Biology
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What’s Love Got to Do With It? The Truth About Seahorse Monogamy
By Tami Weiss | Date posted: 10/04/2010
“Unlike most other fish, they [seahorses] are monogamous and mate for life.” – National Geographic It’s a theme repeated over and over again in the media and in popular culture. The idea that seahorses are monogamous and mate for life is one that excites the imagination and has helped them gain recognition and notoriety as [...]
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Meet the Strange Syngnathiformes
By Tami Weiss | Date posted: 11/21/2009
Syngnathiformes is the order of highly-specialized predatory fish known for their unusual appearance and adaptations. The most well known is the seahorse, but all of the syngnathids have similar features: long, narrow bodies that lack rings but are instead have a bony exterior that makes up armor, and small, tubular mouths used for sucking in prey.
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Pygmy Seahorses
By Angela Feng | Date posted: 08/04/2009
What is a pygmy seahorse? Pygmy seahorses are part of the genus Hippocampus which all seahorses belong. They are minute seahorse species found through the world, most less than one inch in size. Most species have been discovered within the past 10 years. Since then, they have become one of the most popular creatures for recreational divers to seek out.
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Happy Father’s Day! 10 Seahorse Facts About the Best Dad In the Animal Kingdom.
By Tami Weiss | Date posted: 06/19/2009
Seahorses are often referred to as the best dads in the animal kingdom – and for good reason – they’re the only animal where the male gets pregnant! That’s right, it’s the men that take on the joys of childbirth in these equine fishes.
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Seahorse Biology & Anatomy
By Administrator | Date posted: 07/12/2007
Seahorses, and their relatives the seadragons and pipefish, all belong to the family Sygnathidae (pronounced sing-nath-I-dee) from the Greek words syn meaning together and gnathus meaning jaw, which describes the tubular, fused snout that is common among relatives of this family. Seahorses belong to the genus, Hippocampus from the Greek words hippos meaning horse and [...]
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Fish Stores Say The Darnedest Things: 20 Misconceptions About Seahorses
By Tami Weiss | Date posted: 06/22/2004
Seahorses are shrouded in as much fantasy as fact, and much misinformation exists about them. Much of this is perpetuated by ill-informed fish stores, some by the media sensationalizing the almost unreal seahorses. Twenty of the most common misconceptions are addressed here.
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Recognized Hippocampus Species and Common Names
By Administrator | Date posted:
There are currently around 40 recognized seahorse species. Seahorses are part of the family Syngnathidae (pronounced sing-nath-i-dee), which means “fused jaw”. All seahorses belong to the genus Hippocampus.
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Pipe Fish
By Gerald Jennings | Date posted: 03/01/2000
Members of the family Syngnathidae, more commonly known as Pipe Fish, can be found throughout the world both in brackish and marine waters. Coldwater species can be found around the British coast and there are seven species that have been recorded as being quite common. We shall deal with these coldwater species first: Native species:- [...]
Conservation
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Syngnathid Symposium 2011
By Tami Weiss | Date posted: 11/12/2011
The the second Syngnathid Symposium was held the first week in November in Chicago at the Shedd aquarium. 92 delegates from all over the world gathered to discuss current issues with seahorses, sea dragons, pipefish and other syngnathids. Topics discussed were husbandry, challenges in breeding, keeping and obtaining these unique animals as well as conservation [...]
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Petition To Save Dwarf Seahorses from BP Oil Spill
By Tami Weiss | Date posted: 09/10/2010
I just started a new petition, after finding out that BP’s oil clean-up methods targets dwarf seahorses primary habitat in the Gulf, seagrass beds and seagrass mats. BP burns the mats, and the seahorses along with them. If you find this as horrible as I do, please, sign the petition. The dwarf seahorse, a small [...]
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Keep a Watchful Eye on the Sea Dragons of Southern Australia
By Mick Burrows | Date posted: 05/05/2010
Living amongst the many and varied creatures in the temperate coastal waters of southern Australia; are in essence, the a relatively little known, but immensely fascinating sea dragons. These marine fish of the Syngnathidae family, are closely related to sea horses and pipefish, and as such, need to eat constantly, owing to the fact that [...]
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Seahorse Sleuths
By Tami Weiss | Date posted: 05/21/2009
Seahorses are some of the most enchanting and mysterious creatures in the ocean. They are also in trouble, struggling to survive in threatened habitats around the world, while large-scale trading of seahorses for the traditional Chinese medicine market goes unchecked. Meet the Seahorse Sleuths – local scientists who are working to unlock the secrets of [...]
