My Little (sea)ponies!

[ugaimes]

After six LONG MONTHS of cycling our tank, we finally added seahorses today! We bought one captive-bred (CB) female and one CB male. Their true color is yellow/orange, but stressors such as changing tanks cause them to take on this blackish color.
Eventually, these guys will be named Smarty Jones and Seabiscuit, but we're waiting to decide which horse we'll name which.
Until then, here are the first pictures of the female:
http://photobucket.com
And our male:
http://photobucket.com
Here he is, wrapping his tail around the tank filter:
http://photobucket.com
We are two very proud parents!

 

[stormy]

Ooooo, I love sea horses!!

they are beautiful!

 

[sandtigress]

How exciting! Congratulations!

 

[sweetiecat3]

Oooh they are soo cool! Those will be great names for them, I like it! And yes they are very pretty. Do they get any bigger?

 

[ugaimes]

Thanks everyone

Nope, they shouldn't get much bigger. The colored ones are already a bit bigger than the black ones, though they are all extremely fragile.
They're been sticking pretty close together and I just took these pictures of them hanging out together, tails entwined

. Love is in the tank!
http://photobucket.com
http://photobucket.com

 

[sweetiecat3]

Wow, the black ones are very beautiful too!

Lucky you, congrats on the new little additions I think they're kinda cute

 

[jane_vernon]

They are so cute!!

 

[emb_78]

AWESOME!!

I hope someday I will have a salt water tank!!

 

[h~chan]

Wow, that's so cool! I've always thought seahorses were awesome.

 

[pushylady]

"Seabiscuit"!

very cute!
I love seahorses, they're such bizarre and wonderful animals. Just the other day I was thinking about your thread about getting some seahorses, so now I know what happened!
Is the female the smaller one?

 

[ugaimes]

Yup, the female is smaller and lighter in color (though neither of them have gone back to their original yellow colouring yet

). They are just the sweetest things- real buddies. They swim around together with their tails wrapped around each other- it is the cutest thing

.

 

[AbbysMom]

Amy, they are sooooo cute!

 

[snosrap5]

Ow wow!! That is so cool!!! Good luck!!

 

[marie-p]

Wow. They're beautiful!
Can't wait to see their real coloring.

They do seem to really love each other. Any chances that they'll reproduce some day? Or would that require a whole different set-up?

 

[foxfire]

I love your seahorses!! I'd always thought they were kindof rare, but I'm so glad to see that you can get them for your own aquarium!

And the names are really appealing, too!! I would have to say that, living near where Seabiscuit was filmed, hee hee.

 

[ugaimes]

Thanks y'all

. They're doing great. Bradley has been catching them fresh ghost shrimp from the march every day, which provides them both nutrients and the opportunity to hunt, which is great. They definitely do not like frozen food!

Marie, there is a very good chance that they'll mate. If the female (Seabiscuit) becomes pregnant, she transfers the eggs to the male's (Smarty Jone's) pouch, where he'll birth the freys. If we notice that our guy is with child(ren), we'll transfer him to another tank compete with aerator, filter, etc. Seahorses give birth to many, many frey at once but only few survive, even in the wild (survival of the fittest). It'd be pretty cool to raise some babies though!

 

[bab-ush-niik]

Wow, they're very pretty! I hope you're able to raise babies. Where did you get them from?

Six months to cycle! You must be very patient. That's why I stay away from saltwater. What happened that it took 6 months? Or does saltwater take longer than freshwater to cycle? My tanks always settled down after a month.

 

[miss mew]

They are such unique little critters Amy!

What exactly are seahorses?? are they considered fish or are they part of a crab family?

 

[chichismom]

Thats awesome!!!!!!!!!!! I did'nt even know you could have sea-ponies-- I thought they would die for some reason, if you tried to take them out of the ocean

COOL!!!!!

 

[ugaimes]

Yup Tracy, they're fish. This species is Hippocampus Cuda.
ChichisMom- generally, seahorses that are taken from the ocean to live in captivity do NOT do well. That is why most aquatic stores (mine included) only sell CB (Captive-Bred) seahorses. They're born in captivity and pretty much know no other way, so they can usually live longer in captivity than wild-caught seahorses would in their natural environment

.