Seahorse tank temps??

[Chi6488]

One of our seahorses died yesterday and I am at a loss.

This one was caught from the wild since the end of July. The tank has also two other sea horses I bought about a month ago that are tank raised.

The seahorse is pretty much black but past month it was more white/gray than black.

I have noticed some mention that tank temp should be around 72-74. I keep my tank at around 79-80 and did not know that is desired temp.

Does everyone keep at this lower temp to fight off disease?/

I have a chiller and not using it right now but I could hook it up.

 

[Kay Tickle]

I would definitely hook up the chiller. Seahorses are very prone to infections from bacteria that thrive at temps >74*. Sorry about your loss

 

[rayjay]

You have two things working against your success and one is the temperature.
While seahorses in their natural habitat can be living in 80°F water, the water is always changing, unlike our tanks which harbour bacteria live vibrio and others that seahorses are very susceptible to, most often causing death.
Seahorses are also very prone to dying from pathogens that they haven't been exposed to while growing up.
By putting them in a system with other fish they are being exposed to pathogens that often cause their demise.
This can happen at the LFS who may keep the seahorses in a system including the rest of their fish stock, or it happens when you put other fish in your own tank with them.
Occasionally it works out OK for someone, but for most people, results are not good. This includes putting other seahorse species in the same tank, or even the same species but different breeding source.
In your case, you have mixed wild caught with others that are tank raised and may have different pathogens.
However, it may not have been this that cause the death but there is not enough information to be able to give an educated guess as to actual cause.
Tank raised are only a step better than wild caught because they are raised in ocean water insufficiently treated to remove pathogens before being used.
True captive bred seahorses give the best chance of success (but not a guarantee) as they are bred/raised in artificial salt water or in ocean water that has been properly treated prior to use with the seahorses.
For the temperature issue, Dan Underwood of seahorsesource.com explains it best in a piece he wrote and it is one of the links at the bottom of MY THOUGHTS ON SEAHORSE KEEPING page.