Seahorse tank build

[rayjay]

I'm not sure where you are doing your research, but for a 29g tank, your plans are severely overloading it as a seahorse tank.
Minimum tank size for ONE pair of standard sized seahorses like H. reidi, kuda, comes, erectus, barbouri,....... is 29g, and an additional 15g for each additional pair. That's with nothing else in the tank as far as fish goes.
Just remember also that best chances of success happen with species only tanks, and, all of the species should come from the same breeding source.
You can add to your research by checking out the links at the bottom of "My Thoughts on Seahorse Keeping".
If you haven't already seen it, also check the post #5 on http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2274878

 

[rickjd]

I agree with the above to some degree. But seahorses require so much feeding throughout the day. And having a smaller tank allows that the mysis shrimp is EASILY found by the seahorses. I had a 20 gallon that worked great and I had up to six seahorses in there at a time. Of course, 4 were mini-seahorses about 2.5 inches in length and the other two were about 5 inches. But this smaller tank made it so much easily to feed. I had originally houses these seahorses in a 40 gallon and it seems like alot of mysis shrimp got wasted or sucked away. Whatever you do.... just have double extra bilogical filtration set-up.

 

[rayjay]

Yes, and, IMO, the nasty bacteria EASILY find the mysis also.
What species were you keeping and how long did you keep them for?
Mysis gets wasted because seahorses don't eat each piece. In fact, many don't even eat half of what is put in, preferring to only snick pieces that are ideal in their own estimation. The remainder needs to be removed before it decays, providing bedding for nasty bacteria.
You would have been better going with a feeding dish than downsizing.
Many many seahorse lives have been lost in the attempts to keep them in smaller water volumes, as long term keepers know. That doesn't mean it's impossible, just improbable.

 

[rickjd]

Actually I was able to keep my seahorses alive for a year or so. Its been about 4 years since I had seahorses. I kept Fire shrimps and small crabs in the tank as well to be cleaners of the excess mysis. Honestly I do not know what species they were - couple of them were yellow and the rest were brownish and black in color. It was a fun tank. Im thinking about getting it going again....maybe within the next 6 months or so.

 

[rayjay]

The most likely cause then of the loss at around a year would be due to problems stemming from too small a tank and/or tank raised source for the seahorses.
Properly looked after, the seahorse life should be ~5 years or more with some up around the ten year mark.
Unfortunately colour is not an indicator of species.