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Plea To Conserve Sungai Pulai
By Choo Chee Kuang | Date posted: 04/25/2008
Sungai Pulai is a very special estuarine ecosystem that should merit the status of a
national heritage. The intertidal seagrass bed at the Pulai river mouth is the largest known contiguous meadow in the whole country – home to seahorse, dugong and other rare species, and also a fisheries powerhouse. It is something we, as Malaysian, cannot afford to lose. -
Seahorses: Unique Creatures Threatened by Habitat Loss and Overfishing
By Carlos Restrepo | Date posted: 01/01/2004
Seahorses are threatened throughout their range as a result of habitat loss and over-fishing. They are exploited for traditional Asian medicine markets, the pet trade, and for food.
Aquarium Care
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Don’t Sump That Seahorse! Refugiums Are Not A Happy Seahorse Home.
By Tami Weiss | Date posted: 03/21/2011
Seahorses don’t belong in refugiums. Yet this is one of those frequently reoccuring questions that comes up repeatedly by many people considering seahorses. I’m not sure what the appeal is – perhaps the knowledge that they need a specialized setup, but not exactly what that entails or why. Whatever the reason, this article is meant [...]
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Net Pen Raised Seahorses
By Administrator | Date posted: 03/17/2010
Some of you are new to seahorses, and you may be wondering, “What’s the difference between True Captive Bred and Tank Raised/Tank Bred/Net Pen Raised?” These terms are very confusing, even to your local fish shop. Learn what Net Pen Seahorses are and why you should care.
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10 Things You Should Know Before Keeping Seahorses As Pets.
By Tami Weiss | Date posted: 04/13/2009
1. Yes! Seahorses can be kept as pets. As long as you have the proper aquarium set up, and take take proper care of them. They are protected by international law, but that means their trade is regulated, not prohibited. Most countries allow the free trade and keeping of captive bred seahorses. Captive bred seahorses [...]
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Dwarf Seahorses As Pets
By Tami Weiss | Date posted: 02/23/2009
Dwarf seahorses, Hippocampus zosterae remains an ever popular, easy to care for aquarium pet. The basics of keeping them are quite simple as long as you follow a few guidelines.
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Flagtail Pipefish In The Home Aquarium
By Tami Weiss | Date posted: 11/09/2005
Flagtail Pipefish, named such because of their large, brilliantly colored tails that they use in courtship and territory displays, is one of the free swimming types of pipefish from the genus Doryrhamphus and Dunkerocampus. The wonderful thing about these pipefish is that most fair quite well in captivity, unlike many other pipefish species. However, there are still some obstacles that need to be overcome when keeping these interesting fish.
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Keeping Seahorses: Three Keys to Success
By Tami Weiss | Date posted: 09/12/2005
It wasn’t long ago that seahorses were considered “impossible” to keep in captivity. Many believed they were only suitable for those with massive resources such as public aquariums. If the home aquarist were to attempt to keep seahorses, they needed to live near the ocean so they could collect food on a daily basis, and even then, they only met limited success.
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Example 20 gallon Seahorse Aquarium
By Tami Weiss | Date posted: 09/11/2005
One issue that new seahorse keepers struggle with is what exactly they need for an aquarium setup to keep seahorses. Having never kept fish, it can be difficult to pick out what precisely is needed to get started. Here is a list of basic equipment and a price brake down, to give an idea of the specifics of cost and equipment to get started.
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Seahorse Tankmates: What’s Safe, What’s Not?
By Will Wooten | Date posted: 06/25/2004
There are quite a lot of animals that will do exceptionally well with seahorses while still allowing the seahorses themselves to thrive. To guide seahorse keepers in stocking their seahorse tanks with non-seahorse inhabitants, this article contains a list of species that are appropriate for keeping with seahorses.
Breeding
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Seahorse Fry System Build
By Dan Underwood | Date posted: 10/23/2011
Dan Underwood of Seahorse Source shows us how to make a scaled down version of a professional rearing system for seahorse fry.
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Breeding Dwarf Seahorses
By Rodrigo Flores | Date posted: 09/26/2007
The one species I had not had and that I wanted was the Dwarf Seahorse, Hippocampus zosterae. So at the beginning of spring I ordered 20 Seahorses all for my own. I set them up in one 40-gallon Eclipse tank with 2 biowheels and I put the intake in a Hydrosponge so the horses would not get sucked up.
