keeping seahorses color

[didimcginty]

I have bought some red/orange reidi seahorses for my daughters oceanic 29 gallon tank. got two about two or three weeks ago. i let the tank cycle for about a month and a half before i put any in there, the water for the tank i took from my 90 gallon reef tank. I bought a big yellow corol like decoration to try to keep there bright colors, but within a week they turned dark, anyone have suggestions on getting them back to there red/orange color. my tank deffinatly looks brighter than my live fish stores, there seahorses are stilll brighrt and mine are black, the do use black live sand though w/ yellow deocrations smaller than mine. the horses have been eating great and i know that is the most important part, but if i can get there color back that would be great
thank you

[Roxie]

Try to change or mixed there food like mixed brine with mysis shrimp!!!:beachbum:I try it ones and it work my sea horses got there colors back:strooper:

[TamiW]

Dark color can also be a sign of unhappiness. Or it can just be the color they prefer based on your tank. Even with the bright decorations, when you look at the tank, what is the overall color? And what are the color of the objects they hang out the most on? If the tank is overall dark, or if their favorite spots are dark, they may just stay dark.

You can also try Naturose. Naturose is a natural color enhancer, you might want to try getting that, then feeding to brineshrimp which you then feed to them.

[timinnl]

Greetings from Amsterdam,

I think that is the holy grail of seahorse keeping. Would it be possible for you to list what you have in the tank? Gravel color, background color, what else you have in the tank & so on.

Tim

[rayjay]

I have 8 of those horses on order just to see if I can find a way to get them to keep their colours.
From my investigation at the moment, I have planned to go with ONLY ambient lighting, none over the tank.
The decor will be fluorescent if I can find enough.
The bottom will be bright red, and if that's not enough, the sides will also be painted bright red.
The only ones that know the answer for sure are ORA and Aquamarine International, and they aren't telling.

[Ben34105]

I bought 2 black seahorses that were trade ins at my LFS. I had them about a week and one turned white overnight. Not sure why. It's still eating good and acting just fine.

I named him Micheal Jackson by the way. :lol2:

[didimcginty]

thank you all for your help, the oceanic tank has an all BLACK plastic cover in the back, live rock w/ a good deal of coraline on it, white live sand, big fake yellow coral they hang out on. some red, purple and green mushrooms, in the tank are 4 emerald crabs, 3 nassarius snails, turbo snails, and the 4 seahorses.

[timinnl]

Keep an eye out on your water quality. 4 seahorses could be overtaxing your system. Even with the water from your other tank, there might not be enough bacteria within the system to handle the load. If you have a test kit handy, please run some test on your water.

Lastly, are you rinsing the food under a tap or are you putting it right in?

Tim

[didimcginty]

i put it right in the tank, they only eat live brine right now, i have tried frozen mysis and frozen brine regular and frozen brine w/ spiralina and they do not eat as well. i keep the brine in a container in my fridge in the basement, they are in saltwater and i have an airstone in the container to keep the water circulating, i add a few drops of selcon so the brine digest it. i do water tests for both my tanks on saturdays, tests show on seahorse tank
amonia-0
nitrite -0
nitrate-0
ph -8.0(trying to raise it to 8.2)
need to do a phosphate test, just bough a new kit yesterday
calcium-450
kh-11
sg-1.025
let me know if i am leaving out anything
thank you all again

[Frank Giacobbe]

I had the same problem with my yellow ones. I feed them all different types of food. I think they try to blend into there surroundings. But I might be wrong.

[timinnl]

Ok! Are they only eating the live brine? Are they eating or only looking at the frozen mysis? Are they Captive bred or Tank Raise? Sorry for all the question.

If they are true captive bred one, you shouldn't have a problem with them eating the frozen. If they were tank raise, then it is iffy with the frozen. Would it be possible for you to test the water right now?

Lastly how are you preparing the frozen food? Thawing it inside the tank or outside the tank?

[timinnl]

I had the same problem with my yellow ones. I feed them all different types of food. I think they try to blend into there surroundings. But I might be wrong.

You are correct. They try to blend in.

[didimcginty]

do not be sorry for all the questions, you are helping me with my question, and i appreciate that, i have gotton alot of help from this site since i joined, it is great to get a good deal of info from people w/ knowledge and experience. unfortunatly i am at work, working hard as you all can tell. when i get home tonight i will test it again and post the info.

they stare at it, they all will take a bite but seem to spit it out after words. then just stare at it some more, if this makes any sense, when i put live food in there they chase it down and eat it up

the lfs i bought them from said they are told they are tank raised by there vendor, never really new there was a difference between tank raised and captive bred but it makes sense now.

thanks

[rayjay]

It would be interesting to know where you got them from and where the breeder is located.
Most of what I've found for the coloured reidis have originated at Aquamarine International in Sri Lanka and they have been trained to eat frozen mysis.
Perhaps try a different brand of the frozen mysis.
If you are continually feeding them live food, they are more hesitant to take frozen.
I would cut back on live to once a day with twice on frozen with the live feed being the last of the day.
At this stage, they probably will still be too small to eat frozen PE mysis if that is the brand you are using.
Take a turkey baster and blast the food around the tank so they think it is live, and eventually they should get onto it.
Just remember to vacuum out any uneaten food daily.

