OHHHHH MY GOD A SEAHORSE

[EDGRAY]

HEY refers i cant believe what my eyes see in my tank is a see horsees with something slime surrounding him like a aura or something is really cool looking is brown and is moving is really cooooll ill get my uncle camara tomorrow and ill post some pics but how is this posible is so amazing at first i was is that a sea horse and i talk to john and he is like yes looks like a tiny one is smaller than a neon goby or banded goby and at first i tought it was dead but moves up and down cause is in that thing like slimie aura ohh well just wanted to share that and what i can do to keep it alive ...

 

[Abarnswell]

Where did it come from? Did you buy it? Did you get an order in recently for something else? Can you post a picture?

Seahorses typically move up and down. The slime is probably brown algae covering its body -- that's not unusual and really isn't a problem. It doesn't hurt the seahorse.

It could be a dwarf seahorse. If it's smaller than a neon goby, it's probably a dwarf seahorse. They grow up to 1 to 1.5 inches tall, from tip of the snout to tip of the tail. They are very small! If it's a dwarf, they eat LIVE baby brine shrimp ONLY, which you would have to hatch every few days. Also, dwarves are NOT safe in a reef. Just about anything in there would kill it or eat it, including many corals and inverts.

Or, it could be a very young seahorse of a larger species. Young H. Reidi are flooding the markets now, coming out of Vietnam, I think it is. They are raising them in ocean pens there in huge numbers. But usually, these are at least 3 inches tall when they arrive at an LFS, so I doubt it's a young specimen of a larger breed. If it is, it could eat frozen brine shrimp if it's a really small horse. It sounds really small. Eventually, you would want to feed it frozen mysis. However, it may not yet be trained to frozen food, so you'd have to feed it live (baby brine shrimp, brine shrimp, tiny ghost shrimps) food until it got switched over. If it's as small as you indicated, it can only eat baby brine shrimp and copepods. Seahorses do love to hunt for copepods.

Seahorses should not be in reef tanks, though. They really do need to be in a tank of their own, a tank that meets their special needs, slow flow, low light, no tankmates that would compete with them for food or threaten or stress them. They are very vulnerable.

If it is a seahorse, I suggest you take it to a reputable LFS and let them care for it.

I would have a better idea if 1) I knew where you got it, and 2) I could see a pic.

 

[EDGRAY]

I DIDNT PURCHASE I WAS CHECKING MY TANK LIKE A NORMAL REEFER and i so a pile of shet well i thought it was then i so closely and it was seahorse shaped and i check it with my friend and he said yes that looks like a tiny or baby horse and he is surrounded by a clear slimy thing looks like the shell of a egg or something but is cristal clear really weard this thing came from no were the only thing close is like a tube of a feather duster but no worm in it so i think that was sleeping on the LR and came out from the LR and the weird thing is that that LR has been in the tank for about 4 months i think and the other day a sow a tiny little jelly fish and was cool until it was sucked by the filter :lol: and then today i sow the brown looking seahorse with the clear aura around it but he doesnt seem to move normaly like a horsy just up and down like he is stock to the piece of LR and is weird looking .... but yes ill take some pics tomorrow but i have to pick my uncles camara for that cause i dont own one so ill post maybe tomorrow at 7pm... but thx for the info ABARN.

 

[EDGRAY]

by this morning i couldnt found him if i see him again ill try to get some pics

 

[Abarnswell]

Hi again, Ed

Based on what you've told me, I don't think it's a seahorse. There's just no way one could have gotten in your tank based on what you've said. They don't come in on live rock -- they wouldn't survive it. It was probably some bit of something (algae? sponge? a piece of coral die-off, or something else that just happened to be shaped like a seahorse) that was bobbing up and down in the current, attached to one of your rocks by algae or some other substance.

The most likely way to get a dwarf seahorse hitchhiker is to order something through one of the Florida wildlife collectors. It wouldn't be unusual at all to find a dwarf seahorse in a shipment of live plants or other specimens taken off the Florida coast, which is where the dwarves are collected -- there in those shallow sandy grass beds.

If you see it again, try to post a picture. It's a very intriguing mystery, that's for sure!