Dwarf Horse and Hermit crabs???
- Thread starter PJsStuff
- Start date
ann83
New member
I would not keep any crabs with them, I also would not keep peppermint shrimp with them. Zoanthids and ricordia, as well as other corals, can introduce dangerous things to the tank, but provided you are careful, I think you could try the zoanthids... But, if you have ever treated the tank with fenbendizole, you cannot keep corals, and if you ever do need to treat with fenbendizole in order to eradicate hydroids, the corals will need to be removed first and won't be able to go back into the tank.
I would look into macro algaes, those tiny red shrimp (volcano shrimp?), that are less than an inch full grown, nerite snails and nassarius snails. And, definately keep an eye out for hydroids. They can kill your dwarves and can come in on anything live that you add to the tank.
I would look into macro algaes, those tiny red shrimp (volcano shrimp?), that are less than an inch full grown, nerite snails and nassarius snails. And, definately keep an eye out for hydroids. They can kill your dwarves and can come in on anything live that you add to the tank.
well this tank is connected into my main system (75gal display reef with 50gal sump) The only reason i put the shrimp in there was because i had a heck of a glass anema problem that took alot of my dwarfs. iv never had any of the hydroids. Iv never heard of volcano shrimp before.
ann83
New member
oh, well peps would eat the glass anemones but they will also eat the dwarves... that being said, there are probably microscopic hydroids stinging and killing the dwarves too if their tank is connected to your reef. Google "hydroids" and look at the pictures of both the benthic and pelagic stages, and then take a magnifying glass to your tank to look around for them. What are you feeding the seahorses? You do have hippocampus zosterae, correct? Do you have a pic?
Here are some pictures. I had about 40-50 dwarfs at one time until i had the glass anema outbreak. Then i lost about half of them to the anemas. Then i moved and left the horses at my moms house until i got things set up at my new place, and they just started to gradually die. I figured my mom wasn't feeding them enough(she would forget all the time). So i was down to 3 when i moved them to my house. I lost one during the move but the other two survived. The only thing that i have changed about the take was the size. I got a 10 gal this time there old tank was a 20gal tall. I noticed the hermit eating the one this morning. So now i am down to one :sad2: I just got done taking the hermits out and my sally lightfoot crab. I left the Zoos and reicardos and frogspawn in there. i also have some different types of alge in there, got some red stuff and some grape looking stuff and the lettus stuff and another leafy alge. Oh and i feed them baby brine shrimp once a day. Is there any way to get rid of these hydroids?? I want to order some more dwarfs because i love to watch them and they multipl like mad.
<BR> One of the babies
![url]](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.saltcritters.com%2Fhorse2.jpg%5B%2Furl%5D&hash=1f675d612912da92f95b0c7e3b67bbc2)
<BR> Dwarf giving birth.
<BR> New inwall 10gal
<BR> One of the babies
<BR> Dwarf giving birth.
<BR> New inwall 10gal
ann83
New member
Remove the frogspawn, that is not dwarf-safe.
Feed the dwarves twice a day, and if the baby brine is more than 12 hours old, you need to grow them out and enrich them with a product containing selco.
The only way to get rid of hydroids permanently is to dose the tank with panacur (fenbendizole). But, this will kill most of the corals and most of the invertibrates in your system. You can do a search for "dwarf seahorses AND panacur" on reefcentral and on google and find some good information.
Personally, I don't recommend having your dwarf tank attached to your system, it is too dangerous for the dwarves because of the things that can get into their tank from your reef (like hydroids), and it requires you to keep your dwarf tank too warm. I wouldn't keep it over 74 degrees F (23 degrees C).
Feed the dwarves twice a day, and if the baby brine is more than 12 hours old, you need to grow them out and enrich them with a product containing selco.
The only way to get rid of hydroids permanently is to dose the tank with panacur (fenbendizole). But, this will kill most of the corals and most of the invertibrates in your system. You can do a search for "dwarf seahorses AND panacur" on reefcentral and on google and find some good information.
Personally, I don't recommend having your dwarf tank attached to your system, it is too dangerous for the dwarves because of the things that can get into their tank from your reef (like hydroids), and it requires you to keep your dwarf tank too warm. I wouldn't keep it over 74 degrees F (23 degrees C).
ann83
New member
They survive by hiding in seagrasses, reproducing a lot, and avoiding dangerous things... Also, not all of them survive, in the wild its a numbers game. But you can't really play that in an aquarium b/c its a closed system so they can't get away from dangers, and things like hydroids can reproduce to plague-like numbers without the ocean to dillute the population, and you don't want to lose a whole bunch of dwarves to dangers like what would happen in the wild anyway...
