Wild Caught Seahorse And A Crazy Neighbor----Please Help!

[Squeegeatc]

I live in SW Louisiana.  My neighbor is a shrimper.   He knows we have fish and love them, and truly thought he was doing us a favor.   He brought us a wild caught seahorse.   I have a 10 gallon that we quickly emptied of red cherry shrimp, and used the bucket of water he gave us.   We plan on taking a sample of the water to the fish store to be able to properly adjust to the salinity.   He shrimps in the shipping channel, which is more brakish than true salt, but still not a freshwater tank. 
 
I there ANY thing you can suggest???   I realize this is a long shot.   And we will tell him to NOT give us anymore.  But I'd rather not kill the Seahorse, nor offend the neighbor.   He is truly a great guy
 
I will be googling  feeding and other issues as soon as I'm done posting this!!!!   He (she) is roughly 6" long with an uncurled tail.

 

[Dreamer03]

i could be wrong but depending on what kind of seahorse it is it may be in the 10 gallon but been its not cycled idk what will happen. Seahorses to what i know are hard to feed. But again i have never had them so i could be wrong.

 

[Lillefishy]

Being wild caught it's going to be hard to feed, try it on mysis shrimp, turn the filter off while you feed as seahorses are very slow.
Feed little & often, seahorses have no stomachs so they need to eat a lot.
Give it something to anchor itself to in the tank.
Tbh it really needs returning to the wild as the likelihood is it won't survive in the tank

 

[fluttermoth]

Tbh it really needs returning to the wild as the likelihood is it won't survive in the tank

This!

Seriously, seahorses are notoriously hard to keep and even experienced marine aquarists struggle with them. It stands very, very little chance of survival in a tank, I'm sorry to say. Please get it back where it came from, ASAP.

 

[Squeegeatc]

I will do the best I can to return it.   But there is no way I can get it where it came from.   So frustrated.  I know he meant well, but dang.

 

[Baccus]

Could you maybe explain to the neighbour that all though you where touched by them thinking of you and rescuing the seahorse from the by-catch ( I am assuming it came up in his shrimp nets or pots), but after extensive research you realise that seahorses are really specialist animals that require a lot more experience than you have  in order to keep them. Ask the neighbour if even though you will miss the seahorse if they could possibly release it back into the wild, so that it doesn't die in captivity.
 
Other than that seahorse care really depends on if it came from tropical waters and thus needs a heater or cool waters and there fore may require a chiller especially on a small tank that will have a lot of temp changes throughout the day and night. Foodwise as suggested try it on Mysis shrimp or even live brine shrimp, at a real pinch some small cherry shrimp might even tempt it to eat but the cherry shrimp will probably die pretty quickly in the even brackish water. It will need gentle filteration and some structure to cling to. Also do you know anyone with marine tanks who might have some mature filter media that you could use to kick start your tanks bacteria?
 
I have always admired seahorses and pipe fish and would love to keep them myself but they really do need a lot of time and effort to keep them alive and healthy.

 

[Donya]

You really have three options.
1. Try to care for it. To do this, you will need live rock which is a one-way path for the seahorse - no releasing it back into the wild. It is also not a trivial task; seahorses are fragile and difficult to care for, and new marine systems are unstable.
2. Take it to a trustworthy LFS. Small stores that specialize in oddball marine critters are a good bet for being able to ID and care for it or place it with someone who can.
3. Re-release it right now if you haven't exposed it to water from any other marine tanks or added any live rock, sand, etc. to the tank with it.
 
If you can't take the seahorse back to its habitat of origin, then, if you have a LFS that knows their stuff about sw, I would take it there ASAP and not try to feed it or anything for water quality reasons. A stressed seahorse is unlikely to eat anyway. Bear in mind that if you try to set it up with anything not from its native habitat, specifically if you put any water or live rock from another marine tank or LFS in with it, you can NOT safely re-release it after that without risking contaminating the environment it came from. Rock, livestock, and therefore the water its in at stores and in other hobbyists tanks is full of international fauna. Once exposed to other marine material, it becomes a risk for contaminating the native environment with microbes and other organisms from totally different parts of the world (for example, invasive algaes are easy to introduce this way). 

 

[Squeegeatc]

He didnt survive the night. I will talk to the neighbor. I dont like killing creatures just to experiment. Thank you for your help.

The only good thing is that my cherry shrimp were moved out of there. And now my husband can slowly work on turning it into a salt nano tank. ........which also scares me. A 10 gallon will not be easy.

 

[Donya]

Sorry to hear that. It might have been injured from being caught if it was an accidental catch or just been really stressed out by the process. You did all the right things. 
 
Nano tanks are extra tricky as a first saltwater tank since the parameters can shift a lot more rapidly due to the small water volume. The usual advice is to go for close to 55gal if you can for stability reasons, but if the 10gal is the only option, then going slowly is definitely the key.