Perhaps the reason why seahorses are classed as a non beginner fish or shouldn't be kept at all on them forums navarre is the same reason you thought the other topic shouldn't have been posted on this forum, because in your's and other's opinions seahorses don't belong in a "reef" forum.
As for suitability to locale, this shows that perhaps you don't know as much about seahorses (or perhaps geography) as you think. Australia is an extremely harsh country in terms of temperature. Where I live it gets rather cold as well as blistering hot. Other sections of Australia have a temp of around 30+ degrees celcius all year round. Have you ever tried to keep a tank temp stable under conditions like that? Let alone keep a tank around 19 degrees celcius in 40 degree weather (for temperates)? Seahorses would be more suited to the colder weather in the U.K. The very fact that there are hundreds of Australians who have never kept anything but seahorses, under these conditions and successfully, would kind of point towards them being a little more forgiving than you give them credit for. Then we come to the fact that there isn't alot of variety in Australia in terms of foods for seahorses, it is hard to even get hold of live brine shrimp in alot of places, let alone anything else. Many have to make do with a staple diet of frozen brine shrimp that has been enriched with an occassional feed of frozen enriched mysis when obtainable and live enriched brine shrimp as well.
Also, nobody said they were "marine guppies that any kid can start up on their weekend pocket money". We are arguing the fact that if a person does enough research on them (first hand research that is, I.E: alot of reading on the many forums and websites out there devoted to syngnathids as well as books, etc) and has the time and money to invest in them then they can be every bit as capable of successfully keeping and breeding them as your so called "experts". The statement about not keeping them with corals and other fish is also balony. There are plenty of people who keep both in tanks together very successfully. As long as the fish aren't agressive and aren't competing for food and are no danger to the horses and vice versa then there is no difference between keeping them together as there is to keeping other delicate creatures together. Same goes for corals.
As for good stock being obtainable only in Oz, that is rubbish. I frequent forums with a good number of Americans and people from other countries who have all been successfully keeping and breeding seahorses for quite a while now.
I also know of alot of institutes that successfully keep and breed thousands of seahorses navarre and they all would have alot more experience with captive bred seahorses than your National Marine Aquarium. That and the fact that Australia is pretty much the forefront of captive breeding and conservation for syngnathids. And let's face it, it is keeping captive bred horses that we are discussing, not numbers in the wild or population declines, pulling wild horses from their habitats, etc.
As for ponies. They may be dwarfs in America, but in Australia fry are called ponies because dwarfs aren't available here. It is no different than English football being called soccer in some parts of the world. Regardless, that is hardly a stable ground to base argument over one's expertise in a subject, if anything, it denotes your own knowledge, because at least we know dwarfs are called ponies in America
What?? are you trying to shift blame from someone whos told not to do something and does it anyways to the person who warns them of the difficulty and danger of there path? Generally if someone warns you you go out and take extra precautions unless your an egotistical idiot.
I think you are missing the point. The point being, that if a person doesn't get the answer to questions they ask due to hitting a brick wall I.E: They shouldn't be kept. You can't keep them full stop, etc, then they will be forced to enquire elsewhere. This usually results in them asking their lfs who then gives less than fantastic information, resulting in a tank full of seahorses and misinformation with which to rely on. The end result is usually a tank full of dead fish and the person coming back and saying they all died which leads the people who were unproductive in the first place to say I told you so.
And there are litterally hundreds of billions of people who have goldfish in bowls but that doesnt mean its good for the fish, or right in the slightest bit.
So what are you going to do? Ban fishkeeping altogether? There are always going to be thich headed people out there who will not listen to reason and common sense. What matters is giving the ones who will listen and who want to learn good sound advice and understanding.
As for live rock filtration and seahorse flow, as I have said before, there are many people who maintain both within acceptable levels through various methods such as maintaining a sump that houses the filtration, aiming the flow directly at the live rock, etc.
Mellissa, I am 100% behind you on this one, good to see someone else on here who knows their stuff and is willing to share it with "beginners". If only more people would get their information right and research before shooting off about something they have little clue about.
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