20141005 Seahorse! Hippocampus Erectus

I have had my 28 gallon cube sitting for a while running with just live rock for about 2-3 months. I have always wanted to get some seahorse in that tank. And the opportunity finally arrived! Last week while browsing Best Fish in Milwaukee, I noticed they had a tank full of captive raised seahorses!

 Initially I saw the label "Kuda" on the tank so I thought I was looking at Kuda seahorse. The store was feeding them live brine and frozen mysis shrimp. These guys gobble up the food very eagerly. So I decided to take a couple of these 3" ponies home!

Although at the time of purchase, one was significantly lighter color than the dark one, they do change color to match the environment. Over the course of a week, they have both shifted color slightly and are not not as far off from each other. I started by feeding them Hikari mysis since they are small in size. But then they were not accepting the mysis very well. After some forum posting on reef central, I decided to try PE mysis on them, with the fear that the big shrimp would not fit through their fused jaws. And to my surprise, they were able to chew up some pretty chunky shrimps!
Also, as I began to research more about seahorse, I realize they do not look like Kuda at all! Instead, I thought they look more like erectus. So I called the store today and confirmed that indeed they are erectus. The store only has females at this time, which is OK with me because I don't think I am ready for the difficult task of breeding seahorse just yet.