does anyone have sea horses?

[daugherty]

no not that i know of it is really hit and miss with them eating frozen

[Damseluver]

It is rare that you will find a mandarin unwilling to take live brine. It is even rarer that you will find one taking frozen food in a LFS.

The conventional logic you see on forums is 100 gallon tank with 100 pounds of live rock. Unfortunately this is generally a death sentence for many of these fish also as pod populations will fluctuate and other species in tanks this size are also actively feeding on this population.

If your lfs is the only one around for a hundred miles it is unlikely that many of these fish are ending up in a system that will sustain them on its pod population alone and a high percentage of them are most likely slowly starving to death. IMO the better advice when it come to this species would be; food training is mandatory in a species specific or nearly species specific tank.

Gut loaded live adult brine will sustain the fish for the short term and I can almost guarantee you its a better diet than the fish is receiving in its holding tank at the LFS. IMO this species ending up in the hands of a hobbyist that is going to make a honest effort at food training is the best the fish can hope for.

First make sure the mandarin is indeed taking live brine when at the lfs. Gut loading live brine is a simple thing. Take off the portion you intended to feed and add selcon or even completely dissolved flake food to that container and let the brine feed on it for 4 to 6 hours. Net it out rinse with fresh and add to tank. Other feeding should consist of a mixture of live brine and frozen or just frozen. You can keep up your efforts to food train the fish until you see success or return the fish to the LFS most likely in better nurtitional health then when you bought him but keep in mind this is likely a death sentence for the fish. Some one else will buy the fish and most likely starve it to death.

[Kat]

That is so sad, I really want to try but I have no experiance with live food, do I need a seperate tank for the brine? I always thought that pods were the only live food they would eat

[OurFishies]

I use a live brine breeder for ours. I have been told that live copepods are the best for them though...

I think ours may have taken to frozen somehow though - I swear I saw him chasing down shrimp when I was feeding the tank today...

[dustin_P74]

the reason that copepods are better is because brine shrimp are junk food to fish

[Bifferwine]

Live brine is easy to raise though, and will work while you are trying to train your mandarin to frozen.

[dustin_P74]

im not saying that they arent good for training, i was just saying thats why copepods are best for them

[Bifferwine]

You're right. I still occasionally hatch a soda bottle full of brine to feed to my fish as a treat once in a while. They LOVE chasing after the live food, I guess it makes them feel "wild" again .

[Kat]

Where can I get more information about raising them?

[RyanG]

Seahorses or brine shrimp? www.seahorses.org for the ponies or just go buy a thing of sea monkeys at the LFS for brine shrimp.