Avoid impulse purchases of seahorses or buying them because they look ill and you want to help them. Many seahorses that are available locally have been raised in nets or pens established in the ocean in Southeast Asia. They typically are quite small about 2” in length and in poor condition. These seahorses need to be treated for internal and external parasite and trained to eat frozen food, as do any wild caught individuals. They are best left to expert keepers who normally will only purchase them if it is a species they want to work with that is not available as captive bred.
True captive bred seahorses are available from a few commercial and hobbyists breeders, as well as, some retailers. They are already trained to eat frozen food, should not require treatment for parasites and are larger in size, normally in the 3 ½” + range. Do keep in mind most CB seahorses are housed in barebottom tanks with artificial hitches, as such, suddenly adding them to a strange tank in a environment they have never seen before can cause additional stress. It is best to quarantine them in a barebottom tank for at least 3-4 weeks to ensure they are eating and to observe them for any signs off disease. Increased respiration, attempting to ingest food without success, lumps, patchy discoloration on the body or tail, emaciation and scratching are just a few things to look out for and if possible avoid.
Buying seahorses based on color alone is not a good selection technique. There are people that sell them based on color and often times ask a much higher price. The pinto strain of erectus is one example. As juveniles they have large areas of white giving them a very striking appearance. Once they mature they will loose their pinto markings and look like any other erectus. Seahorses do readily change color and will rarely look the same for long. Normally their most striking coloration occurs during courtship.
A word of caution, if you don’t want fry do not purchase a pair of seahorses. Seahorses do well in same sex tanks and many people find trying to keep up with fry rearing to be a daunting task. Males have a brood pouch which is used to incubate the eggs and they deliver live fry. The number of fry they will deliver varies from a few to a thousand + depending on the species.
A pair of comes after completing a egg transfer. The female is hitched to the male. Note the difference in body shape between them.
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