Growth and survival of juvenile seahorse Hippocampus abdominalis reared on live, frozen and artificial foods

Effects of light intensity, stocking density, feeding frequency and salinity on the growth of sub-adult seahorses Hippocampus erectus Perry, 1810

“…In this study, the seahorses, sometimes 4 or 5 individuals in a tank, were found to wrestle with each other while feeding, which could reduce their feeding rate. A similar result was reported for H. abdominalis with a resultant decrease in growth rates with increasing stocking density (Woods, 2003a), but not for juvenile H. whitei (Wong and Benzie, 2003). Therefore, the relatively low stocking densities (0.5 and 0.25 inds/L) are recommended for culturing sub-adult H. erectus.…”

“…Cultured juvenile H. erectus are generally weaned from live feed onto frozen food when they are approximately 7 cm in standard length, or 60 days post partum (Lin et al, in review), similar to what was found for the juvenile H. abdominalis (Woods, 2003a). There are no significant differences in growth rate of seahorses completely weaned from live feed to the new combination diets (Hilomen-Garcia, 1999;Woods and Valentino, 2003).…”

“…This may be attributed to nutrient/mineral needs required to develop the brood pouch (Linton and Soloff, 1964;Vincent, 1990;Masonjones, 2001). In addition, when brooding, male seahorses may not be active in obtaining food (Woods, 2000(Woods, , 2003aFaleiro et al, 2008).…”

“…However, the low survivorship of juvenile seahorses and low reproductive efficiency of the broodstock seahorses have restricted seahorse culture for many years (Herald and Rakowicz, 1951;Scarratt, 1995;Wilson and Vincent, 1998;Wong and Benzie, 2003;Lin et al, 2006). Therefore, recent research works have mainly focused on the growth and survivorship of juveniles (Scarratt, 1995;Woods, 2000Woods, , 2003aSheng et al, 2006;Lin et al, 2008), and on broodstock reproduction (Selman et al, 1991;Vincent, 1995;Teixeira and Musick, 2001;Perante et al, 2002;Lin et al, 2006Lin et al, , 2007Faleiro et al, 2008). The effects of illumination, feed ration, stocking density and gender segregation on growth and survival have been examined in Hippocampus abdominalis (Woods, 2000(Woods, , 2003a(Woods, , 2005.…”

“…Therefore, recent research works have mainly focused on the growth and survivorship of juveniles (Scarratt, 1995;Woods, 2000Woods, , 2003aSheng et al, 2006;Lin et al, 2008), and on broodstock reproduction (Selman et al, 1991;Vincent, 1995;Teixeira and Musick, 2001;Perante et al, 2002;Lin et al, 2006Lin et al, , 2007Faleiro et al, 2008). The effects of illumination, feed ration, stocking density and gender segregation on growth and survival have been examined in Hippocampus abdominalis (Woods, 2000(Woods, , 2003a(Woods, , 2005. The effects of food enrichment on growth and sex ratio have been reported for H. kuda (Job et al, 2002), of different feed on the growth of H. erectus (Correa et al, 1989), H. subelongatus (Payne and Rippingale, 2000) and H. guttulatus (Palma et al, 2008), and the effects of temperature, food, stocking density and light on the growth of H. whitei (Wong and Benzie, 2003).…”