Seahorses are amongst the most unusual fishes in existence and their biology is as extraordinary as the myths that surround them.

The name itself inspires intrigue – Hippocampus, which comes from the Greek words “hippo” meaning horse and “campus” meaning sea monster.

With a horse like head, a grasping tail like a monkey, a kangaroo like pouch for the young, independently moving eyes and small fins that emerge from their bony body armor, and of course the fact that the male seahorse gets pregnant, goes into labor and has the babies.

Ironically it is their uniqueness that makes them so sought after.

All Australian Seahorses, Seadragons and Pipefish were all placed under the Wildlife Protection Act in 1988, because their conservation status was considered vulnerable. However, this is not the case throughout the world, wild harvesting still continues at unsustainable levels.

In 1987 we were inspired by television documentaries stating that 20 million seahorses were harvested from the wild each year for use in the Herbal Medicine Trade, Aquaria Markets and Curio Markets.

Having kept seahorses in tanks at home as a hobby, it was a natural progression to “farm seahorses” and offer the existing markets with a better alternative to wild harvested – captive bred or farmed horses.

The various government permits were obtained and the research and development stage began. Being pioneers in the industry information on “how to” was virtually non-existent.

The “Seahorse Farm” now farms 5 of the 50 known species of seahorse found throughout the world and has supplied the aquarium market both domestically and internationally with four species of captive bred seahorse.

While the original breeding program began in Port Lincoln South Australia, the business has re-located to Port Adelaide in January 2007 where the main focus is now Education and Viewing.

The facility here in Port Adelaide does not have the room to run the large scale breeding program as it was in Port Lincoln.

We have decided to keep the breeding program small scale for a while, supplying only the local wholesale trade in seahorses.

We hope in the future to have a new big facility that can cope with both education and viewing and a larger scale breeding program.