new to seahorses!

[gemini aquarius(t)]

hi im xavier and i wanted to set up a seahorse tank and then possibly breed them

could i please have some general info on a seahorse tank like

what species is best to start with?
how big of a tank is optimal?
what filtration?
what light?
reef or macro?
feeding?
live rock or fake decor?

and all the other stuff ive been reading but it seems like it would be good to ask the pros!

 

[pledosophy]

IME I have found that seahorses are not diffucult to keep if given the proper setup and care. the setup does vary from a traditional reef tank or FOWLR system.

In order to keep the medium to large size seahorses I would recommend a tank at least 29 gallons or larger. You could go with a tank as small as a 15g but for your first system you will want to have a bit of a cushion and the option of purchasing an additional pair down the road without having to purchase an entire new system. Trust me once you get a seahorse, you will want more.

The parameters for a seahorse tank are very similiar to a normal marine setup. You will want your ammonia to read 0, your nitrites to read 0, your nitrates to read 0 but <20 is acceptable. The PH should be 8.0 to 8.2, the Salt gravity 1.022, temp 72-75F.

It is best to keep the temperatures for seahorse tanks lower to help slow the growth rate of bacterias that will lead to infections. Research has shown that the bacteria will reproduce at a slower rate which is better for the seahorses.

The flow for a seahorse tank is also quite different from a reef system. You will want to keep the flow between 3x and 5x the tank volume turned over each hour. That means if you have a 30g tank you will want your flow to be between 90 and 150 gPH (gallons per hour).

The reason for the lower flow is because seahorses are not strong swimmers, ( H. abdomonalis are, but they are a temperate species and a bit harder to care for). Strong currents will easily push them around the tank causing stress at the least and often injury. Strong currents also make it diffucult for the seahorses to catch there food to eat, so overall you want to keep your flow down.

IME it is possible to have more flow in a tank if the flow is broken up so that there is not one large area of flow but several weaker areas of flow. A spraybar is a great way to accomplish this. It will allow you to increase the flow in the system, while still keeping it seahorse friendly.

For biological filtration both liverock and livesand can be used. Both should be fully cured before entering the tank. It is a good idea to check the rocks for aiptasia, as the sting from an aiptasia is strong enough to kill a seahorse. I usually like to start with at least 1 lbs of LR per gallon of water. Tonga branch rock is my favorite because it also doubles as a seahorse hitch. I like to keep the sand bed 1" or less. DSB while they can be used in seahorse tanks take away some of the vertical swimming room (how much depends on the system) which seahorses really utitlize especially during courting.

A refugium, UV, and potein skimmer (you need to place a skimmer in a sump on a seahorse tank and not directly into the display system. Having skimmers empty directly into the display as shown to increase the likelyhood of gas bubble disease in seahorses) are all other filter options, while they are good to have, they are not needed for succsess.

Lighting for a seahorse tank is not diffucult. They only need enough light to see there food. Ambient room light is plenty. NO flourscents are also fine. If you wish to keep corals you can use whatever light you desire, just make sure the light is far enough off the top of the water so the temperatures can stay in the lower spectrum. Personally on my seahorse coral tank I have a mixture of T5 and PC lighting for a total of 348W, but I have also kept sytems with no lights.

That takes care of all the equipment you will need. Now on to the fun stuff, the seahorses.

There are many types of seahorses currently available. Erectus, reidi, barbouri, and kuda are all available CB speceis readily available. There is a tricky thing about purchasing seahorses, you have to be very careful who you buy from. Many of the seahorses on the market to day who claim they are CB are actually maricultured (raised in big nets in the ocean). These maricultred seahorses while not technically wild caught are exposed to the same number of parasites as a wild caught seahorse would be. It is commendable that they are not plucking the seahorses out of there natural habitats, but the quality of seahorse from these facilities are not on par with a true CB seahorse. Unfortunatley most of the CB seahorses available on the market today, are these maricultured seahorses. Seahorsesource.com and Draco Marine both currently breed seahorses in closed system true aquacultured facilities. I would strongly urge anyone intrested in seahorses to contact one of these tobreeders directly and not go through a middel man. Make sure you gt what you pay for Cb doesn't mean what it used to.

