Indeed, you pointed exactly what's the best food for syngnathids.
I used to keep S. nigrolineatus, S. typhle (ssp argentatus), S.
tenuirostris and S. variegatus. If you give them live food and plenty of
vegetation, they will flourish in any tank with right water chemistry.
I used to give them freshwater zooplankton (Daphnia, Cyclops, etc) I was
collecting daily in a nearby pond. In a brackish tank the plankton was
surviving enough time to be eaten by pipefishes. The seahorses were
slower and they needed a water current to bring food close to their
"nose". Brine shrimps are perfect food, marine mysids even better
(whoever can collect or buy them at a reasonable price). Syngnathus
doesn't take flake food or any other kind of prepared food. They did it
in few instances and I think it was by mistake. They are very active in
the tank and will move easily to hunt food. Something they may not like
(my own experience, which may not be necessarily the best), is strong
water current from circulating pumps or power heads. For filtration I
used inside corner filters, just enough to clean the water for
photography purposes. For brackish or marine species, it is easy to
match the chemistry with today's salts you can buy at a pet store, but
for the freshwater species, I always made sure I am in the alkaline
side, well buffered water, with elevated hardness. This may be easy
for those living in areas with water sources coming from limestone
aquifers.
sorin damian
"Nicholas J. Zarlinga" wrote:
>
> Hey Brian, are you supplementing your live brine shrimp with Selco? If you
> don't know what Selco is, it is a high lipid supplement that you soak your
> lbs in. It is truly miraculous in the results that you get. In the
> seahorse world, we cannot survive raising the brood without it and it
> certainly helps to keep those hard to keep species. Also, live mysis
> shrimp is the staple for sygnathids. If you cannot collect them yourself,
> they are available but rather expensive. Mysis are _the_ key to keeping
> delicate species. Not to mention, if you ever want to see a sygnathid
> smile, feed it mysis. They truly are the "wonder food" for these buggers.
> Also, make sure that the other inhabitant of the tank are not out
> competing the pipes for food.
>
> Nick Zarlinga
> Aquarium Biologist
> Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
> 216-661-6500 ex 4485
>
> "Fish worship... is it wrong??" (Ray Troll)
>
> original message
>
> Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 22:12:37 -0500
> From: Brian Bastarache <bast_at_ici.net>
> Subject: Re: NANFA-- Syngnathus sp
>
> Here are the details:
>
> Tank: 60 gallon hexagon
>
> Filter: Fluval 430 with carbon, Fluval foam block and SeaTech pads, and
> some bioballs and lava rock for biological media
> .
> Lighting: Full spectrum flourescents bulds (2) in the hood on a timer with
> a 12 hour photoperoid.
>
> Substrate: Fine sand and a few shells (of native inverts) and rocks. There
> are a few vynil plastic plants that look like eel grass. We have used these
> same plants in two other 60 gallon hex, esturine setups too.
>
> Diet: mostly live brine shrimp, supplimented with marine vitamins and
> frozen food (mostly for other inhabitants).
>
> Tank Mates: 2 nine-spine sticklebacks and a few grass shrimp.
>
> Chemistry: salinity about 18-20 ppt pH about 8 ammonia was usually low,
> but we did get occasional spikes. ( The seahorses survived.)
>
> Did I leave anything out?
>
> Brian Bastarache
> NANFA- New England
> Bristol County Natural History Center
>
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