56 gallon tribute tank

[vlangel]

I felt so bad when I lost my male seahorse, (my 1st seahorse loss) that I began to ponder how to make my tank even better for ponies. Removing the sandbed is what I thought could improve husbandry. That led to a new bigger tank built in honor of my stallion. This is a pic of Eve in her new tank with a misty mural of Adam looking over her.

 

[vlangel]

It turns out that creating a natural looking scape on a bb aquarium is challenging, (at least for me). I finally settled on this which offers hitches in multiple intensities of flow, incorporates the mural into the scape and has the food bowl in a sheltered cove so its not necessary to turn the pumps off to feed.

 

[JBarnes]

Very nice.

 

[vlangel]

Very nice.

Thank you!

 

[vlangel]

Well the tank seems to have gotten through the mini cycle as the last 3 days the ammonia has been 0 ppm.

I called Seahorse Source and got to talk to Abbie. She was so nice and listened carefully to my concerns about mixing ponies from different sources. SInce they are the same specie she agreed that I can minimize that risk by doing bigger than normal water changes, which is what I will do.

Tuesday morning a pair of ponies will arrive at my doorstep and one is a pinto. Hopefully my light backround tank will encourage nice coloration. They will however go into a 10 gallon QT to recover from shipping stress first.

 

[BlueCat1949]

Cool vlangel good luck with your new horses.

 

[vlangel]

Cool vlangel good luck with your new horses.

Thank you BlueCat. I am very excited for the new ponies plus I know that Eve, my female seahorse will be happy when they join her.

 

[vlangel]

Well, my little ponies have arrived and they are beautiful. They look great and are perfect but finicky. She has settled in better than him. She explored the tank and ate frozen mysis the first day. He on the other hand has been reclusive and although I have seen him snick I am not sure he got anything. I am enriching live brine shrimp now but gave them some immediately to elicit a feeding response. Also I started an amphipod culture a few months ago and am hoping to harvest some to entice my new ponies.

 

[BlueCat1949]

Pix?

 

[vlangel]

I am sorry that the pic is so poor. You know how it is, they head for the darkest most unphotographical spot in the tank!

I will try to get some better pix as they settle in.

 

[vlangel]

The new seahorses are getting a lot of attention but Eve is still a rock star!

 

[vlangel]

Here is a better pic of my new ponies from Seahorse Source. An order of ghost shrimp came this morning and to my delight they were smaller than usual.
Ruth and Boaz (the names I settled on) perked up immediately when I put a few in the QT. With brutal deadly precision they proceeded to hunt down the hapless shrimp. Boaz sucked one in the size of his head. Ruth prefers to snap them in half and try to eat both parts before Boaz cashes in on her kill.

As you can see they are out in the open now which is a good sign.

 

[vlangel]

Finally this morning Boaz began eating frozen mysis. Ruth has been eating it like a champ. They are looking more relaxed and comfortable too. I am chomping at the bit to add them to the display tank so they can meet Eve but I need to block the overflow teeth so they don't accidently go over.

 

[BlueCat1949]

Happy for you vlangel. It has been 9 years since I stopped breeding seahorses and 14 years since I got my first erectus breeders from another hobbyist. I still remember the joy of seeing my first pair swimming in their 30 gallon cube.

 

[vlangel]

Happy for you vlangel. It has been 9 years since I stopped breeding seahorses and 14 years since I got my first erectus breeders from another hobbyist. I still remember the joy of seeing my first pair swimming in their 30 gallon cube.

Thanks BlueCat! It was nerve wracking those first 4 days when he would not eat and she only sporadically. Now they are taking mysis right from the turkey baster which will help me feed them in the big 56 gallon display tank. The plan is to move them Sunday after the lights go down to just blue.
Here is a video link of my display if you are interested. I must warn you that 5he music is terrible.

https://youtu.be/5MssKF7g5iE

 

[pfan151]

Looking good. I just grabbed a pair of babouri's and the male is acting like yours when you first got it. The female is voracious. Hopefully the male comes around soon like yours.

 

[vlangel]

Looking good. I just grabbed a pair of babouri's and the male is acting like yours when you first got it. The female is voracious. Hopefully the male comes around soon like yours.

Now they both are eating very well 3Xs a day and have fattened back up.

 

[sde1500]

Very cool tank design, the painting it the back of it looks awesome! Out of curiosity, why do you think going bare bottom will improve husbandry?

 

[vlangel]

Very cool tank design, the painting it the back of it looks awesome! Out of curiosity, why do you think going bare bottom will improve husbandry?

Thank you for the kind comment about the mural.

With a bare bottom tank I can direct more flow at the bottom without concerns of stirring up sand. That flow now is able to lift excess mysis and detritus up into the water column to be filtered out in my sump by the large skimmer.
Also I can easily see when anything is collecting on the bottom where I can quickly syphon it out. With sand it was necessary to vacume it often, a chore that can easily be overlooked.

 

[vlangel]

FTS showing what I see from my sofa. Happy Thanksgiving to all.