How hard are Seahorses to care for?
- Thread starter TomDe
- Start date
Hi T!
I have always felt that the care of seahorses isn't something that is hard to do.
The truth, in my opinion, is that the research and understanding their needs is the tough, time-consuming part. And the most important.
You should research the different genus of seahorses and decide which type you would like to keep, or CAN keep, given your tank size, time to spend on them, lifestyle. Keep in mind that someone will have to be trained to care for them if you tend to leave town. That type of thing.
Find out everything you can on that type of horse, whether it is tropical, subtropical or temperate. Whether they can be purchased from a farm or breeder, or wild caught (difficult and not wise for a first horse to be wild caught). What they eat...they can be very different in what they require.
There are some great sites, I don't know if it is permissible to post the site names..anyone?
I have always felt that the care of seahorses isn't something that is hard to do.
The truth, in my opinion, is that the research and understanding their needs is the tough, time-consuming part. And the most important.
You should research the different genus of seahorses and decide which type you would like to keep, or CAN keep, given your tank size, time to spend on them, lifestyle. Keep in mind that someone will have to be trained to care for them if you tend to leave town. That type of thing.
Find out everything you can on that type of horse, whether it is tropical, subtropical or temperate. Whether they can be purchased from a farm or breeder, or wild caught (difficult and not wise for a first horse to be wild caught). What they eat...they can be very different in what they require.
There are some great sites, I don't know if it is permissible to post the site names..anyone?
Great advice thanks.
My first concern is feeding. Before I begin the research process so I don't go in the wrong direction, it is not true that all seahorses have to be fed 3 times daily is it? I read about this for dwarf species.
The reason I ask is because I go to college in the am and work at night. I can be gone from 6 AM to 1130 PM.
I will do some more specific research, narrow things down, and I will post another thread. I always find it useful to go back and read through posts in the forums.
My first concern is feeding. Before I begin the research process so I don't go in the wrong direction, it is not true that all seahorses have to be fed 3 times daily is it? I read about this for dwarf species.
The reason I ask is because I go to college in the am and work at night. I can be gone from 6 AM to 1130 PM.
I will do some more specific research, narrow things down, and I will post another thread. I always find it useful to go back and read through posts in the forums.
If you are planning on dwarf seahorses, neither college life nor the 14g cube sound very fitting for the dwarves or your schedule.
Dwarves require newly hatched live food, preferably 3 times a day but it can be 2 times.
You cannot just buy the live food though. You have to hatch baby brine shrimp daily. Adult brine loses practically all nutrition needed by seahorses, meaning that the dwarves would starve rather quickly on old adult brine. So you would have at least two hatchers going at different times all day for each feeding (not even considering that one might fail). That is a good minimum.
Just one individual adult dwarf seahorse typically consumes approximately 3,000 BBS each day! No joke.
The reason the size is too large is that the BBS spread out and the horses will not find it as they are lazy and prefer the food to swim to them. Large tanks require higher feeding densities per feeding. To counter the feeding density issue, you could get more dwarves, but then you have more mouths to feed.
sad but true.
Say you were to get 10 dwarf seahorses, feeding each one 3,000 BBS a day. That's 30,000 BBS daily. I don't think you would be so inclined to hatch all of that with your hours, as I would assume you would be tired by the end of work.
That feeding example would be for a 5g tank. So you would need to increase those numbers for a 14g.
If you have your heart set on dwarves, think about a simple 5g or a cheap 10g. You can use some plexy glass to split the 10g in half (completely seal it off, making a 5g area)
Perhaps a larger species would better suit your 30g softie reef and hours? Larger species do fine with softies generally, depending on tankmates and temperature.
Also, captive bred large adult seahorses feed on frozen mysis; you can feed them before school and after work (twice a day).
Much more simple than dwarves. It just depends on your 30g reef tankmates and corals, in case you're interested.
Unfortunately 14g is not ideal for any seahorse species.
It's too small for the large species and too large for the small species under most circumstances.
Dwarves require newly hatched live food, preferably 3 times a day but it can be 2 times.
You cannot just buy the live food though. You have to hatch baby brine shrimp daily. Adult brine loses practically all nutrition needed by seahorses, meaning that the dwarves would starve rather quickly on old adult brine. So you would have at least two hatchers going at different times all day for each feeding (not even considering that one might fail). That is a good minimum.
Just one individual adult dwarf seahorse typically consumes approximately 3,000 BBS each day! No joke.
The reason the size is too large is that the BBS spread out and the horses will not find it as they are lazy and prefer the food to swim to them. Large tanks require higher feeding densities per feeding. To counter the feeding density issue, you could get more dwarves, but then you have more mouths to feed.
sad but true.Say you were to get 10 dwarf seahorses, feeding each one 3,000 BBS a day. That's 30,000 BBS daily. I don't think you would be so inclined to hatch all of that with your hours, as I would assume you would be tired by the end of work.
That feeding example would be for a 5g tank. So you would need to increase those numbers for a 14g.
