Preliminary study on artificial foods for the spotted seahorses (hippocampus kuda)

Abstract

Seahorses have not generally been reared on artificial food in commercial culture due to difficulties in getting them to accept non-live foods (Woods, 2002). In this study, feeding trials were undertaken to measure growth and survival adult seahorses, Hippocampus kuda; fed with two types of artificial feed compared to natural feed. The artificial feeds tested were a shrimp-flour mix (Type A) and a fish-flour mix (Type B) while the natural feed was frozen shrimps. Growth rates however did not vary among the three treatments.