Seahorses Prevail in the News

Good news for Seahorse fans - scientists from the National Institute of Oceanography conducted a "successful life cycle experiment of yellow seahorse (which) will help to facilitate the development of small-scale aquaculture farms by seahorse fishermen, as a viable alternative to capturing wild seahorses and conservation initiatives." This is great news as the yellow seahorses are heavily harvested in the wild for traditional Chinese medicine.


Yellow Seahorse - Credit: Deccan Herald

In other news, a diver near San Diego took some amazing photos of a couple Pacific seahorses - one of which was pregnant and had an anemone growing on its head! Check out the link below!


Amazing Pics of the Pacific Seahorse:
Pacific Seahorse Facts, Habitat & Photos|Underwater Photography Guide


Full story on NIO breeding:
NIO breeds endangered yellow seahorses successfully

 

Sorry Matt, but that news is a way out of date as captive bred rearing has been going on for a lot of years.
See seahorsesource.com, seahorsecoral.com ORA and others like the big Seahorse Sanctuary in Australia.
South America and Asia have been flooding the markets for some years now (before that project even got started) with cheap seahorses of many kinds and they are going to the medicine market as well as to the hobbyists. The majority go to Chinese medicine, not to the hobby.
The article should also ignore the "yellow" seahorse designation as yellow seahorses can apply to many many species of seahorses.
The article is basically talking of Hippocampus kuda or H. kuda most commonly written.
If a store is selling a yellow, or a black or any colour without giving the species, they don't know enough about seahorses to be selling them.

 

i disagree rayjay. he is telling us about an endangered species of sea horse. one that is not collected for our trade due to endageredness. and how they are now being bred since the chinese use them heavily for medicinal purposes.

good read matt, thanks!

 

Great info Matt

 

I guess that goes to show how opportunistic an anemone can be huh?

 

Although I am aware that there are a lot of captive-bred seahorses now, I thought this one was specific to Kuda and was one that was being affected by the medicine trade. From the article:

I plead ignorance here, but that was the angle I took from it...

 

Matt the kuda was one of the most sold species for the trade and here, you can buy Asian bred kudas in Toronto for $30 to $50 each depending on which store you buy them from. I suspect in the US they are much cheaper.
I bought a pair about 4 years ago here in London that came from a Vietnam breeding facility.
Breeding facilities first began using what was termed "net pen" set ups where the seahorses were rasied in the open water by captivated by these large nets into which were introduced the young taken from pregnant males from the wild.
They have now progressed to using cement containers on land, but are still using ocean water for raising them.
These are being sold as captive bred but are still, because of the ocean water, subject to the same pathogens that wild caught horses are and need to go through a lengthy deworming process if you want to breed them, or indeed, give them a chance for a normal live span. Their advantage over live caught is that they have been trained to eat frozen mysis usually.
They are sold to the trade but mostly to Chinese medicine.
A true captive bred will be at least an f2 but usually f3 or later, and will have never seen ocean water and will have better odds of survival.
While kuda is a big portion of medicine sales, it is just that, a portion. They buy many species for the trade and some others in just as large a proportion.
All seahorses bred in Aisian breeding facilities are mainly for the medicine because that is where the money is. The hobby trade is more of a sideline I believe.
All species (approx. 35+) are considered "vulnerable" and are cites listed.
I see these articles every once in a while and think that the breeder has used the article as an advertisement to get some customer base when they start up their new operation.
You have been misled, I believe, by an article that knows little about seahorses overall.
This is a part of the hobby problem in that stores sell to customers that don't know either, and because they are unique and some have survived in the conditions many hobbyists place them in, other hobbyists want to as well.
Unfortunately, for each one that survives, there are many many more that don't make it, with some hobbyists trying and failing many times before giving up or learning that there are better recommended ways to succeed with recommended methods and true captive stock to begin with.(and these definitely don't go to Chinese medicines)

 

Thanks for the info... so are these 'net pens' helping to mitigate the demand for traditional Chinese medicine or is the demand just too high at this point?

 

It doesn't say in the open water so it's not net pen, but probably what they claim tank raised as they are now normally raised in large cement tanks.
As governments crack down on the harvesting of wild in some areas, it tightens up the market for the Chinese medicine market so it created a demand for the breeding companies to perfect their methods.
It's unbelievable just how huge that market is. What we as hobbyists use is just a drop in the bucket, but still it does contribute to the problem.
If they were to start breeding them without ocean water it would be great for us, but a prohibitive cost for them as they have to produce cheaply for that market or won't get the sale.
Fortunately for us, there are the good companies that only sell to the hobby market and those never see ocean water.
There are more and more hobbyists also getting into breeding so that again takes more pressure off the market.
I've sold almost all I grew and am just expanding my herd to get more breeding pairs so I can produce more myself.
It's certainly not as easy as growing out clowns, but it's every bit as much rewarding as far as satisfaction goes.

 

Well I applaud your efforts. Hopefully with enough people like you - things can turn around. But the number from that article was 25-30 million a year for medicine. That is a BIG number.