[timinnl]

Ok then. What you can do is to try and trick them. Put in a few live brine mixed with some thawed rinsed mysis. Put it near the flow of the output of the tank, that way they might go after it. If you can get a hold of live mysis, it will work better.

Double check to make sure that they are H. reidi. How were they labeled on the tank? A pic later on will help out. With captive bred ones, the breeder would of made sure that they were eating frozen before they were sold. With tank raised, it depends on the exporter. Plus there might be health issuses with tank raised one.

When you get home, run the test & see if there is a change since last sat.

Also you might want to think about a larger tank down the line.

Lastly check out www.seahorse.org

Ok it is now 10.40 here. Time for bed.

Will check up on you in the (MY) morning.

Goodnight,

Tim

[didimcginty]

here are my test results
ph-8.2
am-0
nitrite-0
nitrate-0
kh-11
cal-520
po4-0
sg-1.025

i will post a pick after i do my water change tommarrow night, i have to clean off the glass, hopefully the stuff on the glass is not a contributing factor, probably is, sorry not mentioned before. i also bought a bag of black hawaiin live sand from store, was thinking of putting it in when i do my water change. was told before by another customer that the black sand will make the ornaments in the tank look brighter keeping the seahorses brighter, does this make sense?
i have noticed that the seahorses will pick what looks like dead brine shrimp off the substrate floor. i think i will try mixing frozen and live, or feed frozen in the afternoon and live at night
i also turn my pump in the tank off during feeding because the horses seem to be able to get the food easier than when it is on
i am not sure where my local fish store got them, i know he has gone back and forth between vendors because of shipping and product issues. they where labeled tank raised seahorse 19.99, figured i could not beat the price, that is why i bought four, one employee was feeding them when i went to buy them so i saw they where eating, live brine of course.
thank you all again for your help and suggestions

[rayjay]

Wow! At $19.99 you can bet they are not true Captive Bred sehorses, and, I doubt that they are even tank raised at that price.
That would explain the trouble with eating frozen as they are most likely wild caught and you have to train them to eat the frozen.
What city did you buy these in?

[didimcginty]

philadelphia, makes sense because i have also never seen them that cheap, i am new to the seahorse thing, i did a good bit of research before i set up the tank and bought them, but i lack experience keeping them, i had a reef tank for 3 years. and from my reading and understanding, it is alot different.

[timinnl]

Okay then, that changes everything. Leave the pump on and feed them the way Ray & I wrote about. Also go to the site I mention & read up on the cane & protocols of wild caught seahorses.

I have the indoblack sand in my tanks. Love it. Just add 25% evey two days or so. If you put all of it in at once, you cover the bacteria growing in the gravel.

Lastly the color darken could be stress related due to the status & the size of the tank.

Tim

[didimcginty]

came home today for lunch to feed frozen brine, let pump on, they still just looked at it. one attempted to eat but only took one bite
also now found one dead, so i am now down to three
so maybe this is stress related, not sure why, have had them two or three weeks now.
i thought the test results looked good
from my reading seahorses would be ok in a 30 gallon, are you saying stress due to size of tank would be because of the amount of seahorses i put in there? maybe should have stuck w/ two in a 30 gallon?
anyway will due a water change tonight, continue to feed as instructed by you guys and i will read up on the link you had sent, i will post a pic hopefully tommarow,
thank you all again for your continued help, this is my 5 yr old daughters b-day gift, can't let her or these living creatures down.

[timinnl]

Sorry to hear that. For one pair of H. reidi it is recommended that they have a minimum of 29gallons & 15/20gallon for each pair after that. *** Are you sure they are H. reidi?***

If you have a chance, have your water tested at the store & compare the results.

Chances are it is a number of factor causing the demise of the seahorse.

1: At the price you pay for them, I think they could be wild caught or tank raise. Same difference in my humble opinion. That being the case, they do come into the trade with a number of health problems. I am leaning more towards wild caught due to the live food only issuse.

2: Four of them in the tank could have stress them out to the point of causing them to not eat or triggering a underlining illness.

3: Put in a few live brine before putting in some of the frozen.

4: What is the temp of the tank? If it is high, lower it to 72 - 74 degrees.

5: Any other fish, coral or living thing in with them?

