Hippocampus Comes

[Lockes]

I am looking into getting my first seahorses.

What is this species like and how easy are they?

[Samala]

Tiger tails, H. comes are not currently offered anywhere that I know of as captive bred. This means that all the specimens of this species you see in the shops will be wild caught, and often come in with parasites or other pathogens. They have long elegant snouts that can be a problem should you need to take heroic measures to feed them (tubing, etc). Wild caughts will also need live food, preferably live mysis or ghost shrimp that are enriched, continuously. Training WC animals to frozen food takes a lot of patience.

There are several species of seahorse that are just as good looking, and the same general size of tiger tails, but are offered as captive bred. See the stickie at the top of this forum for sources (FAQ thread). Species for this include: H. erectus, kuda, barbouri and reidi.

>Sarah

[NanoLurker]

my advice - do not get h. comes as your first horse. i purchased four on january 1, two remain. i probably sound like a broken record but let me tell you the condition of the first male who died (less than a week after purchase): atrophied stomach, atrophied liver, protozoa in gills, protozoa in swim bladder, protozoa in heart, protozoa in swim bladder observed ingesting red blood cells, worms in gills, worms in upper gi. the protozoa was confirmed to be uronema. h. comes are my personal favorites however the condition they are coming in is deporable. they are being touted as "tank raised" however, they must be some filty tanks. my own personal opinion is they are pen-raised which i suppose sounds better than wild caught but they are basically coming in with the same diseases and problems that wild caught horses do.

a couple of people have gotten lucky and have reported early success with frozen, i have one trained to frozen and one who still refuses and will only eat live. they have had rounds of fenbendazole, metronidazole, praziquantel, three flair ups of uronema, two resulting in secondary bacterial infections. you don't want to see my medicine chest and what it's taken to keep the two remaining seahorses alive (i've only listed a few of the meds used on them). i have had to tube feed on two separate occasions. it's not fun and will take the joy out of owning these creatures.

i would recommend you search for captive bred seahorses, there are a number of breeders here in the u.s. who can supply you with a quality horse and some great species.

[TamiW]

I too love comes. They are definately my favorite, and I can't see actually owning them again. They are just extremely sensitive, and TMC had some cb ones for a while, but very few people had luck with them. I would KILL for healthy comes, but it just doesn't seem to be in the cards. When I worked at a fish store, I had cart blanche to get some wc H. comes in and do whatever was necessary to keep them alive. Having access to copious amounts of live mysis, and I still couldn't do it. It was horrible.

Some people do have success with them. I strongly suspect the problem with them is the condition they arrive in. If by some amazing chance you can get healthy specimens from the get go, maybe you'd have luck. I've known a few asian aquarists that never had trouble with them. But it seems like they are too sensitive to make a trip half way around the world.

[Wink]

Just here to agree with all that's been said. H. comes are our favorite and we have been trying for years to get/raise healthy ones. They are very sensitive, resistant to treatment, difficult to feed and the ones available are "pen-raised" and coming in with multiple problems and not reliably eating frozen food.
Even experienced keepers should think twice about tackling these.

[BruceW]

I would listen to Wink's advice as she is one of the few people in the US that have successfully raised H. comes. I too have had them on two occasions and I am an experienced syngnathid keeper. The first time I had a pair and the female died. The male would never except any dead foods or even live brine shrimp. I finally bought 2 more pair and all four died within two weeks.

They truly are beautiful horses but I do not think they ship or adapt well to aquarium conditions. Oh yeah and the fry are really hard to raise.

Bruce

[TamiW]

Vicky, didn't you have some luck breeding them and raising the young? You're one of the people I was thinking that were one of the successful ones. I'm saddened to hear even you're having difficulties.

[Wink]

We did raise 5 from birth to adult - even had a few broods of a second generation with a male from BruceW - none of the fry survived past about a month. We have since lost 4 but we do still have one lone female born 10/19/03. We've been trying to find a healthy mate for her for about a year (since we lost the others) but we just can't seem to catch a break on it. I'm having some success with reidi fry now, and great success with dwarves (knock on wood), but we still dream of someday being able to actually breed healthy H. comes.

[TamiW]

What a shame! I mean, congrats on the reidi, I was just hoping you could be the one to lead the way to better H. comes understanding. Maybe someday!

I did see a BEAUTIFUL H. comes female at a store about 6 months ago that I had to fight myself to keep from getting it. She was all yellow (except for the striped tail), something I've only seen in R. Kuiter's book. She was eating small ghost shrimp too. But I've had too many tragedies with H. comes to try again. At least not for a long time.