seahorses on a reef tank?

[mendel]

bs"d

i get the emails from blue zoo aquatics, and i recently got this email

"With Father's Day approaching, we thought we would talk about a particularly good dad in the world of fish. The award, of course, goes to the majestic Seahorse.

Male Seahorses carry the eggs deposited by the female in a special pouch on the front of their abdomen for 9-45 days. Even though it is still the female that lays the eggs, the eggs themselves attach to the inner walls of the male's pouch and become surrounded by a spongy substance. The male then provides the eggs with nutrition as they develop which actually puts quite a strain on the metabolism of the Seahorse. This is very similar to a human female carrying a baby. Once the eggs hatch inside the pouch, the baby Seahorses are expelled and the male's role in the reproductive cycle is finished.

In honor of Father's Day coming up, we have stocked-up heavily on two species of Seahorses; the Tiger Tail Seahorse (Hippocampus comes) and the Tank Raised Orange/Yellow Seahorse (Hippocampus reidii). Both of these award winning Fishie Fathers are on sale while supplies last.

Over the years, we have talked quite a bit about the specialized husbandry needed to keep Seahorses in captivity. If you would like a refresher, click here. One of the things that has never been talked about though is the ease of keeping the larger species, like the reidii, in community reef tanks. The tank raised ones are even easier to keep. Some of the issues that make keeping Seahorses in community situations difficult are simply not present with these 3"-4" individuals.

The larger Seahorses, especially the Tank Raised ones, will accept larger foods like frozen adult brine shrimp or even pellet foods. You will just need to make sure they get enough to eat by target feeding the area of the aquarium they tend to hang out in. The larger individuals are also much stronger so water flow, and you should have lots of strong water flow in a reef tank, does not bother them.

The only thing these larger Seahorses need is peaceful tank mates, which really includes most "reef safe" fish and inverts. Even tangs will be fine with this type of Seahorse as long as space requirements are met for each animal. So, even though you may have stayed away from Seahorses before because you did not want to set up a dedicated tank for them, make sure to take another look at the Hippocampus reidii. A truly wonderful father AND a wonderful addition to any peaceful community reef tank. "


dose anyone have experience with keeping them with tangs/in a reef tank. also can you keep a reef tank at the suggested temperature (73-4 F) -thanks

 

[JLynn]

First of all, Tangs are a VERY bad choice of tankmates. Tangs are aggressive fish and will bully the seahorses as well as outcompete them for food. That said, yes, seahorses do fine in reef tanks, but only in ones with corals that are safe for them. Any corals which sting/poison other livestock are unsafe for seahorses, as a general rule of thumb, which do not have scales to protect the soft tissue on their bodies from such attacks. This rules out most hard corals as unsafe or quite risky. Corals such as mushrooms, leathers, pulsing xenia, Kenyan tree corals, and most gorgonians are safe choices. Fake corals are always an option, of course...

I would suggest you take a look at the articles on seahorse.org or fused jaw.com; both of which have a wealth of information on seahorse care and appropriate tankmates, as well as forums of their own. As far as temperatures, seahorse-safe corals tend to also do fine at seahorse-appropriate temperatures. While keeping seahorses safely and happily in a reef is not the impossibility some would have you believe, it is important to be careful about selecting corals; you can't just buy a pretty frag from the LFS on a whim without first checking to ensure it would be safe for your SH. If planning a SH reef tank, do it in the mindset of a seahorse tank with corals in it, as opposed to a reef tank with seahorses in it.

 

[rayjay]

First off, they are in business to sell you whatever they can.
Information you've quoted is quite wrong.
While occasionally it can work out keeping seahorses in a reef tank, it needs to be selective as to tankmates with no fast moving fish or aggressive fish.
No anemones or stinging corals.
Most reef tanks are warmer than the best working temperature for reef tanks.
Seahorses are best kept in species only tanks at temperatures between 68° and 74°.
The seahorses mentioned are most likely sourced from Aquamarine International in Sri Lanka. They used to have pretty good stock but what has been coming lately is undersized, immature seahorses that have a higher fatality rate even when doing things best. Their success led to early shipping and perhaps not so diligent rearing processes in order to meet the demand.
If you really are interested in seahorse keeping you can get a handle on the basics by reading the links at the BOTTOM of "My Thoughts on Seahorse Keeping".
An excellent place to buy seahorses from is seahorsesource.com.

 

[TamiW]

Ugh, this is disgusting. Seahorses don't eat pellets. ***?

 

[timinnl]

Any updates or feedback from the company?

Kind Regards,

Tim

 

[kudagirl]

Any updates or feedback from the company?

Kind Regards,

Tim

Hi Tim,

I have had a e-mail back,but my compter wont let me forward it on,So i have sent a copy to Louise so she may pass it along.

 

[pledosophy]

I want a video of a seahorse eating a pellet!

I kept a pair of reidi with a red sea sailfin tang for a few months. No problems at first but eventually if the seahorses had algae on them the tangs would try to "pick it off", like they do, and it was obviously uncomfortable for the seahorse. It is the only time I have tried it.

Many reef corals can be kept in the 70's IME. I have the heater to my reef set on 72F and I do not worry when it hits that temp.