You will want to get all of your seahorses from the sae breeder if they are going into the same tank. It is not advisable to mix different species of seahorses together unless they were mixed as fry at the breeders. Seahorses are known to be asymptomatic carriers of various strains of vibrio, and can easily infect other seahorses without the same resistance. (the discovery of this and of parasites in the digestive track have made great improvements of the succsess rate of seahorses)

True Cb seahorses will arive eating frozen mysis shrimp. Find out what brand your breeder is feeding the seahorses and make sure you have a source and some on hand, before you buy your seahorse. Having food for them to eat is always a good thing.

As a precaution it might be good tostock up on your medicine cabinet before you get the seahorses incase anything ever goes wrong. There is a site aquabiotics.net that sells meds for seahorses with correct dosage for seahorses.

There are many corals you can succsessfully keep with seahorses, You will need to stay away from any coral with a sting, or that needs stronger current.

There are also a ton of fish you can keep with seahorses. Nothing to aggressive, stay awya from fast swimmers that will cause stress to the seahorses. Goby's are very popular choices.

Popular cleanup crews in clude various snails and scarlet reef hermits, other crabs have proven problamatic to several keepers.

If you have any other specific questions please feel free,

Good Luck!

 

[Wink]

Good answer. :rollface:

 

[gemini aquarius(t)]

wow your a writer huh!?!
thanks i got more good info here than reading on all the other forums

 

[gemini aquarius(t)]

do you have to have a sump in order to keep these ponies?

how many ponies could i have in a 30

what would be a good skimmer

is reef the best option so they have pods and such to feed of and leathers to hitch on

could i get the specs on your tank

on a scale of 1-10 how hard is it to keep them

do you have to breed mysis to feed them or how do you feed them

thanks a ton

 

[pledosophy]

You do not need a sump, although I like them because you can hide all the other equipment.

I like my remora. There is a huge debate on protein skimmers and seahorses. IMO a skimmer should only be kept in a sump, I am not a big fan personally. I like to use refugiums for nutrient export and pod production. JMO

Keeping corals is cool. I love them. I like to give my horse a very nice home to live in and me great stuff all over to hitch on. Keep to the seahorse safe corals. Mainly softies with no sting. Leathers are good. My horses favorite hitch now is the macro algae and the tonga branch rock. Before the sump he really liked the filter intake, the thermometer, and the heater. Goes to show a horse will hitch to anything.

My tank is a 65g acrylic with a homemade cutom built in overflow box. I have a 20g refugium under the tank filled with 4 macro algaes and 30lbs of lr. For filtration I use a fluval 304, and an 18 UV ( kinda over kill, get it over kill ). My return from the sump is from a Mag5 which is split into two before coming into the tank.

The display has a 2" sandbed mixed with carbi live sand and crushed coral. There is a little over 100lbs of lr. I have a LR support structure/spraybar which has a Mag 3 attached.

I have 1 reidi seahorse which I got as a WC back in 01. He is at least 6-7 years old. I also have a dragonet goby which I've kept for three years. A yellow watchman goby which has been with me for about 6 months. A diamond goby I've had for a couple of months. A sixline wrasse whose been around for 8 months or so. My newest fish is a lawn mower blenny whose been with me for about two hours.

For corals I have 3 different leathers, 6 different zoa's, 9 different species of mushrooms, some green center clove polyps, random hitchiker fan worms (feather dusters you call them) and some xenia.

My clean up crew is about 35 snails ( nassarius, astrea), 15 scarlet reef hermits, 1 cleaner shrimp ( I don't recommend you get one) and I think I have 6 peppermints left. I a pod or two thousand, and a bristleworm or ten.

Honestly if you understand how to setup a seahorse tank I think there about a 2 on a scale of 1-10. I know I have been lucky, but a seahorse was my first fish I didn't win at a carnival with a ping pong ball. I knew nothing then, I know a little bit now.

If you buy a good CB seahorse you can feed it frozen food. I was ignorant and bought a WC that has never taken to frozen food so I have to feed live fresh water ghost shrimp. PITA and it is expenive compared to frozen. I spend over $600 a year to feed the one horse. Feeding frozen you'll spend around $50 or so. The price of a good Cb is well worth it in the long run. I do breed mysids, but not enough to sustain a seahorse.

Check out seahorsesource.com they have great horses at very repectable prices. I'd love to get some brevies, but I don't have the room or the chiller.

Oh gemini, your Welcome There's alot of good seahorse forums out there.

