The White’s seahorse, Hippocampus whitei, is a seahorse species endemic to the east coast of Australia. The loss and degradation of critically important habitats such as soft corals, sponges and seagrasses have led to dramatic population declines of H. whitei. To assist in the recovery of H. whitei, a conservation-stocking program has been implemented since 2020 aiming to restock wild seahorse populations. The survivorship of seahorses released into the wild has differed temporally and spatially, with several factors potentially limiting the success. Captive-bred seahorses reared in aquaria may have increased naivety to predators and therefore risk being preyed upon at release, despite being released into suitable habitats. In this controlled-laboratory experiment, we exposed juvenile captive-bred seahorses to two known predators: mourning cuttlefish Sepia plangon and striped anglerfish Antennarius striatus, to assess their initial response and determine if exposure to predators throughout the aquarium-rearing stage could improve their predator aversion. Initial results in aquaria experiments indicate that H. whitei showed a limited capacity to developing their predator aversion, and this process may ultimately not be beneficial in the context of conservation stocking.