Hoover : The One and Only!!!!

Now and then there is no live Brine to be found...ANYWHERE!
"The Pet Den" in Commack, New York has
the reputation of carrying what
no other pet shops would ever even think of stocking.
To describe Denise and Maurice as "exotic" purchasers
would be an understatement!

However, now and then the live brine is not delivered.
When that occurs I switch my spoiled seahorses
to frozen brine.
Sweetheart and Valentina tolerate it...
But Hoover...
The way he recoiled at one time with the
live brine is exactly what he does with the frozen brine.
My Hoover runs from it!

Once the live brine shrimp arrives I observe Hoover's behavior once more...
Amazingly, he squirrels away the live brine in his mouth.
He quickly realizes that the live brine are actually plentiful.
Hoarding his delicacy in his snout is no longer necessary.
The light bulb goes off and out fly a minimum of 16 brine he has practically been choking on!

I ask!
Instinct?
OR :
A level of intelligence?

After reading my posts there is no doubt as to what my opinion is!

The following photos are not so great...
They show...
or sort of show...
the seahorses...
especially my Hoover, eyeing and eating the brine.

I will try to get better photos at some point I am trying to go through my posts and make sure they all have photos...
And...
That they are spell checked...
And that they make some sort of readable sense!

Thanks for your patience my:
FAN BASE OF ZERO~~~OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

OK folks!
Its December 14 th, 2012 and I TRIED to get better photos of my seahorses eating...no dining on brine...
I SAID I TRIED!!!!!!
Check out the last 5 photos...

Hoover's Night Moves

So, figure breakfast is served by 10 a.m. and lasts till 12 noon~~
maybe even 12:30...depending on how much brine is consumed over that time period.
The Seahorses are known to leisurely "hunt and peck", looking for the most delectable bring morsels...
and never hesitating to spit out less tasty bits.

Wondering why I don't feed them earlier?
Its because they are on my schedule. And being I'm such a poor sleeper...their 1st meal of the day can be considered more of a brunch.

Wondering what they do in the morning?
Believe it or not~~they are on my schedule!
Around 8 a.m. they begin to yawn and stretch...sneeze and cough...
And do the "morning greeting" where tails are joined and snouts are lowered and touch creating an adorable, precious heart shape.

Slowly they begin to move around the tank and discover some stray brine caught in the leaves or wiggling around the coral rock.

Lots of "sniffing" goes on between the Seahorses 

The Seahorses will play, dragging each other around,
tails grabbing tails and also grabbing snouts followed by violent shakes to make an escape.

Affection also abounds as Valentina bumps and grinds with
Hoover Vacuum and then with Abby Road Vin Diesel.
Courtships are merely short flirtations as Valentina is quite the Jezebel!

Dinner is served about 5 p.m. till 7:30 p.m.
After dinner, at around 8p.m., its lights out, pajamas on and
familiar positions are taken.

At midnight, I go to the tank one last time.
My babies are tucked in and all is right with their world.

By 5 minutes after midnight, Hoover begins his 
"night moves" like clock work!
I walk by the tank for one final "baby check".
Valentina, and Sweetheart are "in position" for the night.
Eyes "fixed" they are in Seahorse Dreamland"...
BUT.....
Gracefully swimming around and around the top of the
tank is my Hoover Vacuum! Total opposite from his day
behavior I observe a seahorse that I barely recognize!
Tail no longer dragging on rough coral.
Herky~Jerky moves  nonexistent.
Fetal positioning  nowhere to be found.
Eyes no longer going in a million directions.
Nerves calm and body relaxed.

Hoover Vacuum floats seamlessly up and down.
In a ballerina dance of grace and smoothness,
Hoover glides around and around the tank.
He is in a trance~like state.
As he moves, he is a softened wave ebbing and flowing.
Hoover's fins make no ripple whatsoever.

I pet Hoover through the glass.
He glides over to me and and remains stationary
as I stroke the long length of his vertical body.

Then he continues on his round the tank journey.
He finally comes to rest on the air hose...
and sleeps...

Good night my sweet Hoover Vacuum!
You are a treasure who has morphed since I first brought you home.
You remain a mystery in so many ways!
I love you my beautiful boy!


In all the following photos, I tried to capture the ease in which Hoover makes his way around the tank every night.
He stays on the tank's top never to be seen dragging his tail around the bottom of the tank the way he does all day long....
Love you, my sweet good~willed seahorse, Hoover!

Hoover...Growth and Developement

My Hoo~vee...my sweet...my natural helper was not always that way.
When I picked him out and brought him home he was my "skinny bill ink", my "nervous Nelly",
"afraid of his own shadow" and of the brine that was his food.

Once my precious Hoo~vee began to eat, always on the bottom of the tank, he also began to check out the other seahorses in the tank.
He'd get his snout very, very close to the other seahorses and literally sniffed them.
Over the course of the day, Hoover continually checks on the other seahorses. He spent time with both Sweetheart and Valentina gently wrapping his tail over theirs. It was as though Hoover was saying, "I'm here to see how you are, and I care for you."
Thus, Hoover also became "my natural helper..." Astutely aware of the moods , spirit and health of the seahorses. Never putting himself first.
He was pesty too. As he rushed around and around the tank, he'd crash into them, or run them over.
Hoov never took the path of least resistance either!

Even today, Hoover can be seen in the tank racing around the tank. Once he eyeballs me, he resorts to a haphazard
bee-line right to me. He really thinks he can go through anything as if by magic!
Crash!
Boom!
Bang!
Hoov~ee goes at top speed!
So quick that when he goes to stop the momentum just keeps him flying by! He attempts to slow himself down by
using the tip of his tail as a break but to no avail!
I say a quick "Hi Hoover",
and as he sails by me, "Bye Hoover!" 