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Raising Seahorse Fry: The Fish Bowl Method
By Tami Weiss | Date posted: 04/03/2003
The system I use for raising Hippocampus reidi fry is a modified pseudokreisel. Kreisels and pseudokreisels are tanks with a circular water flow most often used for keeping jellyfish. For H. reidi, and other pelagic seahorse fry prone to air snicking, you can use a drum fish bowl for this purpose. The design originally suggested by [...]
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It’s Rodeo time, Hippocampus erectus style!
By Ed Curran | Date posted: 02/19/2003
My fascination with seahorses began a long time ago, it all started when I was a boy reading the classifieds in Field and Stream, an ad selling dwarf seahorses caught my eye and that was that. I ordered the ponies and proceeded to watch them die one by one over the next few days, I [...]
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Solving Problems in Seahorse Culture
By Todd Gardner | Date posted: 09/01/2001
Although seahorses have been spawned and reared in captivity for many years, a simple, effective, and reliable culture protocol is still sorely needed. The purpose of this article is to report on my preliminary rearing trials and the solutions to some of the problems I have encountered.
Foods & Nutrition
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Live Food Suppliers
By Administrator | Date posted: 08/29/2008
Finding live food for syngnathids can be difficult. Here is a list of mail order and online suppliers wordwide. If you know of any additional suppliers that should be added, please add to the comments below and I’ll add them to this list.
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Seahorse and Pipefish Foods
By Tami Weiss | Date posted: 06/25/2005
Seahorses are ambush predators, feeding primarily on crustaceans, mostly shrimp. In their wild state, most seahorses only eat live food. (Although H. capensis is an exception and known to feed on dead food in the wild). In our aquariums, Wild Caught specimens often don’t recognize many food items offer that are not from their natural [...]
Disease and Health
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Don’t Sump That Seahorse! Refugiums Are Not A Happy Seahorse Home.
By Tami Weiss | Date posted: 03/21/2011
Seahorses don’t belong in refugiums. Yet this is one of those frequently reoccuring questions that comes up repeatedly by many people considering seahorses. I’m not sure what the appeal is – perhaps the knowledge that they need a specialized setup, but not exactly what that entails or why. Whatever the reason, this article is meant [...]
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Snout Rot
By Will Wooten | Date posted: 06/25/2004
Snout rot is the erosion of the skin around the snout of a seahorse. Similar to and likey caused by the same pathogen as flesh-eating bacteria, Vibrio spp., snout rot can often be controlled with pre-treatment before the seahorse is released into the display aquarium. The disease may be cause either by fungal infection (in which case the snout will be pinkish) or bacterial infection (in which case the snout will be white).
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Pouch Evacuations in Male Seahorses
By Tami Weiss | Date posted:
Evacuating the brood pouch of a male seahorse may be necessary from time to time if a male’s pouch accumulates excessive gas in the pouch. At first, this may seem like a frightening task, but its really very simple to do, even with the squirmiest of guys. Just remember, seahorses are smart and he’ll probably [...]
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Flesh Erosion Disease
By Will Wooten | Date posted: 06/24/2004
The purpose of this guide is to provide a reference, or starting point, in identifying and treating some of the most common diseases and medical conditions of seahorses in home aquariums. It is not, however, set in stone; constant scientific research and anecdotal evidence cause the seahorse hobby to evolve every day, furthering our understanding [...]
Advanced Care
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Syngnathid Symposium 2011
By Tami Weiss | Date posted: 11/12/2011
The the second Syngnathid Symposium was held the first week in November in Chicago at the Shedd aquarium. 92 delegates from all over the world gathered to discuss current issues with seahorses, sea dragons, pipefish and other syngnathids. Topics discussed were husbandry, challenges in breeding, keeping and obtaining these unique animals as well as conservation [...]
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Net Pen Raised Seahorses Part II
By Administrator | Date posted: 03/17/2010
f you ever see a seahorse for sale at your local fish store like the one pictured here, pass it by. You’ll be saving yourself money and heartache. When you see a seahorse at your local fish store, you’re most likely to see a Kelloggi a.k.a. “Great Seahorse,” which is the most commonly pen-raised seahorse. It’s not because they make great pets or because they are hardy.
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Reproductive Husbandry of the Weedy Sea Dragon
By Kristy L. Forsgren | Date posted: 07/04/2009
Due to the difficulty and cost associated with maintaining sea dragons in captive environments, reproductive success and rearing of hatchlings has never been documented. During the summer of 2001, two weedy sea dragons became pregnant at the Aquarium of the Pacific.
