We are in touch with TCM wholesalers, retailers, practitioners, per-packaged TCM manufacturers, scholars, and representatives of TCM practitioners' associations and TCM traders' associations. A large proportions of the people we approach are supportive, co-operative and open to dialogue. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the United Kingdom Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, and from Glaxo Wellcome plc. Currently, this trade accounts for hundreds of thousands of seahorses being taken from the wild every year. The vast majority of seahorses bought from aquarium shops are wild caught and contribute to the overall decline in seahorse numbers.
Seahorses are notoriously difficult to keep healthy in aquaria.
Even very experienced aquarists have reported recurrent problems with diet and disease. They require a huge investment of time, effort and money so are definitely not suitable fish for amateur aquarists. London Zoo has kept seahorses for many years and has, with other aquaria world-wide, identified many of the key problems with captive care and culture of seahorses. While we want to help those who already have seahorses in their collection, we certainly can not recommend them for home aquaria. In response to growing concern over declining seahorse populations and widespread problems keeping seahorses in aquaria, we collected husbandry information from aquarists around the world by circulating a detailed questionnaire.