 He uses his tail like a pogo stick on the coral bouncing up and down and dancing in his uncoordinated way.

Taught not to be afraid of brine by other seahorses.
They sensed he needed lessons.
Still a bottom feeder.

Hoovering~More On This "Old Soul" Seahorse

I'm BAAAAA~~~~~CK!!!!!
Almost over the nasty chest infection!!!!!
Let's continue....

After dodging the live brine...
Intently following it flittering around...
Snout in position to suck in the delectable sushi...
THEN!!!!!!!!
Hoover goes in for the kill !!!!!
He rethinks the situation....
Hoover makes a run for it....
Oh well!
Back to the drawing board!

Look...Hoov~E..."E" for EXCELLENCE...
has to get hungry at some point.
He is not in competition for the food by larger seahorses.

So.....
Hoover again observes the other seahorses aggressively devour the brine.
It took at least a week in the tank...
But he GOT IT!!!!!

Oh yeah!
He'd follow one brine at a time, to the point he'd go cross eyed and loose sight of it!
It was a shy nip at first...
Eventually though, Hoover's snout was a snappin' and he enjoyed one brine after another!

Hoover has brine all around him...but runs from it rather
than try to eat it...

Hoover swims away from the brine....

Hoover gets help from Valentina. She hitches her tail with his and begins the lesson:
"HOW TO DINE ON BRINE"....



                          

~REFLECTIONS~Just doin' some wonderin'...

                     ~~~REFLECTIONS~~~
Gonna try personalizing all this again...
I am in a slump all you non-yous in cyberspace...
No...not a writer's slump.
A health slump.
I have a chest cold infection.
It worries me because of undergoing open heart and having
a not so new mitral valve...which was accompanied by a
collapsed lung.
Then MRSA.
Then breast cancer.
Then chemo treated for Hep C.
Sadly the treatment failed.

But none of that matters as long as I can keep on bloggin'
about my beloved seahorses.
And I can!

In fact...one of my dearest friends, Diane, told me I do not have to blog everyday...
I can blog say, once a week, and as long as I am consistent,
its all good!

So, I sign off for now!

Please my cyber no~ones...
pray for me...
to God...
in Jesus name!

I'll be back!


With perfect lighting and no gravel on the bottom of this tank, I was able to photograph (8 photos) my curious seahorses as they studied their own reflections with wondrous amazement!...





"Seahorse Jungle"...A Children's Book~I Digress

The following is a Children's Book I'd love to complete one day....
Maybe if I post it here, I will work on it ~~ MORE!!!

Have you ever heard the expression:

"IT'S A JUNGLE OUT THERE"?

Well for me, it's been a jungle in here, where I live,

which is in a salt water tank.

Legend has it that we...

oh I know I have not mentioned to you what I am yet.

Anyway, just a little about me:

Legend has it that we once lived in most of the Oceans. It was even thought that we had some sort of mystical powers.

No kidding!

Even way back to when these humans called "Greeks"

...which is different then "Geeks"....

decided to name this god of theirs "Poseidon".

And, for transportation, this "Poseidon" guy, or shall I say god, road on a hugh seahorse!

That's what I am!

A seahorse!

Not one you can ride, but one nonetheless a seahorse!

And humans figured out a way to take some of us out of our natural habitat, and into your homes as their pets.

I know, all of this is not easy to grasp and understand at first!

Our Seahorse Folklore Tale has been passed down from one seahorse generation to the next.

May I explain:

Humans look to have us seahorses as pets,

even though they cannot truly pet us.

Turns out, we are now domestically bread so that we have become able to live in a saltwater tank.

In the wild, we dine on fresh shrimp called brine.

In a tank, that would never work!

It is just too much work keeping

live brine in the home where our tank is.

So, we also had to get use to frozen brine and hope that our human would treat us now and then to the real stuff.

Yummy!

My journey began much like any other seahorses.

My Mom and Dad met and fell in love. They pledged their undying love to each other for a lifetime.

Now, a seahorse baby is called a fry.

There is something very, very different for us fry. The difference is that our daddy's give birth to us!

No, I am not kidding!

Once we, or I was born, I was ready to go off on my own. Ready to make my own way in the Seahorse Jungle.

It did not take long for me to be hand picked by my owner in

Coral Springs, Florida.

We are purchased by shipped off in a special container to live with humans in their houses and we in a saltwater tank.

Seahorses, like humans, come in all sizes, shapes and colors.

We have different personalities. If we are shy, there is a good chance we will hide among the reeds or fake coral in the tank. I happen to be a happy go lucky seahorse! Hiding is not for me! In fact, when I see wide eyes of wonder along with a happy face on the other side of the glass, I swim right over.

Many times, the warmth from the humans nose or finger on the glass makes me get closer and I feel the love come right through.

Did you know we are like humans and can get emotional and as they say:

"stressed out."

We can let others know our feelings by changing our body color.

At night, I like to go to bed at the same time every night. Once darkness falls, I look for my usual spot, and fall asleep quickly. Sleeping by hitching on to a coral, or air hose, or even a stick thermometer inside the tank.

We take gentle breathes in and out. Our snouts rest gently on our chests, giving us a shy look.
I have heard that when human people sleep, their chests rise and fall slowest at that time.
Can I have a witness to this?
Do not look at me!
Who knows where humans go to call it a night?

Being Hoover.....

Let's talk about the sweetest seahorse~~Hoover!!!!
My scared baby...so thin and tiny and wide~eyed when I brought him HOME!
Soon became the kindest, most humblest, natural helper I have ever had!

Hoover eventually did learn how to eat the live brine....
But it was work in progress.
He observed the other seahorses as he remained scavenging the bottom.

Hoover has this innate ability to sense how the other seahorses are doing.
More on that with my next Hoover post.....