Sea Horse and Powerhead

[Gandolfe]

I was wondering if it's weird for a Sea horse to wrap his tail around a power head and then keep his head in the flow. mine was doing that last night and on other occasions. his head is directly in the outflow from the power head and bobs up and down. he stays like that for hours at a time.

 

[peasofme]

they require very low flow and lots of things to grab on to, like a dead sea fan. a powerhead is too much, sponge filter recommended.

http://aquarium-fish.liveaquaria.co...:marinefish&isort=score&method=and&ts=results

 

[Gandolfe]

He's a 6" erectus and you are mistaken about requiring low flow. There are many spots in my macro tank with low or almost no flow and a few with higher but not extreme flow. He likes to go all around the tank and be in both kinds of flow. There are thousands of anchor points in my 40 gallon macro tank

 

[flsvedlund]

My seahorses sometimes do that. I believe one of mine does it to blow algae off of herself. Sometimes they also just seem to enjoy playing in the flow.

 

[pledosophy]

they require very low flow and lots of things to grab on to, like a dead sea fan. a powerhead is too much, sponge filter recommended.

http://aquarium-fish.liveaquaria.co...:marinefish&isort=score&method=and&ts=results

That is false information IME. Larger species of seahorses can handle quite a bit of movement IME.

To low of flow is very troublesome for tanks IME.

 

[dputt88]

i had a few pipefish in a 30 cube with a korailia 240 and a 420 and they did fine, i now keep a pipe in my 40 gal frag tank that has a 420, 240, and a 1400. the low flow thing is highly exaggerated on this forum.

my pipes always play in the flow.

 

[flsvedlund]

That is false information IME. Larger species of seahorses can handle quite a bit of movement IME.

To low of flow is very troublesome for tanks IME.

I completely agree with this. I think the idea that low flow is a requirement is outdated and has been proven to be false. You do need to design the flow so that there are calmer areas for the seahorses to rest, but having an entirely low flow tank is unhealthy and just builds up detritus. I have an MP10 running on around 50% power in my 30 gallon cube and the seahorses can more than handle that amount of flow.

 

[Gandolfe]

I've watched my swim against the flow coming from my sump pump supplying water to the tank and it was going pretty damn fast for a "slow mover". It can cover 3' of tank in a few seconds, not very slow in my opinion and that's against the flow from a 500gph pump. I talked to the woman from Seahorse corral and she said hers do that all the time, hang out in the power head flow, even ignoring feeding time to "play". I'm getting a Tank Raised female to try and teach my wild caught male to accept Frozen Mysis! He already is eating the frozen Spirilina brine shrimp. I just hope she doesn't revert to live food because of all the saltwater ghost shrimp have in there and the amphipods and copepods in my macro. And that pic is 2 weeks old so there's even more macro now

 

[rayjay]

I side with pledosophy.

 

[Gandolfe]

done with sea horses

done with sea horses

Well I found my male dead yesterday morning even though he seemed fine. I am done with sea horses until I can dedicate a tank specifically for them with all Tank raised specimens in it.

 

[rayjay]

Better yet, get all true captive bred instead of "tank raised".
Also, even a dedicated tank doesn't guarantee success.

 

[LifeonKJ]

I'm late to the conversation, but +1 for the "playing" in the flow. I have one male erectus who loves to do just that in the outflow from the skimmer. He will sometimes stay up there for a couple of hours before heading off to hunt copepods in the LR again. Hasn't seemed a problem at all. I'm sorry for your loss of your pony.