Questions about seahorses and pipefish.

[h0bite]

I'll start a 24x24x24 tank soon. With a 50 gallons sump. It will be a seahorses tank. I read a lot on it on this forum. I never tried it before.
1. How I calculate flow for a seahorse tank ?
2. Can I put 3 pair of different seahorse in a 65 gallons tank. (looking for Erectus Barbouri and Come all from same breeder)....or better to keep 6 of the same kind. I will buy these guys from the same breeder.
3. What's the best choice between bare bottom or sand bed.
Thanks, I will ask more questions before.

Does anyone know if there some canadian breeder where I can buy seahorses and pipefish.
David

 

[rayjay]

Most seahorses coming into Canada are "tank raised" not true captive bred.
I don't know of any breeder in Canada at the moment that has anything but H. erectus on hand.
True captive bred erectus are available in the Toronto area, with some soon available near Woodstock Ontario.
I don't expect to have any available for about 4 months.
It's best to keep species only tanks, but if you do take a chance then it should be from a true captive bred breeder that does multiple species like Dan Underwood of seahorsesource.com in Florida. (he doesn't ship to Canada)
Sand bed or not is an "in the eyes of the beholder" kind of thing. Both will work and there are pros and cons for both.
I personally go with bare bottom as it allows me to be sure the bottom is clean and not accumulating bacteria beds.
Seahorse tanks can have good flow and contrary to what many have said, don't go too low flow as you want to keep the detritus in suspension long enough for it to get removed by filtration. All my seahorse tanks have been at least 10X flow other than fry tanks.
Main thing is that there is no blast that can propel them against anything to damage them.
Best success with seahorse tanks comes with oversized filtration and greatly oversized skimming. Clean filter sock VERY frequently to avoid decomposition of detritus fueling bacteria beds.

 

[h0bite]

Ok thank you rayjay. Can I ask you some question by MP ?
Thanks
David

 

[rayjay]

I prefer e-mail contact over PM's.
However, something to consider is that if your questions might be something that others may ask when starting up, then it is probably best to post the queries on the forum so that others may benefit from the replies also.
In addition, you would then likely have other responses to your queries that may differ from what I would reply and you could have the benefit of other hobbyists experiences as well.