Quote:
Originally posted by tankgirl
Oops, forgot to add seahorses to the list I won't get for ethical reasons.
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I have been researching them since the IMAC this spring in Chicago. SH's actually breed better than most of our reef fish (but if you don't take special precautions, all of their offspring will die). It is important to get an aquacultured seahorse instead of a wildcaught seahorse (often called WC on
www.seahorse.org and they thankfully don't recommend them for two reasons.....we need all of the SH's in the ocean that we have and WC seahorse's do very poorly in aquariums while aquacultured SH's do quite well).
They are very demanding critters. They require dedicated tanks and a LOT of knowledge. I'm not kidding----a LOT---throw out everything you know about reef tanks----most of it doesn't apply other than how to properly cycle a tank. Some of us are ethical and won't buy a critter unless they know it isn't being sent to it's death. I think I'm ALMOST ready to buy someone's baby (i.e. not wild-caught) seahorse. I'm also thinking about a Mantis-only tank
I liked your "ethical reasons" recommendation. Hopefully, that will scare off most people. However, if you are willing to do the research and buy an aquacultured SH, they can be done. The thought of someone getting excited seeing one at the LFS and snapping one up is likely giving that SH a death sentence. And since the first couple of SH's the LFS imported sold, they will reorder them again sending more to their deaths.