New Seahorse tank

[Jason B]

Rayjay, you are a life saver.

Im going to do a little research on these medications and what they treat so that i know exactly what to look for and be able to act quickly to treat any symptoms.

Thank you so much for all of your help.

 

[Tucson Reef]

Great Forum

Great Forum

Interesting thread, be nice to know bad meds for seahorses

 

[rayjay]

copper is bad

 

[Jason B]

I have not hung the fixture yet but i set in on top of the tank with an egg crate in between to see how it will look.

I also picked up a mandarin goby today. The guy at my LFS gave him to me because he bought him for this kid who failed to mention he had a lionfish that would use the goby as an after diner mint. He had no room for him in the store. This guy should do well with my seahorses right?

 

[TeresaQ]

poor thing, your tank is really young for a mandarin. Have you seeded it with any pods. You should as soon as you can, and try some mysis to see if it will eat them. I would seed your tank with a few differant varieties. Madarins eat a lot of pods everyday.

 

[Tucson Reef]

Just my opinion and I am new here, but have been in SW for 50 years. Your LFS did not do you a favor and I would use this a a guide to future dealings and advise from him. Your tank is a new set up, Mandarins do better in old established tanks with lots of live rock. Most are fussy eaters and dificult to get to eat frozen food, small mouth also. They do better in established tank with lots of pods to eat till/if they they learn to eat frozen.

I don't know what you have in your 175, but if peaceful fish and lots of rock with pods running around, I would consider it.

Always research a fish and observe it at LFS before buying. Remember, there are some great LFS's out there but there are also a lot that bring pretty things that sell fast in, knowing most will die. They just hope its in the cust. tank and not theirs. Dragonettes, Moorish Idols, a lot of your Pipefish. those cute little orange spot filefish are some, there are many others.

 

[Tucson Reef]

Teresa said it nicer then me, we must have been typing at the same time, lol

 

[rayjay]

I agree. If the mandarin is not trained to eat frozen foods then I would send it back to the LFS as you cannot maintain one in a tank that size even if it was matured for a year or two. Maybe find a new LFS.

 

[Jason B]

Im aware that they are fussy eaters and i am picking up the live pods to seed the tank today. Are you saying that even with the live pods he wont make it in that tank?

I cant transfer him to the 175 because i have a 1 1/2 foot long snowflake. I dont think he would make it in there. Of all of the research i have done on them it seems as long as they have pods in a 30+ gallon tank they should do fine.

He gave the fish to me for free because he knew he couldn't keep it alive in his system. If i cant keep him i have no problem giving him away to a person who has a suitable tank.

 

[rayjay]

With a tank that size, and with the amount of rock you have and it's configuration, you will be buying pods continually to be able to feed it unless you can get it to take frozen foods in sufficient quantity.
I can't even keep them alive in a 90g tank with 150 lbs of live rock, without supplementing with live food for them. I couldn't get mine to switch to frozen foods of any kind.
You read of many people keeping them for a time in unsuitable conditions but you don't hear of the many many more that don't get them to live a year under such conditions.

 

[Molehs]

LOL I've found that RC is the worst place to mention you got a Mandarin. Lucky you mentioned it in this subforum and not elsewhere otherwise you might have several dozen negative-ish responses. They take Mandarins very seriously here. They are generally correct.

Do a search and read the 20-30 threads on them and you will potentially feel like you were responsible for destroying the entire population of them.

There was a thread about a guy who successfully kept one going well in a small tank buy having cultures of live pods he grew to constantly feed the tank, but it was a lot of work. It can be done but not simply or cheaply in a tank of that size.

It took me a while to finally feel comfortable with my mandarin in my 150g system with 2 inline fuges and pod piles.

 

[Jason B]

LOL I've found that RC is the worst place to mention you got a Mandarin. Lucky you mentioned it in this subforum and not elsewhere otherwise you might have several dozen negative-ish responses. They take Mandarins very seriously here. They are generally correct.
.