I do think much of the info in that email is wrong, but do agree that seahorses can be kept in community reef tanks, if the reef tank is designed for them. I do think seahorses like much more water movement then most give them credit for as well.

JMO

 

[Sanlynn]

"They are in business to sell."

Absolutely right! I was captivated in a local LFS with a tank of seahorses that were feeding like crazy when the store owner was demonstrating for another potential buyer. After all, they are magical creatures, right? I was told these were tank raised and would do fine in my 150 gallon reef tank. No talk whatsoever about what were my resident inhabitants.

Well, after struggling each day to target feed the poor thing died after about two months. The large sailfin tank, the yellow tang, and the pygmy angel all were expert at stealing its food - sometimes out of its mouth!. I tried hard to keep the fish away, but even when there was no food about, these fish would search where the seahorse stayed and picked on it.

If ever I get another seahorse, I will devote a new tank to them and only compatible tankmates.

Oh, another thing. Because I had to work so hard to get any PE mysis shrimp into the seahorse - and tried bribing the other fish by feeding them at the other end of the tank, the nutrients in the tank went sky high and I've had a problem with algae.

 

[small alien]

Blue Zoo has a sponsor forum on RC. Let them know what you think of their seahorse email. I just did.

 

[TamiW]

I don't think they care. I wrote them a couple times, and they only responded when I told them I was planning to write an article about it and wanted to give them one more chance to explain. Then their response was a canned message, the same one Sue got. They didn't address the pellets at all. They aid that they had success with keeping a reidi in a tank with a tang for 9 months, so it must work. :facepalm:

 

[tmz]

It's easy to keep redi and erectus in "community tanks". with or without pellet foods until they die which wont take very long in many cases ,imo. Very sad.

 

[Seahorses]

I was looking at their sponsor page, only to see them reply to small alien's post.

This is what they said:
Thank you for the update. We will have a look.
Take care.

Definitely seems computerized...

That just annoys me. Some inexperienced person will get seahorses, feed them pellets, and kill the poor guys. :worried: :facepalm:

 

[small alien]

I have seen them doing well with a single raccoon butterfly and some pipes in about a 100 gallon cube at a public aquarium. So, maybe there's wiggle room there. My main beef was the tone of how easy they made it all sound and the lack of qualifying language. Just way too misleading, especially for newbs.

 

[small alien]

And the pellets. Though I suppose that's possible, they made it sound normal. They should leave boundary pushing to advanced hobbyists.

 

[Don Quixote]

The email is correct when it says that seahorses are now much easier to keep than say 20 yrs ago, but their reasons for it are ridiculous.
"Don't worry, seahorses are easy now. Have a pellet."

 

[SOCOMMike]

I agree with everyone above. Really, they should be by themselves, and unfortunately, seahorses don't really have a long lifespan as it is.

 

[rayjay]

I'm not sure if you are referring to lifespan of dwarfs or standards, but dwarfs should be good for 1 1/2 to 2 years but standards should have no problem with five years or more.
Shorter lifespans are usually caused by conditions not being kept in line for their needs.

 

[tmz]

My Hippocampus erectus adults live in a sea horse only community( 7 members) in a 75 gallon tank ;the aquascape is: shallow black sand ,live rock and artificial corals. There are plenty of nooks and crannies for them to explore and hang out in. They do spend most of time hanging or swimming in open water. Flow is about 450 gph to the 75 gallon tank.Their behaviors are very intreseting to watch without flashier more rambunctious tankmates disturbing them , competing with them for food or scaring them into hidiing. I expect they'll live 4 to 6 years.
They produce fry every 2 to 3 weeks. So,I should be able to have seahorse groups for a long time, if I tend them properly.

 

[Northside Reef]

I have learned so much since I decided to keep seahorses and so much left to learn since I received mine. One thing I have absolutely no doubt about is I would never put a tang or any fast moving aggressive fish in my seahorse tank.

Seahorses need to see their food, they are very deliberate feeders. I am not sure they would even recognize a pellet as food. I think they need to rethink this information. It's very bad advice for keeping seahorses healthy and happy.

 

[novahobbies]

I want a video of a seahorse eating a pellet!

Many reef corals can be kept in the 70's IME. I have the heater to my reef set on 72F and I do not worry when it hits that temp.

I do think much of the info in that email is wrong, but do agree that seahorses can be kept in community reef tanks, if the reef tank is designed for them. I do think seahorses like much more water movement then most give them credit for as well.

JMO

Slightly off topic, but I have an H. erectus who occasionally eats the Asterina starfish that get knocked off the walls when I'm cleaning the front glass. The first time she did it I freaked out, but I think she got a taste for them....she follows the cleaning bar around now and will sometimes snick one of the smaller ones when they start floating down to the sand.

My feeling on reef tanks was this: You shouldn't keep a seahorse in a reef tank, but you can DESIGN a reef environment in a seahorse tank. My tank has zoas, ricordeas, photosynthetic gorgs, and Kenya coral in it. I was able to keep a green pagoda in the horse tank for many years though it was a slow grower (I moved it into the big reef tank and it REALLY started growing).

The seahorse-safe corals that didn't like the horse tank for whatever reason included Acans and chalices. I'm not sure if it was the water temp or the higher nitrates, but they never survived.