Seahorse fuge????

[turbois300]

I was wondering ................

If you had a large enough fuge, with a fairly calm flow through it, could you keep a seahorse in the fuge? Or are they best kept in a display type setup? In this situation the fuge would actually be on display so you could see them all the time but my main concern is with the pumps and stuff being in the next compartment would it be too loud or disturbing to the health of the animal?

A big thanks to UA for having a seahorse tank at the front of the store so now my daughter won't sleep without one and thinks fish are not enough now............thanks alot! : )

I've read that they require a bit more of a delicate environment but I may have bad information.......

Anyways, if ya'll want to chime in............ lets discuss.

:bum:

 

[turbois300]

Ok......... well anyone else that is interested in info here is a good link.


http://www.sheddaquarium.org/sea/seahorse/husbandry.html

 

[WILDTHING]

welllll, its generally not recommended to keep them in a fuge or regular reef for several reasons 1) temp, they do best at temps around 74 or lower. Not because they can't live in higher temps but because lower temps help keep infections and diseases like Vibro from taking hold.2) as you mentioned flow, they are poor swimmers 3) they can easily get stung and or eaten by many reef critters even generally benign things like aptasia can be a problem for them.

with all that being said, my female Erectus recently died, my male who is a butt head and hides constantly was invisable in the 55g I had set up for them. I was having problems finding him to feed him as he never learned the food dish thing and would follow the female to the dish, but once she was gone he just stayed hidden all the time. So I have a 55g fuge with low flow and nothing but macro in it. I put him in it about a month ago and he is doing well in it so far. My tank temps have been in the 75 range but I usually keep them around 80. Once I close up the house for the winter they will return to 80 and I'm not sure how he will do then. To be honest I'm 1/2 afraid he might come down with Vibro and wipe the entire tank out with it as its easily spread. I'll probably end up putting him in a 12g nano I have.

You could easily set up a 20 tall for a pair of Sh's. A 20 tall runs about 20$ or so, They don't require any special lights, even a CF from Wally World would do to light the tank and keep some macro alive, even a few mushrooms if kept high in the tank. A HOB filter would provide flow and filtration easily. A 5g or so water change weekly assuming you don't overfeed would be all you ned to keep a nice tank for them. So for way under $100 you could set up a nice tank for them. Considering how expensive they are its a good investment for their health and your investment in your reef.

BTW my 90g sump is stuffed full of rock if you need some to set up a tank for them.

colleen

BTW what kind of SH's are they? Do you know where Chris got them from?

I'm looking for a Erectus female to go with my male.

 

[turbois300]

Wow. Thank you for the insight!!! That is a ton of info, but good news. I have a tank that I think will do nicely. I am not sure where he got them from (feel free to chime in Chris) but they are pretty much all black in color. I am new to the SH thing so I am not sure of the exact type. He has 2 though I am not sure if they are for sale or not???? I may take you up on the rock. As I have been fraging and such my dry rock has all but run out. Should I skim that tank? Would additional flow be needed or do they like it pretty still? I need to find some of that bladed caluerpa (looks like fern leaves???) they seemed to dig that. Again thank you for the advise and insight. Keep it coming if you don't mind. : )))

 

[WILDTHING]

what size is the tank you have for them? Its suggested that if you have a pair that may mate in the future you should have a tank 3x their expected adult height. That way they can do their mating dance. Speaking of mating did you know that SH's have hundreds of babies at one time and once they start having babies they continue about every 2 weeks for several months a yr? If you are not prepared to deal with babies consider getting 2 females.

http://www.floridapets.com/
this place probably has the macro you want. If you order 75$ they will ship your order free via fed Ex overnight. It doesn't say it on the site but you can email them to confirm. You might consider getting some Nassarius snails to help clean up the Mysis scraps too.

OH REALLY IMPORTANT!!!!!!! be sure you get captive bred. Wild guys can end up costing a fortune to feed and you will need to medicate them, THEN they might end up dieing anyway for no apparent reason.

If you don't get you horses from Chris, this place is awesome. I got my guys from him and couldn't be happier.
http://www.seahorsesource.com/erectus.html
He has nothing but good reviews from everyone. if you order from him I'd share shipping costs with you.

Check out the SH forum here on RC
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=35

Another good site for info. They sometimes are a bit militant tho. haha
http://forum.seahorse.org/index.php?showtopic=35367

To skim or not to skim is a hot topic with some die hard SH people. Some feel that it produces micro bubbles that can get into the pouch of the male and cause GBD (gas bubble desease). I feel that keeping good water quality is more important than a possibility of getting GBD. I was using a CPR backpak and it put out a lot of bubbles so I used a filter sock.

They can take some flow as long as its done right, I had a maxi 1200 in my 20 h with a return putting out about 200-300 gph. Its really up to you what you want.

