Gorgonian and Sponges for seahorse tank?

mjstech

mjstech

New member
Hey guys, I have a 29g with 3 H. Redi, I have a bunch of different types of macros in there, along with more hair algea than you can stand. I am going to be placing an order for snails/hermit from reeftopia, and have seen their gorgonian and sponges they have to offer. I was wondering if any of you have these in your SH tanks, or more information on them.

thanks,

mark
 
Yup, gorgs and sponges both, the seahorses tend to pretty much ignore them, but then again, I may have just too many hitching places.
Neither will hurt your horses, but both are a little difficult to keep. They do well for awhile, then just seem to waste away.
 
tree sponges are good, I have a bright orange one, and a pair of my horses hold on to all the time, now both of them are the same shade of orange :)

gorgonias are also nice, a little tricky since they are filter feeders, but I am a little lucky

Jose
 
Unfortunately most sponges that you can buy, including tree sponges will die of starvation fairly rapidly, as we just cant support their diet in captivity. Photosynthetic gorgonians are fine, but the brightly colored, non-photosynthetic gorgonians will die of starvation and continual harassment from being hitched to by your seahorses. We simply cannot proved an adequate diet to these animals yet, and purchasing them as decorations for a few months is wasteful and irresponsible.

Not making an attack on anyone here but I am always surprised how careless many seahorse keepers can be in regards to other forms of marine life, when they are so extremely devoted to their own horses.
 
hmmm how weird Nate, so I guess I should trhow away all 20ga of live phytoplackton I cultivate for the sponges and feed daily, to my tanks and clams and many other live animals that feed in live phyto, not DTs, but live phyto

do you as student understand that there are some of us whom have done the research and gonne the extra mile in order keep these beautifull animals alive in our tanks and some of us who can spend the extra amount of money to have the set up needed to maintain these eco systems

also since you comment is directed to MY horses, before you open you mouth why don't you ask, how long has the tree sponge been there, is it bother by the horses holding on to it, or any other kind of question that would make you believe ther could be a problem

oh yeah, you're wrong, many tree sponges live fairly good in some tanks, mine have been there for 2 years and have triple in size, even with the anoying horses holding on to them

remember, because you have failed in providing adecaute care for these animals does not mean other will fail, like you

and my SH tank is 215ga with a ca reactor, 2 phosban reactors, Kalk reactor, carbon reactor, 55ga sump/fuge, 10ga Brine shrimp tank, 5 foot tall skimmer, 80 mangroves in the fuge, 200 pounds of LR, ozone reactor, and more stuff I can't remember right now, so what was your ingorant comment based on again????

Jose
 
Jose,

Actually I dont feel my comment was that ignorant at all, and I have not failed to provide adequate care for either of these animals because I did my research prior to purchasing and decided to leave these creatures in the ocean.

I'm glad that you put so much care and effort into keeping your sponges, and that you apparently are able to sustain them with live phyto, but your success doesn't change their dismal track record in captivity. Making general statements like:


tree sponges are good, I have a bright orange one, and a pair of my horses hold on to all the time, now both of them are the same shade of orange
Click to expand...

encourages people who read your post to buy the sponges without understanding that they have extreme dietary requirements that most people are unable to provide.

Again this wasn't an attack on you, but your lone success doesn't justify the encouragement of the collection of creatures that will die in the majority of the aquariums for which they are purchased.
 
Oh and just in case you think that as a student I fabricated any of this, this is a quote from Dr.Ron in response to a question posed about keeping/anchoring a newly aquired tree sponge.

Well, I am sorry to hear you have that animal. It is doomed.

There is no way you can either anchor it or provide it with the water flow it needs to stay alive. "Tree" sponges are found in areas of high laminar flow (where water flows evenly over the entire animal, not like the turbulent flow generated from powerheads). They need flow rates higher than can be generated in reef tanks.

The only way they can be anchored is for them to grow to a rock, the only way they can grow to a rock is to get sufficient food to do so. The only way they can get that food is to have a high current velocity blowing past them, in water that has a relatively high concentration of bacteria. The only way they can feed in such a current is to be anchored...

Kind of a "Catch-22."

Sorry.

These animals typically just fade away over some several weeks or a month or two in reef tanks.
Click to expand...

I guess as a student I'm just trained to listen to the experts.

But you know better right Jose ;) .
 
If you aren't willing/able to culture the large amounts of live phytoplankton described in Jose's post I would recommend one of the photosynthetic gorgonians, the Reeftopia site offers the corky sea finger, which would be a good choice. I've heard the ball sponges fare considerably better in captivity than the tree sponges, but still have some phytoplankton requirements. Hope that helped.
 
I have purple blade and purple brush gorgonians in one of my seahorse tanks and they are doing great!

They are under 2x96 pc in a 30gal. Before I had them under 3 r.o. bulbs and they did fine as well. (brighter is better, especially with the photosynthetic gorgs. Now they are growing FAST!) If you ever want a frag, LMK.

I keep my ball and tree sponges in a fuge with extreme flow and very low light. The balls have grown (lol), the trees, not so much.

(I dose with phyto and Combo Vital on alternate days. I'm sure it's dumb luck at this point. Only time will tell.)
If you're having algae issues, I would wait on any sponges.(JMO)

I agree completely with the advice given earlier in this thread.....research first. The golden rule of marine aquaria.

I think you'll have easy success with the gorgs, and the horses really enjoy hitching on them.
 
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