Hi gang,

I posted this on a couple reef forums, and then thought, hmmn, perhaps someone here would like to see a pic and possibly identify the exact species.

Here's the little guy/girl:
http://members.cox.net/mbrown777/Seahorse1.jpg

I purchased him/her tonight from the LFS for $50. He/she (from now on I'll just say "him") is a captive bred specimen.

I asked the store what they fed him, and they gave the right answer in "enriched frozen mysis shrimp". I also asked that they feed him for me so I could watch. All the seahorses in the tank (there were about 5) looked healthy, and they all readily snapped up the large frozen mysis shrimp.

So, I picked the smallest one, picked up a large frozen "platter" of mysis shrimp, and a bottle of GVH fish food soak (Garlic, Vitamins, HUFAs).

I placed him in my main tank, a 35 gallon tall hex aquarium. He's doing fine so far, I even saw him eat a copepod off the floor of the aquarium, reminded me of a grouper or lionfish, slow until close enough and then...WHAM! Sucked right up!

I read the care articles on seahorse.org, however I don't see a place where they said how often they should be fed. So if anyone knows the exact species I have, and how often they should be fed, let me know! Otherwise I'll just wait until I can get validated over at Seahorse.org :smile:

Cheers!

hippocampus erectus or hippocampus redei

More pics :smile:

http://members.cox.net/mbrown777/Seahorse2.jpg

http://members.cox.net/mbrown777/Seahorse3.jpg

http://members.cox.net/mbrown777/Seahorse4.jpg

http://www.oceanrider.com/


Check out this site!

Carol

There's also a seahorse forum on www.reefcentral.com.

I would love to get into seahorses some day.

Dan

Great, thanks both of you! :smile:

Although I am not a seahorse expert, I would call that a 'she' ... in Hippocampus abdominalis and H. kuda, the female's abdomen is ridged like the rest of the body, while the male's is smooth and soft-looking, because of the brood pouch. If you scroll a little way down this page (http://www.seahorses.de/seahorses.htm) you can kind of see the difference.

I'm with Kat.........you gotta girl!

J

Hey Jean would a common NZ seahorse be ok with O. Warringa/Huttoni? I was thinking the size of the seahorse might stop it from being a target?

Not in my experience. We have done it with juvenile octi's but as the octis get older and larger they harass the horses something terrible. Plus the horses get outcompeted for the mysids etc

J

Definatley a girl. Looks most definately like a reidi to me. It is better to feed them smaller portions twice a day, rather than bigger portions every day. If you have PE mysis, there is no need to enrich. It is chocked full of goodies. If you have Hikari (the two metnioned are the best available) you will need to enrich. You should probably get another. Seahorses are very social species of fish, and can actually die of loneliness.