Help Needed

[serpentman]

Ok, here is my situation. I came last night to a bag on my desk and a very excited wife. She stopped by the LFS and picked me up something, a seahorse! She was so happy, I gratiously accepted the gift. I know it Its totally backwards to the correct way to do things, but I have got to find a way to make sure this thing lives.

I am 99% sure its a hippocampus erectus and is still small, around 2-1/2"-3" long. Luckily I have a 20gal plumbed into my reef that I was planning as a small frag tank. Its not large enough long term but should suffice for the short term. The tank is part of a 300g total system, and water quality is not an issue. However, temp may be a concern and is set at a firm 80F and does not fluctuate more than 1/2 degree.

As far as feeding, I have been unsuccessful in getting it to take frozen brine. I have been feeding it by placing clumps of macroalgae in there from which it aggressively plucks off the plentiful amphipods.

Can anyone point me in the general direction of some resources that specifically deal with this species? Also, any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Laverna]

www.syngnathid.org has a bunch of good info ~ VERY helpful w/ all types of questions.

Your temp is going to be a problem. Check out "taking the plunge" forum on the above site and look under cycling the syngathid.org way. I suggest getting another tank and get the H. erectus out of the reef conditions.

If he isn't eating the frozen, you should get some live brine ASAP to get something into him ~ these guys need to eat 2X daily.

Good Luck!
Sissy

 

[Brock Fluharty]

Seahorses need mysis shrimp, not frozen brine, or live brine. See if you can get ahold of some live mysis.

 

[Poniegirl]

Question on the temp..is that (solid 80) the temp in the DT or in the fuge tank? There is probably a temp difference due to the sizes of the respective tanks? Is there a heater in the 20?
How is the rest of the 300 gallons broken down?
Plentiful pods, a seahorse dream! However, try to wean him (her?) from those as a main foodsource. Do try frozen mysis shrimp, use a turkey baster and add one at a time, if neccessary. Insert the mysis into the microalgae to make it look right..
I think these fish are hardier than we give them credit for, sometimes.
Not only that, they are social. If you take some time (okay, a lot of time) you should be successful.

 

[serpentman]

Thanks Poniegirl. The system is broken down like this:

180display tank, 50-75g in sump, 55g fuge, 20g aux (now seahorse tank). The temps remain pretty constant throughout the entire system. The heaters are located in the sump and everything is fed via 1 massive pump. I measured and there is typically a variance of about 0.1F between the horse tank and the DT.

I will try to wean it as you mention as I don't really want to deplete the tank population too much.

 

[pledosophy]

Better to seperate the horse tank and drop the temp. 80F is a death sentence.

Can youpost a pic for an ID.

 

[serpentman]

I'll try to get a good pic. Took a few unnsuccessfully. I quit after a few tries as it was stressing it out. I do not have a good feeling as the more I look at this little guy, it looks awful thin. I installed a separate fan on the tank to see if I can maintain a few degree separation from the system. Given the tank size and the slow rate of flow, it might work.

 

[Poniegirl]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8297732#post8297732 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pledosophy
Better to seperate the horse tank and drop the temp. 80F is a death sentence.

This really does depend on where the horses is from. For a subtropical horse 80F is going to be a big problem. For a tropical, 80F is not a death sentence.
If you can post a good profile.

 

[Brock Fluharty]

Poniegirl,

No matter where a horse is from, 80*F is too high. Lower temperatures stunt the progress of bacterial infections. We recommend lower, rather than higher.

 

[Samala]

There's nothing wrong with the current situation of feeding the horse amphipods. If this system is really that large it may be able to support an amphipod population that will feed the SH for several weeks.. enough time to move the new SH over to frozen foods.

I dont think you need live mysis. You can read far better tutorials on training SH to frozen at syngnathid.org or seahorse.org than I could ever give (especially since I have a crap record of frozen training) but the general progression is:

live food (amphipods, copepods, mysis, grass/ghost shrimp)
damaged live foods that dont move very quickly
frozen foods mixed with live and/or damaged live
frozen food

Also, yes, 80F isnt a great temperature long term. But its going to be fine for a short term situation. If you keep the SH, you are very likely going to want to pull this 20g from the overall system eventually. While you work out the logistics of how to do it, or decide if you want to do it, the SH can take an 80F environment. Is it the best option? Not precisely, but H. erectus inhabit shallow water in the summer that hit 80F and higher consistently for weeks at a time.

I absolutely respect everything that has been said here, and there is merit in all of it. But I dont see the situation to be quite the disaster its been made out to be. The biggest hurdle is deciding whether to keep the SH or to disappoint your very thoughtful sweetheart. Its easy enough to get advice on how to go from there in setting up something more appropriate for the SH later on.

>Sarah

 

[Fredfish]

Well put Sarah.

You might also try contacting the store your wife got the sehorse from to find out if it is wild or captive bred/raised. May not make any difference, but it would be useful info to have.

Have you tried feeding frozen mysis yet? have you watched it to see if it is feeding at all?

Fred

 

[serpentman]

Thanks for all you input. I have been adding small quantities of frozen mysis via dropper and have not seen it eat. However, it aggressively feeds on amphipods without a doubt. Whenever I put fresh macro in there, it buries its face in it plucks amphipods. I also temporarily put a bypass from drain of the refugium (which is literally crawling with pods, etc) into the horse tank so I should get more critters that way as well.

 

[Fredfish]

Glad to hear it is feeding. Now you can take the time to work out what you are going to do long term.

Fred