i was thinking of getting sea horses but was told that they were difficult to keep

[Adhods]

- i have a 50 gallon tank with a v200 protein skimmer and 4 t5 lights four corals and 30 kg of live rock, i do weekly water changes and use `RO water with kent reef salt i have never lost anything apart from one emerald crab which came with the tank when i bought it, i have two common clowns a silver spot tang and an emrpror cardinal, two cleaner shrimp and two blood red shrimp a porclin crab and three small hermits a sand sifting star and a sand cleaning snail how duficult would it be for me to keep a seahorse
thanks

 

[JLynn]

On the subject of difficulty, a lot of it depends on things like species and whether or not they are captive bred. A captive bred H. Erectus, for example, is relatively hardy and will forgive some mistakes a less hardy species may not. It isn't unheard of for complete beginners to be successful with Erectus, as long as they do their research and are willing to dedicate the necessary time and attention to their SH. Seahorses are, however, high-maintenance and a seahorse tank must be planned with their specific needs in mind. Thus, your typical reef setup is entirely unsuitable.

Firstly: a tang? In a 50g? Apart from that, given your stocking list, you definitely could not add seahorses to that tank. There are two main reasons for this: firstly, your tank sounds overstocked already, and certainly does not have room for seahorses on top of the other inhabitants. Seahorses require 15g per pair after the initial 30g for the first pair. When I say 15g, I mean 15g gallons dedicated entirely to the SH, because SH are very, very messy and recquire a lot of oxygen. But even ignoring the lack of required space, your stock is almost completely unsuitable for seahorses. First of all, Tangs and seahorses should never co-inhabit. Tangs are aggressive and will bully the seahorses and outcompete them for food. Secondly, clowns are another bad tankmate. While they aren't as bad as Tangs, clowns get aggressive as they mature, and should be avoided. The porcelain crab is not necessarily bad, but it is risky. You didn't specify the corals, but several species of corals are very dangerous to SH as well. Point being that, were you to get seahorses, they would need a tank dedicated to them alone. Your current setup (stock-wise, at least) is unsuitable for seahorses. If you want to get seahorses, take time to do thorough research on the subject before anything else, and be prepared to have a tank dedicated entirely to them. Read through FAQs and old threads and the articles on websites such as seahorse.org and fusedjaw.com! Just don't try putting them in the current setup. Ever. They will die, and no one will be happy to hear it.

 

[Adhods]

the tangs only small at the moment and i was told for this tang i could fit 2 of 3 of them my tank at the shop

 

[Adhods]

but thanks though
if i conerted a 10 gallon to a seahorse only tank could i get a pair of dwarf seahorse

 

[Adhods]

sorry typo 60 gallon

 

[timinnl]

Your LFS grossly misinformed you about the number of tangs. Sorry to tell you that.

Kind Regards,

Tim

 

[terrypercula]

As far as I know the toughest thing about sea horse in a community tank is making sure they are eating because they get out competed for food easily. Secondly I have a yellow tang in my 57. He's a litlle guy only about two inches when he gets bigger he will be going in my friends 6 foot tank. People get very edgy about tangs and for a good reason full size tangs need ample swim room but at the same time I feel when they are smaller they can be comfortably housed in a smaller tank. Just my opinion I know a lot of people on here will disagree but just do everyone a favor when you feel your tangs might be outgrowing your tank find them a good home.

 

[Mat1018]

Dwarf have to pretty much be in a tank by them selves due to there size and they need really low flow since there not the strongest swimmer and they will not hunt for so all the other fish will out compete them and they will starve. They also eat live brine shrimp and a lot of it.

 

[JLynn]

Dwarf seahorses, being much smaller than their counterparts (about 1 inch as adults), have different stocking rules. In a 10 gallon tank, you could have quite a few. About 10 dwarves in a 10 gallon would be just fine. Fusedjaw.com has a very good article that neatly outlines their requirements. A word of warning, though: because Dwarf Seahorses are so small, frozen mysis cannot be fed to them. They are about the size, as adults, of young... Erectus fry, maybe? (I don't have a factual comparison here, but more or less...) Basically, they need to eat the same sorts of food as non-dwarf seahorse fry. This means that you will need to hatch and gutload brine shrimp twice a day to feed them. On the other hand, Dwarf Seahorses are deceptively hardy, recquire much less space/money than larger seahorse species, and reproduce like bunnies. Faster, actually. 10 dwarves will quickly (maybe in a year) become 30, without any effort whatsoever on your part.

