[rayjay]

I know what that excitement is like.
I had barbs many years ago when I was able to get some angustus and barbs from a company in Australia owned by Dr Mic Payne. Up till then I'd only had reidi. The barbs quickly became my favourites though. By the time they passed on, the company had closed after not being able to sell it so it was MANY years until I found that I could get them from another Australian company, Seahorse Australia.
Originally I was going to get them through a store who had placed an order there. Unfortunately his order was a multiple species order and wouldn't be shipped until his turn came up for the backordered species.
Finally, after a year, I gave up and ordered my own direct here to Canada. Shipping was as much as the seahorses themselves.
I picked up the shipment June 26 2017 of 6 abdominalis and 8 barbouri and still have them all except for a male ab that died six weeks after receiving it, two days after it gave birth to hundreds of dead malformed fry. Have no idea what the problem was but thank God it never transferred to any of the others.
Barbs still are my favourite with reidi the second, and that's after also having had the angustus, erectus and comes as well over the last 16 yrs.