It doesn't hurt my feelings. I would prefer to have people tell it like it is rather than sit by and let me kill the fish. It seems i underestimated this little guy like most things i have done in this hobby.:headwally:

I didn't plan on getting him to switch to frozen. I was going to stock the tank with pods for him and the seahorses but from what im hearing the pods wont last very long. I still need to put my macro algae, gorgonians and a few corals in there and i figured the pods hide in all of that. I was under the impression that when you stock the tank with a good amount of pods they breed inside the tank and become a constant food source. I was also going to put in live brine for the seahorses. My LFS is only 5 minutes away and its on my way home so i didn't think it was that big of a deal to pick up live food.

How often would i have to buy live pods and stock the tank both for the seahorses and the mandarin to eat?

 

[KimP]

Are you just planning on the seahorses eating pods or just trying to provide some snacks for them? I wouldn't even worry about the pods for the horses, depending on which seahorses you go with. The bigger ones probably don't even bother and will just eat the frozen mysis 2 or 3 times a day. Having live mysis populating the tank would be better. You'd probably go broke buying pods to keep a mandarin alive. It's such a bummer because they are so beautiful and peaceful! Best of luck with your seahorses

 

[Jason B]

Thanks Kim.

The pods would just have been supplemental to the Seahorses. I was going to mainly feed a mix of live and frozen brine or mysis.

 

[TeresaQ]

Most all captive bred horses eat frozen. They are trained to them at a very young age. Live brine, unless gut loaded have no nutritional value. Pod are too small, amphipods are better.
T

 

[Molehs]

And the fun fact I learned the hard way is amphipods will eat your smaller pods if the smaller pods don't have their own refuge, LOL.

 

[Tucson Reef]

That was kinda my idea, I plan on setting the sump up as a Algae Scrubber fuge and throw in a bunch of critters. This way the pump will ocasionaly kick a pod or two to the main tank. Also having plenty of rock in main tank will allow for a pod supply. My plan was to set up the tank and fuge and let it season/cycle before adding the SH's. This way if I have to leave them for a day or two, I could just dump a bunch of pods in the sump and let it auto feed.

My 110 Reef was a jungle of critters, at night there were clouds of pod swimming around, so it can be done. Another problem with throwing a Madarin in with the SH is the mandarin is a more efficient hunter, he can get into the cracks and creveses that the SH can't, there by limiting the pod colonies ability to maintain numbers.

 

[Jason B]

Hey guys. I had planned on finding a new home for the Mandarin but he does eat frozen food. I have been feeding him frozen gut loaded brine and mysis. He waits for them to sink to the bottom and just swims around sucking them up one by one. Its cool watching him eat and shoot the sand out of the vent looking things on the back of his head.

I guess i will try to stock the tank with live mysis. That way it can be a little extra snack for both the seahorses or the mandarin.

I think im ready to start putting the Macro in the tank. What would you guys suggest? I want to mix the colors up a little. I was thinking Gracilaria but not too sure about what else.

 

[rayjay]

That was kinda my idea, I plan on setting the sump up as a Algae Scrubber fuge and throw in a bunch of critters. This way the pump will ocasionaly kick a pod or two to the main tank. Also having plenty of rock in main tank will allow for a pod supply. My plan was to set up the tank and fuge and let it season/cycle before adding the SH's. This way if I have to leave them for a day or two, I could just dump a bunch of pods in the sump and let it auto feed.

My 110 Reef was a jungle of critters, at night there were clouds of pod swimming around, so it can be done. Another problem with throwing a Madarin in with the SH is the mandarin is a more efficient hunter, he can get into the cracks and creveses that the SH can't, there by limiting the pod colonies ability to maintain numbers.

It's a very good idea for a remote source for the pods because any in the display tank are VERY quickly hunted down and the population becomes very small.
You may find that the seahorses with their snouts and snicking ability will decimate the pod population even faster than a mandarin can.