New seahorse keeper intro

[jck16]

Hi, I was sent over here from Manhattan Reefs since someone said this is the current hotspot for seahorse discussion and info. I got my seahorses (male and female captive-bred H. barbouri) about a month ago in a 30 gallon mixed reef tank that's been set up 7 months exclusively for them (although I did end up adding an ORA mandarin). I did a LOT of research prior to getting them but I thought it would be helpful to have this forum as a resource.

My one question is my male seahorse has been hiding a lot in the back of the tank. I'm thinking he could be pregnant but is this normal behavior? He still eats but he always acts like he's coming out a daze when he sees the food and is very slow to go for it. The female is a glutton.

Any response would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, and I look forward to getting to know more people on this forum!

[WallysWorld]

I am not the most experienced here but I can tell you that I have two males and both when carrying fry disappear into the brush. Yes my females are at times much more aggressive for food. But they all have their own personalities! I also have a young male that thinks he is the king of the castle picking on larger males sometimes.

I think whats important is to watch them a lot and look for sudden changes that you haven't seen before to know if something is wrong. The problem with seahorse is they don't show much signs of illness before its too late, sadly.

Anyway welcome!

This is a great forum and I am sure some of the much more experience will chime in soon.

Well I have to go catch my baby clowns as they hatch at 1:00am! crazy...

[Molehs]

One of my males was pregnant and "moody" a few weeks back. He would still eat just fine but hitched in unusual places and stayed at the bottom of the tank. After a few days of that he started acting normal again.

[jck16]

Got your PM Molehs but can't respond because I need 10 posts. I'll take your advice.

He's definitely acting moody...like he's pouting or something and stares at the salt creep on the back of the tank in the shaded area writing poems about death and cutting his tail. I've tried nudging him with my feeding claw but he just stays in place. Hopefully he'll be back to himself soon, I saw him in the front of the tank this morning when the lights are off.

[Molehs]

As a novice, I'd say that as long as he doesn't look or act injured and keeps eating then go with it for a couple days.

[jck16]

I've been meaning to take the advice here but I've been coming home way too late the last few days to really observe them except for about an hour during which he hid. Today I couldn't find him this morning even with a flashlight. When I got back from work though, I found him in the front. He ate well when I fed him. I watched them for awhile but when I stopped watching and came back he was gone again. Now that the lights are off, he's again emerged out of nowhere to be in the front.

He's always been moody In comparison to how he was the first few weeks, but he was at least out in the open. I'd like to think his sudden isolation periods are due to him being pregnant and not that he's sick but I couldn't really tell if he was pregnant when I saw him today. Does his behavior sounds more like a pregnant seahorse or a sick seahorse? If anyone has any input, I'd really appreciate it.

[rayjay]

If it is pregnant, the pouch will be filled out more than before becoming pregnant, usually fairly obvious that it is either pregnant or it is filling the pouch with water to entice females.

[Steve175]

I would do my best to continue to observe, but specifically not to harass (feeding stick, flashlight, etc) as this may make a potential problem worse.

[jck16]

Yah, I would agree. I'm just gonna observe at this time without bothering him especially because he does eat. He doesn't look obviously pregnant so I'm going to guess that he's not although I have seen the seahorses do a mating ritual a couple of times. Thanks.

[rlpardue]

My male is an enigma to me as well. The female is much more active, puttering around the tank, following my feeding tongs and looking out the aquarium glass when she's hungry. She eats more than the male. The male usually sticks to one of his two or three hitching spots and only eats mysis that are placed within a half inch of his mouth (and only after staring at it for 2-3 minutes after I withdraw my tongs and move away from the tank). It looks like he's just still scared perhaps. I got them in the mail from seahorsesource about a month ago. His pouch has recently grown in size and looks very slightly redder in color. Not sure what this suggests...

[Molehs]

My females are more active than the males during non-feeding times.

[Nanojj22]

is it better when keeping sea horses to have 2 males 2 females or a combination?

[rayjay]

You can do whatever you want, but if you want to breed you have to have at least one male and one female.

[virtualserge]

I had 2 males and 5 females in 55g that gave birth every 2 weeks. They are not territorial, not competing and not monogamous, so you can combine males and females as you want. Mine were Reidi. I assume that to be true for other seahorse species as well.

[CodyH]

Jck16, I'm just curious, how is the male doing? Is his behavior still strange and enigmatic?

[jck16]

Been busy these last few days with bad consequences: my female suddenly passed away...

The male is still the same, preferring to hide in the shadows although he finally has decided to make it easier for me to feed him by being in an open corner instead of all the way behind the rocks. He eats although only like 4 shrimps at a time.

My female was always in the open swimming around so I get really alarmed when she suddenly disappeared for 2 days. I couldn't find her before I left on vacation. Then my sister, who came to housesit and feed them, said she reappeared and ate like crazy for one day then seemed to have ruptured something because the next 2 days there was "something sticking out of her" and she didn't eat much. Today I found her on her side not moving much and that's when I knew she was pretty much doomed...

I'm just shocked at how healthy she was just earlier this week, always pigging out on food. Moreover, I'm entirely baffled about how she died too, besides obviously being malnourished.

[virtualserge]

Something like this?



One of my males had a bacterial infection. It all started with tiny red dot on skin and loss of appetite then it all surfaced as if he was rotting from inside. I battled that with antibiotics for 3 weeks, the opening cleared and began to heal, he was eating and pooping while unable to upright himself. Still, I lost him at the end.

[jck16]

No...it wasn't drastic like that. The female just looked malnourished in the end.

[jck16]

I couldn't figure out the reason why the female died, so I decided to just get a new one because the male is still feeding at his usual slow pace. The mandarin fish and corals (including 2 acros I decided to add 2 months ago) are all doing well with great PE on the SPS.

Just wondering if it's a problem for pairing if the female is like a little more than half the size of the male...they didn't have any full grown barbouri when I ordered.

I still feel bad that the female only survived 4 months with me while everything else is doing fine. Hopefully the new female will be with me much longer...

[mtc1966]

i dont believe size to be a issue . but are you ordering from the same source thats more important.

[jck16]

Yep, wouldn't order from anywhere but seahorsesource.

[FishGrrl]

Barbouri can be a lot more shy than many other commonly available seahorses, including being shy about feeding. It's possible she was actually malnurished. I know I lost a pair that just sort of stopped being interested in eating.

You say its a mixed reef tank - could you go into more detail about it? Such as, what other tankmates and corals are in there, what the water flow is, what the temp is? A picture of the tank would be great too.

[jck16]

I woulda expected my male barbouri to be the first to be malnourished since he either hides in areas where it's hard to get food to him even with target feeding or he doesn't seem to want to eat at all (he's seems better about food though these days).

But the female was always swimming about in the front and actively chasing down every bit of food. Then she disappeared for a few days, reappeared according to my sister and ate for a few days, then passed away... I'm baffled but maybe since my sister only fed her once a day it still wasn't enough? It doesn't really explain the male surviving though since there are plenty of days he only eats once a day.

The new female acts just like the old female in terms of food.

My most recent full tank-shot a few weeks ago with deceased female visible:

Softies: Zoas, mushrooms, gorgonian, green nephthea LPS: duncan, acans, sun coral, rose coral SPS: acros, birdsnest, montis
Livestock: 1 mandarin who also eats frozen mysis and of course male and female H. barbouri.

Flow: return pump (rated 700 gph) and one Koralia 1 aimed only at the SPS only when the lights are on (the seahorses almost always avoid that area)

I keep it at 74degrees although there were a few days when the temp went up to like 78 about a week before the female died due to the powerhead feeding the chiller getting clogged and me not realizing that.