Seahorses-Kona day 5

The day started well with a good walk but veered off into weird as we attended a timeshare presentation just so we could get discounts on Big Island activities.  The timeshare people were very nice until we told them we were definitely not interested, then they got a little pushy but we got our "Diamond" discount card and free 4 night stay at one of their places either on the Big Island, Kauai or Oahu.  Not too bad.

We then headed over to the Seahorse Farm, a privately owned Hawaiian aqua farm, dedicated to saving the endangered seahorse and sea dragons.



You begin your $30 tour by washing your hands and arms (up to your elbows) with soap and water so that you don't bring any contaminants (sunscreen, etc) into the tanks of seahorses.  Our tour guide (one of the owners) then took us to this big hole in the ground that they had dug out to show us what their breeding mares and stallions eat - little tiny red shrimp that come through a pipe from the ocean.

Only the breeding animals eat the shrimp fresh, the rest of the seahorses have learned to eat frozen shrimp.  They learned by watching only one other seahorse who was brave enough to try it - they named him Mikey (from Life cereal fame).  Apparently, once the seahorses saw him eat the frozen shrimp and not die, then they were willing to tuck in and give it a try.  Now all their seahorses eat frozen shrimp.

After looking at the big hole in the ground, we headed over to the buildings with the storage tanks; however, first we had to step on this mat covered in iodine to clean the bottom of our shoes from any pollutants. The first set of blue tanks we saw contained the itty, bitty babies.  There were about 10 tanks with about 50 - 100 baby seahorses in them. These ones were about 3-4 days old (we were not allowed to take pictures of these tanks-so no baby pics.  But they are tiny!).

Next are the breeding tanks with moms and pops.  As soon as we got near the tanks, the seahorses came up to the top looking for food.  We were able to pour in a cup of salt water, with tiny shrimp in it, into the tank and watch the creatures suck the shrimp into their mouths.  Their jaws don't hinge so they suck their food in (again, no pictures allowed). The owner talked to us a lot about conversation and what needs to happen to save these lovely creatures and other marine life. 

Then we headed to some other holding tanks with the teenagers and young single adults.  In the wild, seahorses mate for life so when one was captured and sold, it would suffer from depression (how they know that is beyond me) and die. Domesticated (farm raised) seahorses will mate with anyone so if you have an aquarium with a male and female and one dies, you can get another domesticated one and they will mate. Male seahorses carry the 50 or so eggs, after the female impregnates them, in his pouch.  The babies are born about 1 month later.  And it only takes 2 minutes for them to pop out and start looking for food on their own.  And then 2 minutes later, the female impregnates the male again.  So he is always barefoot and pregnant!  Sea dragon males carry their eggs on their tails.  The farm hasn't had much success getting the male to carry the eggs yet.  The owners think the animals are still too young to get it!

Then it was time to hold them or to let them wrap their tales around you.  I'm sorry the pictures are kind of murky.  I don't know why they are because all of the rest are fine.

They are such delicate creatures.  And some would cling to you and some just swam away.

These are the rows of tanks filled with the teenagers and young single adults. One tank holds the very endangered sea dragons from Australia.  We were able to look at them in the tank but if you touched the tank, then afterwards, you had dip your hands in a bucket of iodine.

If you're interested in purchasing these wonderful creatures from these people (which a lot of people do), you must first take a course in how to take care of the seahorses. Once you have completed the course, then they will send them to you.  The website is: seahorse.com