who'd have thought....
After 5 months of buying live foods for my original pair of H. erectus, I don't have to anymore.
I tried every trick in the book to get this pair to eat frozen foods. (even some tricks I made up along the way) They were putting me in the poor house. I had to pay 74.50 a month for live shrimp. (The male from this pair was the one who got ill and had to be euthanized today.) So I had just the lonly female in the 47G tank all by herself.
I had anothe pair of QT'd H. Erectus in another tank. I didn't want to mix them with the lonly female because they were eating frozen and she wasn't. I didn't want them to eat the live feeder shrimp that I was feeding her and decide they liked that better then the frozen. So I kept them seperate. Untill today. Since I had to euthanize her mate, I didn't want her to be alone forever and I didn't want to add another seahorse from a different breeder to her tank. The other 2 I had were from the same LFS so they could be mixed together.
Today was the fasting day for my lonly female so I added the other pair to the tank she was in and I fed them their frozen mysis. Of course she didn't even look at it. The other two ate like normal, not careing that they were in a new tank. On to the noonday feeding, same as breakfast, but the lonly female was looking at me like "ok Mom, where's the good stuff? Where's MY LIVE SHRIMP?" She sat and watched the other 2 eat the mysis, but she wouldn't eat any.
Supper time. I fed the other two and they swam up to the top of the tank to eat as the mysis was falling. Out of the corner of my eye I see my stubborn, lonly female zipping across the sand on the bottom of the tank. Thinking the worst (Is she hurt?) I stop feeding and take a good look at her. She eating the frozen mysis that had landed on the sand. She was sucking them up like a hoover vacuum. This is the horse I starved for 4 days trying to get it to eat frozen. I guess all she needed was to watch how it was done. Maybe she thought if they were eating, it must be good. The 2 new seahorses had taught her in 1 day what I had been trying to teach her for months. Go figure.
The funny thing is, is that even after the other 2 had eaten their fill, she was still eating. She ate every piece in the tank plus I fed her more. She acted like she hadn't eaten in a month. It must taste good to her because she is still searching for more over an hour after the feeding. I see her blowing into holes in the rocks to flush out any that have fallen in there.
First I couldn't get her to eat frozen.....now I'm afraid she's going to pop!
I needed something to cheer me up after I had to put my little male down. Now ALL of my remaining seahorses eat frozen mysis and I will NEVER give live foods to new seahorses. Yeah.....no moe live foods to buy. About time.
Angie
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