 

[gemini aquarius(t)]

ok so i thought of a possible plan of attack:

a 29 gal tank, 20 gallon"long" sump, macro algae(cheato,halmedia,ect),asm mini skimmer(over kill?),200 watt heater,8 watt uv sterilizer,mag 5 return pump with a tee to two sides(like yours), 30 pounds of live rock, 20 pounds of live sand, macro in tank(grape culpera?),no coral to keep electricity from lights down( i will hopefully be breeding clowns and that eats up electricity like a pig)
for a clean up how about 2 nassarius snails,2 hermits,and 2 peppermint shrimp




ammonia 0, nitrites 0,nitrates 0, PH 8.0, Salt gravity 1.022, and temp 73F.

 

[pledosophy]

If it were me, I'd keep the grape caulphera in the sump and bring the pretty macro to the display. The grape reproduces so fast it's just a pain to keep up with IME.

Better to go with two smaller heaters then one big one.

Make sure you put a ball vlave on that Mag5. My Mag 5 splits into 2 bulkheads and then into 2 "T"'s. On a 29 a Mag5 might be much, but try and see. If you have a ball vlave it is easy to adjust.

Not sure on lbs needed for the sand, but keep it under 2"

Everything else sounds good. I might hit you up to sell me some clowns in a couple of months

 

[gemini aquarius(t)]

i wish man its so expensive to get started and i don t have a garage to house everything in so it will be a while for that


also change the mag 5 to a mag 2

 

[gemini aquarius(t)]

however i might upgrade this idea to a 55 with a 30 gal sump or a 20 galon sump(is that big enough?) so i can have a planted tank with a couple other fish

oneminute and ill getyou the stocking list for either tank

 

[gemini aquarius(t)]

55 gal:
spotted mandarin goby
six line wrasse
8 kuda horses
canary blenny
purple firefish
lawn mower blenny
yasha hase goby/pistol shrimp combo
yellow watchman goby/pistol shrimp combo

 

[pledosophy]

That's alot of fish for a 55. Couple of high risk ones as well. I'd think about that one for abit.

If you might upgrade down the road I'd go for the bigger pump with a ball vlave. That way later you don't have to buy an all new one.

 

[gemini aquarius(t)]

55 gal tank
20 gallon high sump
asm mini skimmer
2x100 watt heaters
8 watt uv sterilizer
mag 5 return pump with a tee to two sides w/ball valve
55 pounds of live rock
40 pounds of live sand
2 nassarius snails
2 hermits
2 peppermint shrimp
spotted mandarin goby
six line wrasse
8 kuda horses
canary blenny or purple firefish
lawn mower blenny
yasha hase goby/pistol shrimp combo or yellow watchman goby/pistol shrimp combo





ammonia 0, nitrites 0,nitrates 0, PH 8.0, Salt gravity 1.022, and temp 73F.

 

[Fredfish]

I like your choice of tank. In the wild, horses have a fairly large defined territory that they wander. Your horses will like the extra realestate!

To me, 8 horses seems a little much, but that may just be me.

The mandarin is not a good choice, particularly with a lot of horses. They tend to eat only live food and would be competing with the horses for pods. I know that sucks as an answer because the mandarin is such a beautiful interesting fish, but chances of keeping it alive are low.

The goby shrimp combo is a great idea. Its one that I will incorporate into my tank at some point.

On the live rock, I would cut it in half. Horses, at least the ones we keep, come from seagrass beds and rock would not normaly be part of their environment. The amount of rock you go with probably depends on the look you want though. I tend to like more open tanks with more swimming room for the inhabitants.

I am glad you are keeping your hermits to two. Most of us do not feed our tanks enough to support more than that.

At the bottom of your post, you list tank parameter. Does that mean you have the tank purchased and set up already? If so, wow, you move fast!

Sounds like it is going to be a nice setup. Keep us posted on your progress.

Fred

 

[gemini aquarius(t)]

the number of horses was a guess

i figuresd that on the mandarin and to hear the news on the rock is good (cuts down money)
i personally dont like hermits so small numbers are best for me
i dont have a tank yet and i cant get one till i sell my 20 gallon long reef tank

 

[Fredfish]

If you don't like hermits, cut them out entirely. Same on the rock. Put in what looks good to you. I have maybe 20lb in my 40g tank.

I am curious to hear what others say about the number of horses. I would go with 4.

Fred