[norman]

hello all, been discussing sea horses with "she who must be obayed".have 20gal tank with sea horses in. question, can you buy native sea horses, what water temp would they require, we fancy keeping native species when we loose our browns & yellows. will not be suprised though if they are a protected species. anyone any ideas. cheers, norman.

[ben]

the main problem with temperate tanks is keeping them cool. although many of our local inhabitants can tollerate large temperature fluctuations i would imagine seahorses couldnt.

it also wouldnt surprise me if they were protected also.

[dylan]

as ben said temp is gunna be a problem believe or not there are alot of seahorses in the river thames, im not sure on the current protection policy, i no around the uk they have tryed to preserve shallow sandy areas from boats and anchors etc , the protesters have not had a strong enough case , the problem has not been keeping the seahorses its the eelgeass is the shortage what with anchors and mooring chains scrapeing the seabed it's ripping up the grass from the seabed if the grass goes the seahorses go, also there is a severve shortage of seahorses on the import list at the moment prices are rising so i dont think it's just the uk which are struggling

[Social D]

Think its a prison sentence iirc so dont show them on the forums

[Simon Garratt]

yep, as of April 2008 it is now illegal to capture, posses, sell, or endanger our native seahorses.

regards

Simon.

[norman]

hello all, thought this question would get interesting answers, no one seems to keep british marines, unless you consider tank bred marines as british. i know various aquaria have a sea horse breeding scheme, and wondered if any marine aquarists kept native species. surely we must have some species of marines which can be kept by aquarists. cheers, norman.

[ben]

yeh we have lots of local marine creatures that can be kept , but as before, the main problem is keeping them cool. its also difficult to collect stuff apart from in rock pools, which although interesting, its not as colourful as the tropical marines.

ok if you can set up various tanks, but as most have one tank they go for the tropicals

[norman]

hello all, i remember seeing a program on telly[some time ago] , made about a scottish bay, as well as the usual sea mamals, fish, etc it showed in background starfish, various corals etc, many brightly coloured & quite large, they were saying the atlantic current + global warming were the cause, can anyone else remember this, think the programme was either spring or autumn watch. cheers, norman.

[Lissa]

Simon Garratt, on Mar 11 2009, 11:35 PM, said:

yep, as of April 2008 it is now illegal to capture, posses, sell, or endanger our native seahorses.

What species do you guys have native to the area?

[tommo]

Hippocampus guttulatus and Hippocampus hippocampus are both found around GB with the second being more common

HTH

Tom