New to seahorses.

[Sinocard]

Started researching viable options for a nano tank, noticed dwarf seahorses are great for them.

Girlfriend is getting a fluval edge 6, and we're going to set it up for them. Advice is appreciated. And no need to worry, we won't be buying any seahorses for a couple months. Gotta master brine shrimp breeding first

The plan:

Fluval edge 6 gallon
~6 dwarf seahorses to start (After maturing the tank a while)
sponge filter on tetra whisper pump
dry rock, dry sand, fishless cycle. Do coral skeletons work for seahorses? There's not a plethora of information on what's safe for them to latch on to. I was thinking something like this, not too sharp: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Finger-Cora...847?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ae82824af
MAYBE a hob skimmer... Mixed reviews about them for seahorses, so I don't know yet.

Anything I'm missing? Because honestly, it all seems a little too easy for how hard people make it out to be... Brine shrimp aren't that hard to breed, and the only real difficulty I see in it is if you aren't prepared to start a seahorse only tank.

 

[vlangel]

I have erectus seahorses and decided against dwarf seahorses because of the everyday rigor of hatching, enriching live baby brine shrimp and tank husbandry without sucking the little guys into pumps and such. Also I couldn't figure out how to go on vacation either as even my lfs did not want the responsibility of caring for my tiny ponies. If you have a reliable friend that you can teach to hatch, enrich bb and sterilize equipment then you can probably make it work. I will admit that the expense of setting up a Dwarf tank was a lot more attractive than my erectus tank which I knew would be $600 or so and ended up going somewhat over budget.LOL

 

[Sinocard]

I have erectus seahorses and decided against dwarf seahorses because of the everyday rigor of hatching, enriching live baby brine shrimp and tank husbandry without sucking the little guys into pumps and such. Also I couldn't figure out how to go on vacation either as even my lfs did not want the responsibility of caring for my tiny ponies. If you have a reliable friend that you can teach to hatch, enrich bb and sterilize equipment then you can probably make it work. I will admit that the expense of setting up a Dwarf tank was a lot more attractive than my erectus tank which I knew would be $600 or so and ended up going somewhat over budget.LOL

Haha. Yeah, we're already fully aware of the serious chore it is to keep seahorses.

We work from home... So it's not too big a deal to have to do that.

As for vacations... Well.... We just never go anywhere. :lmao:

Who knows though. Maybe the chore of learning to hatch brineshrimp while we're waiting for things to cycle will coerce her into turning it into a different kind of tank. Mini reef or something.

 

[vlangel]

I don't want to discourage you. I was just passing on some of the obstacles I encountered when I was thinking about it.

 

[cjm3]

Anything I'm missing? Because honestly, it all seems a little too easy for how hard people make it out to be... .

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I've had several tanks of DSH spanning a few decades, and please take my word for it, they are not an easy fish to keep.
They are not impossible, but it does take a fair amount of knowledge and experience to successfully meet their needs.

Hatching brine shrimp is an important, and daily, necessity. But it's the tank requirements for DSH that make them somewhat difficult.

Going back for more then 10 years on number of "seahorse sites" most people who start a DSH tank had them fail, for one reason or another, in the 1st few weeks.
Very few people have been able to maintain their tanks for more then 3 months.
Hell, the best I've been able to do was 1.5 years, with only one of my tanks.

There are a number of folks around here that can help get you started and share what experience we have.
But the 1st thing that will help you succeed is to understand you're about to undertake an marine animal that is challenging to keep.

 

[ThRoewer]

I would suggest to look into setting up a tigger pod culture (balcony, yard, ...).
It is easy and much less hassle than hatching and enriching brine shrimp. It will take about a month or two to get it going but after that you will have easy live food every day.