Dietmar Schauer
Info
Whitley, 1970
These little seahorses will probably never find their way into our aquarium, but we don't have to have everything. That's why the reference to captive breeding is only due to the fact that this would be easier with seahorses than with many other fish.
The trade is monitored by Cites II and is very strict when it comes to the animals.
Only a few divers find these animals at all, as they live perfectly camouflaged in certain gorgonians and even simulate the gorgonian in shape and snout.
Two color variants are known:
1. gray-purple to pink-red, lives in the red Muricella plectana.
2. yellow-orange, lives in Muricella paraplectana.
As can be seen in the pictures, they are perfectly camouflaged. As they are only 2cm in size, only the "knowledgeable" diver can find them. All these species only live on Muricella. FishBase describes that up to 28 pairs have been found on just one gorgonian.
In order to be able to study them better, they were taken together with the gorgonian. Breeding only seems to be possible in combination with the gorgonian. Here, too, the male is the egg-bearing partner, as with all horses of the genus.
Edit: After the Wakiki Aquarium in Honululu failed to keep Hippocampus bargibanti in 2003, the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco has now been able to keep a pair for the first time and also raise juveniles. This was achieved thanks to advances in the keeping of azooxanthellate corals, which have enabled the Steinhart Aquarium to successfully maintain the host gorgonian Muricella paraplectana.
This shows the close connection between the pygmy seahorse and its host gorgonian, it is assumed that Hippocampus bargibanti cannot take food directly from the water, but picks it from the polyps of the gorgonian.
You can download the minimum requirements for keeping seahorses (in accordance with EC Regulation 338/97) from the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation as a PDF here: https://meerwasser-lexikon.de/downloads/BfN_Mindestanforderung_haltung_seepferdchen_hippocampus.pdf
The term "reef safe" is often used in marine aquaristics, especially when buying a new species people often ask if the new animal is "reef safe".
What exactly does reef safe mean?
To answer this question, you can ask target-oriented questions and inquire in forums, clubs, dealers and with aquarist friends:
- Are there already experiences and keeping reports that assure that the new animal can live in other suitably equipped aquariums without ever having caused problems?
- Is there any experience of invertebrates (crustaceans, hermits, mussels, snails) or corals being attacked by other inhabitants such as fish of the same or a different species?
- Is any information known or expected about a possible change in dietary habits, e.g., from a plant-based diet to a meat-based diet?
- Do the desired animals leave the reef structure "alone", do they constantly change it (boring starfish, digger gobies, parrotfish, triggerfish) and thus disturb or displace other co-inhabitants?
- do new animals tend to get diseases repeatedly and very quickly and can they be treated?
- Do known peaceful animals change their character in the course of their life and become aggressive?
- Can the death of a new animal possibly even lead to the death of the rest of the stock through poisoning (possible with some species of sea cucumbers)?
- Last but not least the keeper of the animals has to be included in the "reef safety", there are actively poisonous, passively poisonous animals, animals that have dangerous biting or stinging weapons, animals with extremely strong nettle poisons, these have to be (er)known and a plan of action should have been made in advance in case of an attack on the aquarist (e.g. telephone numbers of the poison control center, the treating doctor, the tropical institute etc.).
If all questions are evaluated positively in the sense of the animal(s) and the keeper, then one can assume a "reef safety".
These little seahorses will probably never find their way into our aquarium, but we don't have to have everything. That's why the reference to captive breeding is only due to the fact that this would be easier with seahorses than with many other fish.
The trade is monitored by Cites II and is very strict when it comes to the animals.
Only a few divers find these animals at all, as they live perfectly camouflaged in certain gorgonians and even simulate the gorgonian in shape and snout.
Two color variants are known:
1. gray-purple to pink-red, lives in the red Muricella plectana.
2. yellow-orange, lives in Muricella paraplectana.
As can be seen in the pictures, they are perfectly camouflaged. As they are only 2cm in size, only the "knowledgeable" diver can find them. All these species only live on Muricella. FishBase describes that up to 28 pairs have been found on just one gorgonian.
In order to be able to study them better, they were taken together with the gorgonian. Breeding only seems to be possible in combination with the gorgonian. Here, too, the male is the egg-bearing partner, as with all horses of the genus.
Edit: After the Wakiki Aquarium in Honululu failed to keep Hippocampus bargibanti in 2003, the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco has now been able to keep a pair for the first time and also raise juveniles. This was achieved thanks to advances in the keeping of azooxanthellate corals, which have enabled the Steinhart Aquarium to successfully maintain the host gorgonian Muricella paraplectana.
This shows the close connection between the pygmy seahorse and its host gorgonian, it is assumed that Hippocampus bargibanti cannot take food directly from the water, but picks it from the polyps of the gorgonian.
You can download the minimum requirements for keeping seahorses (in accordance with EC Regulation 338/97) from the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation as a PDF here: https://meerwasser-lexikon.de/downloads/BfN_Mindestanforderung_haltung_seepferdchen_hippocampus.pdf
The term "reef safe" is often used in marine aquaristics, especially when buying a new species people often ask if the new animal is "reef safe".
What exactly does reef safe mean?
To answer this question, you can ask target-oriented questions and inquire in forums, clubs, dealers and with aquarist friends:
- Are there already experiences and keeping reports that assure that the new animal can live in other suitably equipped aquariums without ever having caused problems?
- Is there any experience of invertebrates (crustaceans, hermits, mussels, snails) or corals being attacked by other inhabitants such as fish of the same or a different species?
- Is any information known or expected about a possible change in dietary habits, e.g., from a plant-based diet to a meat-based diet?
- Do the desired animals leave the reef structure "alone", do they constantly change it (boring starfish, digger gobies, parrotfish, triggerfish) and thus disturb or displace other co-inhabitants?
- do new animals tend to get diseases repeatedly and very quickly and can they be treated?
- Do known peaceful animals change their character in the course of their life and become aggressive?
- Can the death of a new animal possibly even lead to the death of the rest of the stock through poisoning (possible with some species of sea cucumbers)?
- Last but not least the keeper of the animals has to be included in the "reef safety", there are actively poisonous, passively poisonous animals, animals that have dangerous biting or stinging weapons, animals with extremely strong nettle poisons, these have to be (er)known and a plan of action should have been made in advance in case of an attack on the aquarist (e.g. telephone numbers of the poison control center, the treating doctor, the tropical institute etc.).
If all questions are evaluated positively in the sense of the animal(s) and the keeper, then one can assume a "reef safety".
