations in order to make certain they are free of pathogens and parasites. All of which makes achieving and maintaining High-Health Certification a very expensive proposition. Ocean Rider does it to assure that they are providing the best possible livestock for hobbyists. As always, their primary concerns are not profits but the health and welfare of their seahorses and the benefits cultured seahorses provide in terms of conserving wild populations.

    This assures that when you purchase livestock from Ocean Rider, you will be receiving healthy, well-fed seahorses in peak condition that have been handled by professional breeders and mariculturists right up until they are shipped to your doorstep.

    However, if you will be trying your luck with wild-caught seahorses, or purchasing ponies from a source other than Ocean Rider, it’s very important to examine the seahorses closely before you make a purchase in order to make sure they are not carrying a disease or suffering from any health problems.

    Here are the warning signs and symptoms to check for when you’re giving a seahorse at your local fish store (LFS) a visual inspection, as outlined in the "Sygnathid Husbandry Manual for Public Aquariums, 2005 Manual":

    <Open quote>
    Physical Examination — Visual Assessment

    When performing an initial physical exam, the posture and buoyancy of the seahorse should be closely scrutinized. A seahorse bobbing at the surface is abnormally and positively buoyant. Buoyant animals will often struggle to maneuver deeper into the water column. They should be evaluated for air entrapment problems such as air in the brood pouch (males) or hyperinflated swim bladders. If the tail is extended outward caudodorsally or ‘scorpion-style,’ examine the subcutis of the tail for gas bubbles (subcutaneous emphysema). Subcutaneous emphysema of tail segment also appears to be a condition restricted to males.

    Just as abnormal is a seahorse that is lying horizontally at the tank bottom for extended time periods. This may be an indication of generalized weakness or it may indicate negative buoyancy associated with swim bladder disease or fluid accumulation in the brood pouch or the coelomic cavity.

    Evaluate the seahorse’s feeding response. Seahorses normally forage almost constantly during daylight hours. An individual that consistently refuses appropriately sized live food is behaving very abnormally and should receive nutritional support to meet its caloric needs.

    The rate and pattern of breathing should also be evaluated. Rapid breathing and ‘coughing’
    (expulsion of water in a forceful manner through the opercular opening or the mouth) suggest gill disease [or gill parasites].

    The entire body surface including the fins should be examined for hemorrhagic regions,
    erosions, ulcerations, excessive body mucus, unusual spots, lumps or bumps as well as the presence of subcutaneous gas bubbles. Evaluate both eyes for evidence of periorbital edema, exophthalmia, and any testicular or corneal opacities. Since seahorses are visual predators, maintaining normal vision is absolutely essential to successful foraging. The tube snout is also very important to normal feeding activity. It is utilized like a pipette to literally suck prey out of the water column.

    Evaluate the tube snout for evidence of edema, erosions, and successful protraction/retraction of the small, anterior, drawbridge-like segment of the lower jaw. Close evaluation of the tail tip for erosive/necrotic lesions should also be performed.

    Finally, the anal region should be closely evaluated for redness, swelling, or tissue prolapse. For closer evaluation it may require getting the seahorse in hand. If this is the case, wear non-powdered latex gloves to prevent injury to the integument of the animal.
    <Close quote>

    If the seahorse passes this visual examination, and is eating well and behaving normally, with none of the red flags or warning signs discussed above, only then should you consider taking him home. That’s a quick checklist you can use to determine if the seahorses at your LFS appear to be healthy or not before you make a purchase.

    The Quarantine Tank

    Once you have found healthy specimens with none of the symptoms or problems outlined above and make your purchase, it is equally important to quarantine the new seahorses before you introduce them to your main tank! A potential problem when obtaining seahorses from your LFS is that they are typically maintained in aquaria that share a common filtration system with all of the other fish tanks in the store. Of course, those other fish tanks house a wide selection of wild fish that have been collected from all around the world, and any pathogens or parasites those wild fishes may have been carrying can be transmitted through the common water supply to the seahorses. That makes fish from your LFS potential disease vectors for a whole laundry list of disease organisms and makes it mandatory to quarantine such specimens before they are introduced to your display tank.

    In its simplest form, quarantining aquarium fish simply involves introducing them to a quarantine tank (normally with the same aquarium parameters as the tank they will be eventually going in) all by themselves for a period of several weeks to assure that they aren’t carrying any diseases. The idea is that any health problems the wild fish have will manifest themselves in isolation during this quarantine period, and they can then be treated with the appropriate medications without affecting the health of the rest of the fishes in your display tank. While they are in quarantine, some hobbyists will also treat wild fish prophylactically for internal parasites using praziquantel or metronidazole, and for any external parasites they may possibly be carrying using formalin bath(s) and/or freshwater dips.

    A bare-bottomed aquarium of at least 10 gallons (the bigger the better) will suffice for a Quarantine Tank (QT). Ideally, the hospital tank should have one or more foam filters for biofiltration along with a small external filter, which can easily be removed from the tank during treatment, if necessary, but which can hold activated carbon or polyfilter pads when it’s time to pull the meds out. No aquarium reflector is necessary. Ambient room light will suffice. (Bright lights can breakdown and inactivate certain medications and the fish in quarantine will be more comfortable and feel more secure under relatively dim lighting.)

    For seahorses, it’s important for your quarantine tank/hospital tank to include enough hitching posts so that the ponies won’t feel vulnerable or exposed during their stay in quarantine. Aquarium safe, inert plastic plants or homemade hitching posts fashioned from polypropylene rope or twine that has been unraveled and anchored at one end work well for this if you’re short on such decorations.

    Cycling the sponge filters is important because otherwise the only way to maintain water quality is by making partial water changes every day or two throughout the treatment period. Breaking in the biological filtration will eliminate the need for such frequent water changes and assure that the quarantine period is less stressful for the fish by eliminating transient spikes in the ammonia and/or nitrite levels.

    Be sure to avoid sponge filters with weighted bottoms or other metal components since they will rust when exposed to saltwater. Sooner or later this will cause problems in a marine aquarium. Select a sponge filter that has no metal parts and is safe for use in saltwater. The proper units will have suction cups to anchor them in place rather than a weighted bottom.

    Once your quarantine tank is up and running, new arrivals from your LFS that pass the preliminary visual screening should then be in isolated quarantine tanks for a minimum of 30 days. Marine fish and seahorses should be quarantined for 4-6 weeks as explained above. The only exceptions are High-Health seahorses obtained directly from Ocean Rider (seahorse.com), which are guaranteed to be free of specific pathogens and parasites. There is no need to quarantine high-health seahorses before they are introduced to the main tank, which simplifies things for the home hobbyist. The Ocean Rider aquaculture facility provides multi-generational captive-bred-and-raised seahorses that have now reached a high level of domestication and are very well adapted to aquarium life.
    <close quote>

    Okay, Barbie, those are my thoughts on quarantining new arrivals. Suffice it to say that there is no need to quarantine Ocean Riders at any time whether or not they are the first and only inhabitants of a new tank.

    Just contact me off list ([email protected]) if you want to participate in the training program, and we’ll get started right away.

    Best of luck preparing your 56-gallon aquarium for seahorses, Barbie!

    Happy Trails!
    Pete Giwojna

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