If you can wait till the meet in Nov I could bring the rock for you then, or you are welcome to come pick it out here. JLMK

Colleen

 

[ade]

I had a bunch of TR Kuda in my 29 tall. All I had was a Seaclone moded about 40# LR with PC's. I had an open top tank and I did keep a small heater in the tank just incase it got too cold. As Collen said SH are very fragile and if you can I would get a small probe chiller so that you can keep the tank cool.
IMO I would only buy TR S/H you will pay a little extra but they will eat frozen out of the bag. Priceless.

 

[turbois300]

Man I acn't thank you all enough!! This info is ....priceless.... The tank that I would put them into is a 29 gal. I am moving my reef to a 38 gal. I've heard that the Nassarius snails are good substrate cleaners and will probably get some for both tanks. My wife and I are due on the 18th so I am not sure if I'll make it to the meet. I'm really going to try though. Its great to be around fellow reefers. Just before I search what are TR Kuda? I'm guessing Tank Raised and Kuda is the species???? I am totally not equiped for the breeding thing so I'll probably just keep females. I am assuming that it is easy to tell gender? Like ade said if I had to pay a little more to get them to eat prepared foods that would be killer. I'll let you know on the meet / baby progress and perhapse we can get together. If there is anything that you may need please let me know. I have all the equipment that you have right down to the CPR and I had to make a filter sock myself to keep the bubbles out of my reef..... Hopefully I'm on my way to SH husbandry!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[turbois300]

OMG what about the H. erectus!!!!!!!!!! those are BEAU-TI-FULL!!!!!!! Are those more difficult to keep? The kuda's are super pretty yellow too. Is he sold out of the erectus until next July or August? wow if so that a long time. I think that chris has the ingens in black (i could be way off though). Out of all of them which are the most hardy....i that term even applies to such delicate creatures.

 

[WILDTHING]

Actually if you like the Erectus you are in luck as they are the hardiest of them all!!! And their babies are the easiest to raise. Also Kudas come in a close second but their babies are harder to raise. Kudas come in many really pretty colors like bright yellow and orange and red! They are a tiny bit smaller than the Erectus.

What a bummer that he is out of Erectus, I dont know if I can wait till next yr for a mate for my butt head.

Colleen

 

[turbois300]

ha ah ah ahaa. a red or orange kuda would be a favorite at my house. can you request colors? so if they mated could i get the babies out and give them to someone who could raise them? foster parent style???? sounds bad comming from someone who is about to have a baby but......i'd like to help the species if they did mate. just a thought. that is a long time to wait for anything. yeah i like the H.e although I'll get overruled if they haveorange or red kuda. not that i mind. you girls always win anyways.. we'll see what the bosses say ....

 

[WILDTHING]

Whoops sorry for some bad info, when I was mentioning colorfull SH's my mind was saying Reidi but my fingers were typing something else,lol. You can request colors and if he has them he'll try to get them to you. Even the unsexed ones he sells , if you request a gender he is generally able to tell and will send what you want but its not 100% for sure.

The thing is that they can change colors due to mood, suroundings etc. From what I've seen people have the best luck keeping them the colors they want by having decorations (fake plants and fake corals) in the colors they want.

You can try to get the babies to foster homes but its pricey to ship them, and you need to ship within the first 24 hrs after birth. And of course they will keep having them every 2 weeks....If you were getting Erectus I'd happily adopt the babies but the other SH;s like kuda and Reidi are too difficult, not impossable but much more difficult than Erectus to raise.

 

[WILDTHING]

check out this guy from Seahorse .org. He has some pretty Erectus. He even has some with cirri!! He's been selling on Seahorse.org for yrs now and people seem very happy with them.

http://forum.seahorse.org/index.php?showtopic=35354

you may need to register to see it as its in the selling forum which is for members only.

 

[turbois300]

Chris has some fake decorations and rock that look really cool and my daughter loved them. that may make it a bit easier to keep the water good and such right.... plus some of them are really bright color'd. I'll join that site and see what they have. what is cirri? So Reidi are the ones with the colors? I'll check them tooo.... good. more reading for me!!!!!!!!

 

[WILDTHING]

Yup reidi are very colorfull.

Cirri are the horn like growths some SH's have growing out of their heads. Not all SH's develop them....and some have them then loose them. Its very pretty tho. Some people believe its a camouflage thing.

 

[turbois300]

ahhh yes. I saw that in the picture on the site you posted. I like them too. Very interesting adaptation.

 

[WILDTHING]

so have you decided what kind of SH you want yet?

 

[turbois300]

I haven't yet. my wife and I are about to have a baby so the brakes have been put on all of my tank projects....... i'm trying to aquire a few more components to make this thing go! I'll keep you posted.