A 60g of their own would suit larger species quite nicely. If you got H. Erectus, and I would suggest either that or H. Reidi, you could technically fit 6 seahorses. Both Erectus and Reidi can be found relatively cheaply (captive bred, make sure of that) and are a little hardier than their relatives. Of course, you would need to ensure you gave them 2-3x their adult size in height, so pay attention to dimensions. A 60g cube, for example, would be a very nice size for them. Lastly, it is better to under stock, especially with seahorses, so while you could technically put 3 pairs of seahorses in a 60g cube, it would be best to just put in 4-5 seahorses and some snails and maybe a small hermit crab. If you got a larger species of seahorse, you will almost certainly need to get a chiller, too, because the optimal temperature for tropical seahorses (like Erectus and Reidi) is 72-74 F. While seahorses can technically survive temperatures up 78, Vibrio, a strain of bacteria which seahorses are particularly vulnerable to and can die from, becomes much stronger and multiplies much more quickly at temperatures above 74 F. Stronger to the point that, if any Vibrio were present at, say, 76 F, in 3 hours, maybe less, the tank would be infested with it and your SH would definitely be infected. So it is in everyone's best interest if SH are kept at temperatures below 74 at all times, which probably means you will have to buy a chiller. The websites I mentioned before have more info on seahorse care than I care to type out, and make sure to read their stuff if you do decide to get seahorses.

 

[TamiW]

I know a lot of people on here will disagree but just do everyone a favor when you feel your tangs might be outgrowing your tank find them a good home.

This is unfortunately the reason why a lot of larger fish end up dead. People assume they can just rehome them, but when the time comes, no one wants to take them. Beyond that, many fish that are placed in a tank that is too small end up dying before rehoming because their owners don't realize the stress it is causing the fish.

No one is going to stop you from putting a tang in a tank that is too small, there is no proverbial "tang police" but you are actively harming the animal keeping it in too small of an aquarium. If you're cool with that, go on with your day. But people recommend larger aquariums for tangs for a good reason; it isn't a conspiracy to keep people with small tanks from enjoying tangs, its because they're ill suited to those aquariums and have negative consequences.

 

[frog_mann]

Keeping dwarf seahorse.

Keeping dwarf seahorse.

Keeping dwarf sea horse are very easy to keep and breed. You must first cycle the tank or holding to be used. When this is completed purchase the dwarf sea horse from a good supplier.

I have kept and bred dwarf sea horse for well over 15 years. I have collected 1000's of them over this time, too.
The grand kids feed the ponies daily (twice to three times a day) our are very spoiled.

We feed our's brine shrimp...

Needed is good brine shrimp eggs, of 90% hatch rate and fresh, refrig after opening the can, bottle or package. They hatch in 24 hours or less, from a simple quart jar, with an air stone to move the saltwater. This is very quick to do and makes keeping the dwarf sea horse very easy, in the fact you only need brine shrimp eggs and food is only 18 to 24 hours away at any time.

The brine shrimp are most nutritional if fed within 8 to 12 hours after their hatching. This is before the brine shrimp absorb their egg yoke sacs. After this they must be fed, to be "gut loaded", for the sea horse - to be of any value. We feed our brine shrimp flake foods and Cyclopseeze - a very fine, fishy smelling, freeze dried, red powder... commercially available to gut load any brine shrimp used as a food prey item.

As a note: For optimal hatching the temperatures should be between 74° to 84°. If a poor hatching occurs, it may be because of temperature or the eggs are just old or stale.

All in all they (the dwarf sea horse) are very easy to keep and breed and do not require a large tank or holding to do so.
If you would like more information or pictures to videos, please just contact.