Seahorse feeding schedule?

[Rickybobby]

Hey everyone. Hope your all well
Question. Most say seahorses need to be fed 2-3 times a day. Ok. So with some people work schedule and kids how do you do it? My example is I wake up at 5am commute and am home at 4pm Monday to Friday soon Monday to Thursday. So with a schedule like this how could I feed a few horses?
Anyone here who has them how does it work for you?

 

[Peace River]

Let's see if we can get some help...

@SeahorseKeeper @vlangel

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

I’d feed at twelve hour increments with that schedule. On days off, I would add a third feeding.

 

[vlangel]

Another option,(on your work days) is to feed frozen mysis before work. Then have live gut loaded brine shrimp or ghost shrimp for the seahorses to forage on their own. If you have a sump, brine shrimp will not work as well as they will just end up in the sump instead of the seahorses' bellies, but ghost shrimp should work alright. Ghost shrimp will not pollute the tank and they will actually scavenge to clean the tank.

 

[Rickybobby]

Ok good info. Next question. What is a good fish to eat whatever doesn’t get consumed? Was thinking a diamond sand sifting goby? I have lm in my main display very peaceful and eats anything on the bottom?
Thanks again guys

 

[vlangel]

Ok good info. Next question. What is a good fish to eat whatever doesn’t get consumed? Was thinking a diamond sand sifting goby? I have lm in my main display very peaceful and eats anything on the bottom?
Thanks again guys

A sand sifting goby will probably clean the substrate however, when I had seahorses, they were the healthiest when I did not keep them in with any fish.

 

[RSNJReef]

From my perspective, set up your tank so the lighting schedule follows your wake/sleep schedule, that way the seahorses will acclimate to your wake/sleep schedule. It'll take a few day or a week, but, they will learn to sleep when it's lights out for the tank, then feed in the morning before you leave, then feed as soon as you get home, and once more before lights out.

What you can also do is start an amphipod culture, and after you feed frozen in the morning, you can then feed some amphipods to the tank into a spot where the seahorses can't easily get into, then, as the amphipods scatter and hide, the seahorses can hunt them through the day.

Also, depending on how tech savy you are, you can also set up an auto live brine feeder (deli cup over the tank with a 1/4 drain line coming out of the bottom. drain line connected to a solenoid valve, and then set the solenoid valve on a timer to feed the tank about half way through the day). Doing something like this will take quite a bit of vigilance on your part though to keep bad bacteria levels low (i.e. get a live brine culture going in a container, formalin treat the live brine culture to kill bacteria in the water over 48-72 hours, then rinse well in rodi water, then put into fresh saltwater for 24 hours and gut load with whatever enrichment you choose, then rinse again in rodi water, then put the live brine into the deli container with new saltwater for feeding that day).

If you don't have the time to build a system to feed for you, I'd say adjust your lighting schedule so the seahorses follow your waking schedule.

Just my 2 cents.