I’ve owned a few seahorses over the years, and all of them are special-needs pets, but none is quite as special (or as needy) as Magellan. When my seahorses arrived from the breeder early last December, I didn’t notice right away that one of them was different. Seahorses often eat poorly the day they arrive from the breeder, and since three of the four had similar snakeskin patterns it was hard to keep them straight that first afternoon. By morning, however, it was clear that one of the baby seahorses wasn’t “normal.” Unlike the others, who snicked up food as quickly as I
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Spotlight on Moya
The last two weeks’ Tuesday Tank posts have spotlighted Kirin (who, sadly, passed away unexpectedly over this last weekend) and Vega, two of my female seahorses. Today, I’m giving the boys a chance to shine, with the story of Moya. Moya wasn’t one of the four baby seahorses I bought from the breeder last December to re-populate the reef. He actually arrived the following January. When the breeder learned that one of the four original seahorses had a birth defect, they sent a replacement–a shy little seahorse I named Moya: After only a few weeks in the reef, I realized Moya was male, but
Read moreSpotlight on Kirin
I’m returning to the old blogging schedule, which means that Tuesday is…tank day. And I’m kicking it off with a spotlight post about each of the seahorses. First up…Kirin. Ironically, Kirin arrived as one of the weakest of my current seahorse crew. She had with a wonky tail (most likely pinched in shipping from the breeder) and had to be hospitalized (in a separate hospital tank I keep for this purpose) almost immediately upon arrival. She was also the seahorse with the most cirri–the little projections that rise from the seahorse’s spine and crest–and the only one of the group to keep them into adulthood. In the
Read moreMagellan: Pixie of the Reef
Those who follow my Facebook page have also followed the saga of Magellan, the Little Seahorse That Could, but in the interest of getting his story all in one place, I’m sharing it here today. Last December, I purchased four baby captive-bred seahorses from Seahorse Source* in Florida (who I consider the best of the captive-bred seahorse suppliers in the United States). When the babies arrived, a couple of them hadn’t tolerated the shipping well, so after a brief introduction to the reef–in which the smallest and most curious baby acquired the name “Magellan”– Shortly after Magellan returned to the reef,
Read moreThe Curious Nature of Seahorses
After three years as a seahorse-keeper, I still never tire of watching these odd little creatures explore their environment. Seahorses are curious creatures by nature, a fact that can get them in trouble on the reef. Like small children, they “explore” the world around them as much through touching and tasting as with their eyes. Everything is either grabbed: Or tasted … or both. Many times, I look over and see a seahorse with its snout pressed up against the rocks, examining something inside a hole. They love to feed on the little live gammarus (small crustaceans) that live in the
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