If you have your heart set on dwarves, think about a simple 5g or a cheap 10g. You can use some plexy glass to split the 10g in half (completely seal it off, making a 5g area)
Perhaps a larger species would better suit your 30g softie reef and hours? Larger species do fine with softies generally, depending on tankmates and temperature.
Also, captive bred large adult seahorses feed on frozen mysis; you can feed them before school and after work (twice a day).
Much more simple than dwarves. It just depends on your 30g reef tankmates and corals, in case you're interested.
Unfortunately 14g is not ideal for any seahorse species.
It's too small for the large species and too large for the small species under most circumstances.
Great start on research.
Seahorses do not have a sophisticated digestive system. Yes they do need to be fed AT LEAST 2 times a day.
It is not hard to feed an animal 2 times each day. It is not hard to research and learn how to keep these animals alive.
You seem to have a lot of your time spoken for. Understandable
thumbsup and good job!Keep seahorses when you can feed them on a schedule that a child could survive on. Until then, what a great subject to study!
Well, you have mentioned a span of about 18 hours away. This would interfere with having even a lighting schedule that would allow them to thrive, let alone a good feeding schedule.
Seahorses have no stomach and so require "meals" that they can count on. A bit like a human fetus, they can't store nutrients.
Optimumly, a seahorse tank is well established with pleny of live rock and a great population of amphipods, copepods, isopods which the SH can hunt for and snack between the meals that you offer.
Mine hunt ALL DAY and are still first to the front of the tank when they see the turkey baster.
If you google "seahorse digestive system", there's a lot of good info out there.
Well thanks for the advice. The things you have told me are obviosuly very important. I am going to wait 1 more year until I finish college so the span will not be so long for feeding. I have light timers for the lighting schedule.
I am going to upgrade my reef soon so after that I will plan out the SH tank with a good fuge.
Thanks for the advice.
I am going to upgrade my reef soon so after that I will plan out the SH tank with a good fuge.
Thanks for the advice.
Sorry about that.
I assumed you were thinking about dwarves when you mentioned them. Assuming is bad.
Dwarves are in a world on their own, that's why i went on a spill about it. Sorry for sounding so pejorative.
Your plans sound great though for the larger ones once you update your reef. I love fuges, and the seahores would love the pods from it as snacks.
I'm a student too and manage to get my two erectus fed morning and night; I also have a light timer. Larger seahorses are much easier on the keeper when it comes to feeding, since CB take frozen, unlike the dwarf species.
Like Poniegirl said, seahorse digestive tracts are rather straight and simple, so they absorb nutrients and dispell of food quickly; this is why the many feedings are recommended.
In some outdated books, it is said that all seahorses, large and small, require live food at least 3 times a day. Those are quite old, back from the days when CB seahorses weren't available and none readily ate frozen shrimp. Most keepers do well with 2 feedings a day with Cb seahorses on frozen.
I personally only get to feed mine once a day every now and then, but I don't make it a habit.
I assumed you were thinking about dwarves when you mentioned them. Assuming is bad.
Dwarves are in a world on their own, that's why i went on a spill about it. Sorry for sounding so pejorative.
Your plans sound great though for the larger ones once you update your reef. I love fuges, and the seahores would love the pods from it as snacks.
I'm a student too and manage to get my two erectus fed morning and night; I also have a light timer. Larger seahorses are much easier on the keeper when it comes to feeding, since CB take frozen, unlike the dwarf species.
Like Poniegirl said, seahorse digestive tracts are rather straight and simple, so they absorb nutrients and dispell of food quickly; this is why the many feedings are recommended.
In some outdated books, it is said that all seahorses, large and small, require live food at least 3 times a day. Those are quite old, back from the days when CB seahorses weren't available and none readily ate frozen shrimp. Most keepers do well with 2 feedings a day with Cb seahorses on frozen.
I personally only get to feed mine once a day every now and then, but I don't make it a habit.
OK deerivers, you definately win the beginners enthusiasm award. 
Arefugium is basically a container of water without predators so that whatever you want to encourage to grow, in your case food for your horses, is free to grow and thrive without being hunted to extinction.
Usually a refugium is set up at a slightly higher level than the tank so that you can pump water from the tank into the refugium, letting the refugium drain back into the tank. The reason for doing this is so that the critters you are growing don't have to go through a pump to get back to the main tank.
If you do not have room for a separate refugium tank, there are a number of manufacturers that make hang on refugiums that you could hang off the tank.
In your case, I would just put a macro algae like chaetomorpha into the refugium as a home for your pods. No sandbed needed.
Fred
Arefugium is basically a container of water without predators so that whatever you want to encourage to grow, in your case food for your horses, is free to grow and thrive without being hunted to extinction.
Usually a refugium is set up at a slightly higher level than the tank so that you can pump water from the tank into the refugium, letting the refugium drain back into the tank. The reason for doing this is so that the critters you are growing don't have to go through a pump to get back to the main tank.
If you do not have room for a separate refugium tank, there are a number of manufacturers that make hang on refugiums that you could hang off the tank.
In your case, I would just put a macro algae like chaetomorpha into the refugium as a home for your pods. No sandbed needed.
Fred