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Leafy Seadragon, Phycodurus eques
By Paula Branshaw Carlson | Date posted: 05/29/2009
The Leafy seadragon, Phycodurus eques, the most ornate member of the family Syngnathidae, has long been known to aquarists as one of the most beautiful and unique of all the fishes. Found only in Southern and Western Australian waters, the Leafy seadragon is a master of camouflage. Named for the dragons of Chinese myth, this relative of the pipefishes and seahorses is named for the leaf-like appendages that adorn its body.
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Sedating, Force Feeding, Injections and CPR for Seahorses
By Tami Weiss | Date posted: 02/20/2004
One particular problem serious seahorse keepers and breeders face is lack of veterinary support. Some vets are willing to try to help, but most turn seahorse keepers away due to lack of aquatic animal experience. The hobbyist is then left with the choice of letting their beloved pets waste away, or attempting to try advanced care techniques themselves. This article is for those hobbyists who feel its necessary to go the extra mile in supportive care for their seahorses.
Diving/h2>
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Pygmy Seahorses Code of Conduct for Diving & Photographing
By Tami Weiss
| Date posted: 07/05/2011
Pygmy Seahorse expert Dr. Richard Smith just released a great guideline for divers and photographing pygmy seahorses. Pygmy seahorses, the inch and under relative of the seahorses most people are used to, are beloved by divers around the world, and frequently over-loved and even harassed by divers looking for these diminutive treasures.
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Diving With Seahorses
By The Seahorse Trust
| Date posted: 08/01/2010
Divers looking for seahorses need to be extra cautious not to disturb these sensitive animals. Here are some guidelines and best practices for any diver looking for and observing seahorse in the wild. Originally written for the British Seahorse Survey, it contains information useful for anyone that may encounter seahorses.
Resources
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Seadragon Resources and Papers
By Administrator
| Date posted: 06/01/2009
More information on leafy seadragons and weedy seadragons. Papers and websites.
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Live Food Suppliers
By Administrator
| Date posted: 08/29/2008
Finding live food for syngnathids can be difficult. Here is a list of mail order and online suppliers wordwide. If you know of any additional suppliers that should be added, please add to the comments below and I’ll add them to this list.
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Where To Buy Seahorses and Pipefish
By Administrator
| Date posted: 07/01/2008
Here are some sources online for captive bred Seahorses. You can often have your Local Fish Store order captive bred Seahorses for you if they don’t have any available. It is strongly advised that you always purchase captive bred seahorses over wild caught, as they live longer, arrive healthier, and are easier to feed. If your store is unsure,pass. Captive bred pipefish are a much harder find, but at least one wholesaler in Australia breeds them.
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Research and Conservation Groups and Contacts
By Administrator
| Date posted: 02/20/2005
Conservation and research groups around the world that study and try to protect fishes of the order Syngathiformes.
Pygmy Seahorses Code of Conduct for Diving & Photographing
By Tami Weiss | Date posted: 07/05/2011Pygmy Seahorse expert Dr. Richard Smith just released a great guideline for divers and photographing pygmy seahorses. Pygmy seahorses, the inch and under relative of the seahorses most people are used to, are beloved by divers around the world, and frequently over-loved and even harassed by divers looking for these diminutive treasures.
Diving With Seahorses
By The Seahorse Trust | Date posted: 08/01/2010Divers looking for seahorses need to be extra cautious not to disturb these sensitive animals. Here are some guidelines and best practices for any diver looking for and observing seahorse in the wild. Originally written for the British Seahorse Survey, it contains information useful for anyone that may encounter seahorses.
Seadragon Resources and Papers
By Administrator | Date posted: 06/01/2009More information on leafy seadragons and weedy seadragons. Papers and websites.
Live Food Suppliers
By Administrator | Date posted: 08/29/2008Finding live food for syngnathids can be difficult. Here is a list of mail order and online suppliers wordwide. If you know of any additional suppliers that should be added, please add to the comments below and I’ll add them to this list.
Where To Buy Seahorses and Pipefish
By Administrator | Date posted: 07/01/2008Here are some sources online for captive bred Seahorses. You can often have your Local Fish Store order captive bred Seahorses for you if they don’t have any available. It is strongly advised that you always purchase captive bred seahorses over wild caught, as they live longer, arrive healthier, and are easier to feed. If your store is unsure,pass. Captive bred pipefish are a much harder find, but at least one wholesaler in Australia breeds them.
Research and Conservation Groups and Contacts
By Administrator | Date posted: 02/20/2005Conservation and research groups around the world that study and try to protect fishes of the order Syngathiformes.