My Seahorse's are NOT Hippocampus Reidi! Surprise!

[Reef_Angel]

Sure, I'd love cool colored seahorses that come in multitude of bright pretty colors, but my babies have offered me so much more than multi colors and such. When mine color up, it really means something special which I think is so cool! They were yellow when they were babies, and I sometimes see that now and then. I've been waiting and waiting for them to turn bright yellow again like when they were little, but it's never happened...maybe just a little on the smallest ones. Mostly when mine are happy, I see the shiniest silver or marbled silver and black! This probably has a lot to do with why they were misidentified from the store I purchased them at, and by my favorite pony guy JustDavidP. I've looked at pictures of H. Reidis, and never felt that they really matched up to mine. Instead of H. Reidis, they are Hippocampus Kelloggi! I had said that was what I thought they were when I first got them when I was combing through everything I could find on seahorses, but everyone insisted on Reidi's. I was right in the first place! They'll grow to be 12" long!! Can you believe it? I'll have to start a bigger tank at some point to hold them someday as they grow! I've managed to find more and more info:yeahthat: (oh, excuse me for butting in right here!)that has positively convinced me that I am right. Here's a picture I found of a Kelloggi! I counted rings, compared their crowns and their fin on their back right down to the coloring & marking of it! It's all made a believer out of me! This is so cool! Just had to share this news with all of you! Thanks for sharing my Seahorses with me everybody! .....Angel :angel1:

[Sweetpea]

well, now you have THE perfect reason to start yet another tank! Woohoo!

[dakar]

I'm still trying to figure out how these cute LITTLE critters can grow to be close to a foot long..... Angel measured the largest of the males this morning while he was at the glass mootching, right close to 5" from crown to tail. Think the 44g pent tanks are around 30" tall, which might do for a little while... I think a bigger and taller tank may be in the near future.

Think I'll leave the ponies to Angel and stick to construction/demolition where I belong

[Sweetpea]

Think I'll leave the ponies to Angel and stick to construction/demolition where I belong

Omigosh, you are cracking me up!!! :bricked:

[Reef_Angel]

WhooHoo!DavidP is BACK!!!

We all know how busy our kids can keep us, and work, and just life in general can keep us away from things we really want to do! Family is more important than a reef site though, so I can't blame him one little bit! I must say how how happy I am to have him back. He made me feel
good that I'm actually on the right track with my Seahorses, and actually know what I'm talking about! It's taken me a while folks, but his absence has actually been a good thing for me.
It has encouraged me to bone up on my education about Seahorses and learn all that I know so far. I have plenty more to learn and am quite willing to make that commitment. It has made me feel qualified to work along side David and make this a Seahorse site to be reckoned with! Here's to you David... Cheers! ...my partner/my friend! All of us that love our beautiful Reef Creatures, and even the spectators we've managed to enthrall, may be joining the hobby down the road someday as well! I do hope it's because of our influence and a place for them to always come for great reliable information. After all, that's been a CR promise from the very start! It will always be a work in progress, because there's always so much to learn, but you'll be seeing things slowly but surely be just what we expect of CR standards! I'd like our site one to be reckoned with, expecting nothing in return but happy healthy seahorses & if course our reefs as well. I think the members here at CR live to take on a challange, master it, and provide answers that other Reefer's can rely on. We plan to continue to keep our info easy to understand, but at the same time accurate & fun for our members. We want an excellent stand out reputation for our accuracy ahd friendliness, and to always be a free site to those interesed in Reefing. Our door will always be open even to those just want to peek in to see if twe have what it takes to be a dedicated reef site! All our welcome here at Captive Reefing!

Welcome back David(!), and tell those boys of yours that they need to untie you once in a while, or you better get some more knot tying & untying lessons lined up for yourself, and leave the boys at home!
Your Partner in Pony Passion! .... Angel :seahorse:
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PS. We've decided that we're going to change the name of our Seahorse forum to "Sea Horsing Around" for the ease of the search engines to quickly identify that we are keepers of Seahorse information and how easily the material can be found. When presenting a question in the Seahorse Forum or any other forum for that matter, please make sure you take the time to name the Reef Topic Subject ex: Seahorse, specific coral name, reef sponges, items you as members only may be selling personally, DIY tricks & tips agrocrete in the reef, and all our other subjects that can be indexed with Captive Reefing etc. The search engines hone right in on that particular information, and that's what helps keep our ratings nice and high, and will index it properly for CR! Thanks all for doing your share!

[JustDavidP]

And reporting to duty ma'am

[Reef_Angel]

Welcome Back to the fold! I know I sure missed you. I had to do all this studying and reading so that I wasn't flying by the seat of my pants, and taking the guess work out of caring for these great little creatures! Nothing like forcing me learn my stuff about Seahorses! Good plan though...it worked. It was great talking to you on the phone yesterday! Now my frisky ponies make even more sense to me. Anyway, now we can get some interesting discussions going on in this forum, and hopefully more Seahorse owners to join us. Good to have you back David!! ....Angel :angel1:

[JustDavidP]

But it IS a FAMILY site... I can't go into too much detail about frisky juvenile ponies

[seahorsedreams]

The picture above is of a Kuda not a Kelloggi.

Hi David *waves at her friend*

[Reef_Angel]

Hello Seahorsedreams.... First of all, welcome to Captive Reefing, and also the Seahorse Forum. It's great to have another person with a passion for ponies here!

While the Kelloggi & the Kuda are very similar, there are some subtle differences between the two species. Kelloggi in their babyish state start out with the yellow & black splotchy coloring....cute as buttons! As mine grew, they turned all black. I was sad to see the yellow go away, and believe me, I decorated their tank with yellows, oranges and hoped it would convince them to bring back their yellow. Kelloggi's coloring tends to be mostly black, brown & a silvery looking tan. There is one good shot of one of my males in his silvery tan tux on the thread. Now that they are older juveniles, the males are developing their pouches and showing their tan coloring often for the ladies. The females instantly color up the same when her mate comes by her. They color up when they see me coming in the morning with their frozen mysis which always makes me smile. They stick right to the coloring described in the ad and the many other articles I've read on the species. My Kelloggi's do not have any spots, their bodies are not real smooth either. As much as I wanted them to stay the cute splotchy black and yellow color they were when I bought them, as they grew they preferred to be black. I decorated their tank with yellows and oranges to no avail.

Kudas look very similar to the Kelloggi, but there are some subtle differences to look for. Kudas generally remain yellow in color, yellowish orange, a faded yellow & even black. Just like most seahorses it all depends on their environment. Kudas also have those cute little polka dots all over them! Kelloggi's have no spots at all. When they color up, they may have swirls of black or browns in their silvery tan coloring, but that's it. The Kuda has a smoother body than the Kelloggi as well. I questioned whether I had Kudas as well, but after a lot of reading, I would say I'm 99.9% sure that my ponies are Kelloggi.
I hope this clears up any confusion, but thank you for being considerate enough to question. It just increases the learning curve here at Captive Reefing! ....Angel :angel1:

I'll post the 2 different quick sources for the identification of each type. One of course is LiveAquaria.com shown below:

[CENTER] Great Seahorse - Tank-Bred (Hippocampus Kelloggi )

Minimum Tank Size: 50 gallons
Care Level: Moderate
Tank Conditions: 72-78