The rule of thumb in most aquaria, it is recommended to feed the fish two to three times a day, as much as they will consume within 5 minutes. The case might be different in seahorses. Reading this article, I wonder if we can glean from it that seahorses should be fed more continuously through the daytime and not at all during the night, “The gut of caged seahorses was generally full during daytime but declined in the evening, becoming almost empty at midnight”
| Aquaculture | |||||||||||||||||
| Volume 359, Number 5 (August 2012) | |||||||||||||||||
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Diet composition and feeding periodicity of the seahorse Hippocampus barbourireared in illuminated sea cages | ||||||||||||||||
| Authors: | Luis Maria B. Garcia, Grace V. Hilomen-Garcia, Fritzie T. Celino, Tomas T. Gonzales, Ronald J. Maliao | ||||||||||||||||
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| Source: | Aquaculture, Volume 359, Number 5 (August 2012) | ||||||||||||||||
| Page Numbers: | 1 – 5 | ||||||||||||||||
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| Abstract: | The zooplankton prey composition and feeding periodicity of juvenile and adult seahorses Hippocampus barbourireared in illuminated and non-illuminated sea cages were compared. Mean frequency of occurrence (%FO), prey composition (%N), and gut fullness of seahorses were calculated from analyses of gut contents. Compared with juvenile seahorses, adults consumed more variety of prey consisting of copepods, larvae of decapods, polychaetes and fish, and euphausid shrimps. Calanoid copedods were found in the gut of more juvenile (%FO=47) and adult (%FO=64) seahorses in illuminated cages but harpacticoid copepods were ingested by more juvenile fish (%FO=50) in non-illuminated cages. Decapod larvae (%N=66) in illuminated cages dominated the diet of juvenile seahorses, whereas in non-illuminated cages harpacticoid copepods (%N=59) did. Calanoid copepods and decapod larvae (%N=91–97) comprised the bulk of ingested prey among adult seahorses in all experimental cages. The gut of caged seahorses was generally full during daytime but declined in the evening, becoming almost empty at midnight, particularly among juveniles. Cage illumination commencing at midnight increased the number of filled guts at dawn (0400h) among juvenile and adult seahorses. Unlike adult seahorses over a 24-h period, the overall incidence of filled guts among juveniles was not different between those in non-illuminated and illuminated cages. These results provide an alternative to growing caged H. barbourion cultured live food, particularly copepods attracted by night illumination. | ||||||||||||||||
| Citation: | Luis Maria B. Garcia, Grace V. Hilomen-Garcia, Fritzie T. Celino, Tomas T. Gonzales, Ronald J. Maliao . Diet composition and feeding periodicity of the seahorse Hippocampus barbourireared in illuminated sea cages. Aquaculture, Volume 359, Number 5 (August 2012), pp. 1-5, <http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=4A6C89E79B3A8C923BAE> | ||||||||||||||||
| URL: | http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=4A6C89E79B3A8C923BAE | ||||||||||||||||