Here is a trick a friend told me about. In order to explain why his kids pet hamster died, he put in the lion king and watched it with his kids. After the video, he told them the hamster died. Thus completing the circle of life. Its corny, but it worked for him.

Let me know if there is anything else I can help you with?

tim

[didimcginty]

i appreciate that, not a bad idea. the temp of the tank is always around 78, no chiller on it so i will have to get creative, i remember reading about the temp having to be lower for seahorses and i forgot all about that. there are a couple of mushrooms, couple of zoas, and a dying finger gorgonian that was beautiful in my tank, the lights in this tank are to intense and the flow is slow, the exact oposite of what i needs to survive. no other fish, just horses, figured it would be easeir since i know they are delicate, oh and a rock of pulsating xenia, it is not staying though, it is just in there until i can take it to the lfs for credit
thanks

[timinnl]

See if you can drop the temp. Everything else in there seems ok.

So I think the cause of the color change is do to stress/illness, high temp & tank size.

With three of them it might be doable? Also I hope other will see this thread & chime in. You might need to put them in a hospital tank & deworm them.

[timinnl]

Just checking to see how you are doing?

[didimcginty]

cleaned up the tank and here are some shots, let me know what you think,
all is well no more deaths, still trying to get these guys on frozen cube

[timinnl]

Nice looking horses. If all goes well & you do get them to start eating frozen, that well be good. Just keep at it. It can take quite a while, so don't give up.

Now for the good news/ bad news: Good news is you have a nice looking tank & everything seems ok with it. The bad new: Your seahorse might not become that bright yellow in your tank. They like to blend in with their enviroment & in your case the primary color is black. Maybe that will all change once you get them onto frozen mysis & they are settled in.

How is the temp now.

Take Care,

Tim

[didimcginty]

76 now, i am going to freeze water in little soda bottles and switch them out to keep a cooler tank, i was affraid that the all black wall in the back would be the issue, not to sure what to do about that, probably nothing i can do. the problem w/ frozen mysis in the cubes in my fish store are so big, i think that turns these little guys away. the owner is going to order me some different make of mysis to see if they are smaller, we'll see.
i just changed to the black sand yesterday, i took out the other stuff, i thouhgt it might make the big yellow thing look brighter, i added a bottle of the live bacteria just incase
thank you again for your help

[timinnl]

72 to 74 is ideal. Good thinking with the ice bottle. Just keep an eye of the water quality with the switching of the sand.

PE or Hikari is smaller I think? They don't carry those brands here.

Just keep posting if you need any other help.

Take Care,

PS. I couldn't get that song Circle of life out of my head. I keep humming it. :)

[TamiW]

Hikari is the small stuff, try that, and try getting it in the cubes, they're often smaller than the flat pack. Also see if you can get it form different stores. Different batches seem to have a lot of size variation. SFB brand Hikari is also often on the smaller size. H2O life makes "mini mysis". The stuff I have is pretty broken up, and that might work well for really small seahorses.

[didimcginty]

i think i've seen hikari before, i will try it out if i can find it
thank you all again

[keith20]

Are sea horses that hard to keep? Seems the like 72 to 74 degrees. Most tanks seem to be running at 78 degrees. What other fish can you keep with them?

Thanks

[Mo2]

Nice looking horses. If all goes well & you do get them to start eating frozen, that well be good. Just keep at it. It can take quite a while, so don't give up.

Now for the good news/ bad news: Good news is you have a nice looking tank & everything seems ok with it. The bad new: Your seahorse might not become that bright yellow in your tank. They like to blend in with their enviroment & in your case the primary color is black. Maybe that will all change once you get them onto frozen mysis & they are settled in.

How is the temp now.

Take Care,

Tim

I don't totally agree to this. I don't have any bright colors in my tank, its a aquapod. black back with liverock and a few ricordea and yumas and thats it. Each horse does change color a bit but have tend to stay a certain range of colors. I have a male that goes from chocolate to light yellow and white, a female that goes from pale yellow to pearl white, drk green to brown, etc. They do change color with they're surroundings, but I don't think its as easy as saying they are trying to blend it.

At any rate, I think bright light is the key factor in a seahorses choice of color. My horses were black when they were in the breeders tank (low lighting) and have all changed to lighter shades of yellow and white. Nothing saying all are like this, but I mean Erectus are notorious for being plain blk and white, but not in my case.

[rayjay]

Lighting is only one of the many factors that seem to affect the color seahorses choose in a system. In fact, with similar lighting, and similar decor, similar species can be different colors from one tank to another based on unknown factors.
For reidi bright reds and bright orange, the breeders use fluorescent decor and ambient lighting.
When these horses go to stores and then on to hobbyists, they generally change to browns and reddish browns even before the hobbyists get them into their tanks, many times.
For years, people have been searching for a way to get a seahorse back to the colour it was when they purchased it and so far, no one has come up with a foolproof way.