Seahorse newbie

[Haberdashery]

Hi there!
I have a 12 gallon (55 litre) nano cube which i'm planning to turn into a seahorse tank. I haven't had any experience with seahorses and was looking for advice on setting a seahorse tank up and what kind of sea horses / sea dragons would be best for this size of tank and how much rock/sand/clean up crew ideas etc etc

would just like to do it properly and set it up well so thanks in advance for any advice

 

[lifeoffaith]

Personally I would not put anything but dwarfs in a tank that size. Dwarfs are tough because they only eat live food (some have reported getting them to eat frozen, but then they can switch back and never go to frozen again). You need a tank that is also twice the height of the seahorse full grown at a minimum and that is after the sand is added to the tank.

 

[Greybeard]

Yup. Dwarfs (zosterae). I'd probably get a dozen of them, they do better in groups.

Incredible creatures, fun to watch. I've seen some that were trained to take frozen mysis, but it's rare. Plan on having to feed them live baby brine shrimp and copepods.

http://seahorsesource.com/ has captive raised ones, they're pricey, but much more likely to survive in captivity.

 

[rayjay]

As mentioned, the tank is only suitable for dwarfs as standards available to us in North America now should have at least 29g for ONE PAIR, and at least 15g each for each additional pair although Dan Underwood of seahorsesource has mentioned he prefers the same 29g for each ADDITIONAL pair as well. Dan is the most respected breeder around, helping in person and on the forums like here and at seahorse.org.
For dwarfs though, it's best to start with a sterile tank and contents because the live feeding of enriched artemia nauplii tends to lead to hydroids which can be fatal to the dwarfs.
Contrary to reports, you cannot sustain dwarfs long term on frozen foods.
Before getting dwarfs I would recommend first setting up and hatching and enriching the brine shrimp artemia to see if this is a chore you really want to do long term.
I lasted two years and many others don't even make it to a year before they get T'd off at the chore.
And this is from a person who spent a long time breeding regular seahorses, requiring the hatching enriching for a period of time for the early weeks of the seahorse fry each time.

 

[lifeoffaith]

Rayjay is the expert around here by the way.

 

[rayjay]

No expert by far, just someone with many years of experience.
The expert would be Dan Underwood who has taught many of us over the years he has been breeding.
There are also many seahorse keepers with less years than I have that have acquired a better knowledge than I have, but all I can do is advise based on what I've experienced and what I believe to be reasonable based on my readings of others postings.

 

[BlueCat1949]

Instead of trying to fit seahorses into the tank that you have it is better to decide what species you want and pick the appropriate size tank for them. A 15 is pretty big for dwarves and too small for most of the other seahorse species.

 

[HereFishy1]

I would go with a bigger tank and an easier type of seahorse. Most say erectus is the best beginner.

 

[BlueCat1949]

I would go with a bigger tank and an easier type of seahorse. Most say erectus is the best beginner.

I agree erectus is the perfect choice for the beginner, if you can keep your tank in the low 70s.