Girlfriend wants a seahorse tank...options on a budget??

[Fish_King_25]

So I am one of those few guys that has a significant other who wants to be part of the hobby and shows a genuine interest in my hobby (now are hobby.) We have a 29g mixed reef and she wants to setup a small seahorse tank for the bedroom. What do you seahorse keepers recommend... I was thinking of one of those 8 gal cubes from Petco or the latter and going from there.

Any input or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Thanks!!

 

[JLynn]

The only type of seahorses which can go in an 8g tank are dwarf seahorses, H. Zosterae. They are quite budget friendly, but the catch is that due to their size, 1 inch as adults, they have to be fed very small prey. Because of the quantity of food required- a lot, twice daily- brine shrimp are the only practical choice. Which means that you will need to hatch and enrich brine shrimp daily, bi-daily, or weekly, depending upon how much you hatch each time. While preparing the Artemia for your seahorses is by no means difficult, it is tedious. Their are many benefits to dwarf seahorses, however: because they are so small, you can safely keep 20 or 30 of them in an 8g aquarium, also, the fry can be raised in the tank with the parents with no extra effort on your part, and they breed prolifically, so you can start with two or three pairs and have several dozen a few months later. There is more to it than what I have mentioned here, because I just wanted to give you a quick idea of some of the advantages and disadvantages, but fusedjaw.com and seahorse.org both have excellent articles. Also, their are plenty of old threads where the basics are outlined. For larger species of seahorses, you would need at least 29g for a single pair, and you would also need to buy a chiller: that alone would cost you $400 easily, not to mention the expense of livestock, substrate, decorations, etc. Given that you appear to be looking for an economical way to please your girlfriend, I didn't think you wanted to spend so much money. Dwarf seahorses are considerably cheaper. You could easily do it in $100 or less if you went that direction. Hope this helps!

 

[cherubfish pair]

20 or 30 in an eight gallon you say? Could I get one or two dwarves in an aquafuge? It holds about 4 gallons but it is constantly being refreshed with water from the main system. Could it get by on small copepods raised in the fuge? What about amphipods or are amphies too large?

 

[JLynn]

The issue with food is not size so much as volume. Given the shear amount of food they need to eat daily, your little fuge will not be able to sustain adequate (or any, really) populations. That is why brine shrimp are more practical. As for the fuge plumbed in with the main tank... The biggest issue I can see here would be temperature. Dwarves should be in water that is 72-74 F, ideally. Assuming the DT in question is your standard reef tank, the temperatures will be too high. Stocking wise, yeah, 4 gallons is just fine! One or two pairs will be very happy in that volume of water. I would probably limit the population of a 4g to 10-15 DSH. The extras can be sold just about anywhere or split off into a separate tank. It is probably best to just buy a new little tank for this. A little tank like this shouldn't cost more than $10-$15, really, and one of those ice-probe chillers in a modified hagen aquaclear would be more than adequate for this purpose. You could probably also fit the sponge filters in the aquaclear... Lighting can just be a regular house bulb, if you have fake plants in there. About the amphipods, yeah they probably do get too big. I am not sure, since my little tank was amphipod-free, but most likely, yes. Dwarves are about 1 inch as adults, and the fry are much smaller than that, so it isn't exactly difficult to find larger potential predators .

 

[flsvedlund]

Another problem with plumbing the dwarf seahorse tank into a reef tank would be hydroids. You have to avoid hydroids with dwarf seahorses because they are so small that the stings can be fatal. Most reef systems have some hydroids present and they could end up in the seahorse tank if they are plumbed together.

 

[cherubfish pair]

Can dwarves eat food that comes frozen or pellets/flakes something like that?

 

[shrimpgal]

I have dwarfs so i will chime in here and try to help with info
Only live baby brine once you get the rythum going of hatching them it doesnt take long
No they will not eat frozen or pellates
Must be in a tank by themselves I have mine in a 3 gallon tank no sand i vacumn their tank every day
They have plastic coral and plants different colors as they change colors to what they are on. No live rock as it can carry too many bad things for them.
I use a sponge filter and a small air pump, small light they are not too demanding
You will want at least six as they are quite small
I love my dwarfs and they are a lot of fun:thumbsup:

 

[cherubfish pair]

Are there any species of SH that can live in 78-80* temps?

 

[rayjay]

Most tropical seahorses "CAN" live in that range and indeed do in the wild.
The problem is that they are VERY susceptible to bacterial infections like tail end rot and flesh erosion that in the wild, the bacteria concentrations are very low relative to in our captive aquaria.
Seahorses are a very "dirty" producing fish in that they are very selective eaters, leaving a lot to decay and produce bacterial beds, and, when they snick their food, they masticate it and pass particulate matter out through the gills and into the water column, further degrading the water with more bacteria food.
By doing extreme housekeeping, coupled with keeping the temperatures in the 68° to 74°F range, we help to minimize this deadly problem.
That doesn't mean that there aren't some seahorse individuals that have a higher tolerance to the bacteria and are doing just fine in some aquariums at the warmer temperatures, but it does mean the odds are stacked against success in so doing. A LOT of seahorses have been lost in the attempts to do so.

 

[reefgoddess808]

I went through this same thing a few months ago with my 5.5 gal. Dwarf seahorses are very hard to keep and expensive to maintain. I have a full time job a five year old and a plethora of other pets so hatching brine daily does not fit into my routine. If you can get a 30 gal tank you can keep a pair of redii or something. Good luck to you!