wtb pipefish or seahorse in vancouver area, prefer small

[swimmingfish52]

for a refugium tank

[cc_bruno]

A few people have been asking for seahorses, and, if they all did their research, then great. I don't want to discourage you, but seahorses are not the same as other fish. Trust me, they are quite a bit of work and can get EXTREMELY expensive to keep, (I don't know how much experience you have with them, so, if you have lots, then ignore this post, but if you are just getting into it, keep it in mind). I'll give you an example that will keep it all in perspective... I bought 6 H. Reidi over a year ago... got a deal on them and they were wild caught... sounds good, right? WRONG! It was costing me about $360 per month in ghost shrimp until about December of last year, when I finally got them to eat frozen mysid! Not cheap! And one of them recently refused to eat frozen and is back on live food, (but, slowly going back to frozen).

Captive bred will cost you more, but will save you a bundle in food, so, they are worth the price. Also, before getting any seahorses, (or pipefish, for that matter), do your research... Go to:

www.seahorse.org
http://www.syngnathid.org/

Hope that helps.

Robert

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Also, if you are hoping the refugium will provide enough food to keep the seahorse or pipefish alive long term, think again. A refugium is great if its very large & has tons of live mysis & pods running around in it. If it doesn't, then the seahorse or pipefish will eat up all the live foods within a week or two and you'll have to train it to eat frzn mysis. Like cc_bruno stated, please make sure that you have everything set up & have done a lot of indepth research before purchasing either seahorses or pipefish. The vast majority (well over 95%) die within a month or two in people's tanks because they are extremely high maintenance fish to keep. I squirt in food 5+ times a day so they can "graze" while, as Rob said, he purchased 1000s of live ghost shrimp for a year to keep his alive.

Another thing to consider is that while with other fish you can go away for the weekend or even a week if someone comes by once or twice & they'll still be ok. These species will greatly limit your freedom of movement unless you have someone trustworthy who's willing to come feed them pretty much every day.

One last bit of bad news: a lot of times, even captive raised seahorses will stop eating frzn & you'll have to make the difficult choice of buying extra live food or watching them slowly waste away.

Sorry for being so negative, but there have been too many people wanting to have extremely hard-to-keep species & then watching them die. This includes the two of us. Captive-raised seahorses are much better adapted to tank conditions, but are more expensive (be prepared to spend close to a hundred each) and, as mentioned above, still stop eating frzn foods. One person in Canada spent over a thousand dollars on captive-raised Ocean Rider seahorses & they all stopped eating from the transport stress & died within a short time.

If you have the right set-up & are willing to devote a lot of time & $$$ to keeping these creatures, then we wish you all the best. We are not trying to blast you or anything like that, we're just trying to give you & your potential purchases a heads up on what you might be getting yourself into.

Sorry for these long postings, but we are Seahorse fanatics after all :redface:

On a less grim note, if you want to see some seahorses, pm me for my contact info.
:biggrin:
Anthony

[Xtasia]

The cheaper way to have easy access to Seahorses.. is just t to get SHF to move 1 block away from you and walk a few steps to his house...

I did it easy.. so can you ;)

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[swimmingfish52]

have had a small blue line for a couple of months, fed initially hatched brine then within 2 weeks was picking at frozen still strong and fat....

bought last one from J&L for a great price today......

sea horses are too big for the tank unless anyone nows of a pygmy type????

thanx again for all the info.....