Seahorses!!! Yay!!!

lilleahseafreak

New member
i finally have fullfillled my quest in the hobby. I HAVE SEAHORSES!!!

i went to the coral reef shop for the first time ever and i, as i do whenever-whever i see them, i made a beeline for the seahorses. these ones seemed particuallry alert compared to others i have seen and i just find them more appealing than any others i have found. as i always do i looked for the price expecting the usuall high price-the tank said "captive bred seahorses $39"
WHAT!?
so i asked to see them eat as i have heard of cases where wild caught will be sold as "captive", but even then captive ones are usually around $100 if not more, so i thought "these have to be wild ones for this price" but sure enough they ate the frozen food and did so quite greedily.

knowing i had a 12 gallon nano, set up for a year, and its only inhabitant a yellow watchman goby, i took the risk.

i was gonna get just the black one, and i told the girl to get him, but then my sister said how she really liked the tan one w/spots
and at that moment, the 2 hugged!!! they wrapped tails and swam off together. so we got both.

and i am glad i did as they interact ALOT!

i took them home, took some rocks out to give more room, took some leaves off a fake plant to give them a hitching post (put another in the bag for them to hold onto which really helped them)
i have been feeding them 3 times a day (around 9, 1, and 5) w/snacks (crushed a cube of food to give them tidbits when i am in the room watching tv) i am feeding them enriched frozen brine.

i have also seen them both hunting the plentiful pods in the tank.

the temp is at 76 and all the water tests come up fine.

it has 2 hang on back filters and a power head that i turn off at feeding time cause it blows the food too fast.

the heater is in the corner blocked off w/rocks so they will not hitch on it and burn their tails.

is there anything else i should consider?

i also need to know if the 2 should be moved to a bigger tank when they get bigger, they are 3 inches (including uncurled tail)
they are still too youing to tell the gender.

i have to go now or i'd be more through (and use spellcheck)

but i just COULD NOT WAIT to share my joy in having these neat little fish!!!
 
congrats on the horses.

Those horses probably were raised in pens, but kept in the ocean. They probably will be fine, but sometimes they will require deworming.

If you have a picture, I might be able to tell you what species you have. The ones I've seen in the LFS will not stay small. They are one of the largest seahorses, and if that is what you have, you'll need a large tank in a year or less. I believe they get to 8 to 10 inches.

anyway, congrats and post pics soon. :)
 
that is what i need to know. i have a 40 gallon and a 23 gallon but both are filled to the brim w/rocks (literally) and have unsuitable tank mates like hawkfish.

i plan to re-arrange these tanks soon, and this will be the ONLY time i can set up oneof the biiger tanks w/these seahorses in mind ( i need to catch the coral beauty, it only picks on my leather trees and digitata in terms of coral BUT i think its been hurting my maroon clown who i like alot more)

i'll post pics later today when i get my stupid camera cleared out and figured out.

they havejust adapted so well and are very lively and have personality.
 
oFjqZkgbhkjHY0ksUI684cnj81MuNhPJ0300


here they are hitching on their favorite cluster of macro
 
the link above works and its a clear shot (for once)

so will these guys need to me moved to a 23 gallon? i need to know before i re-arrange my tanks.
 
Just wondering...What does it take to keep Seahorses...

I heard that they require basically no other fish than themselves or pipefish in case of the threat of food-battle .....

And they just need basically the calmest tank ever....

Is there any other regimes I would need to have....I think I heard something about them needing to eat constantly a form of pod...or something...

But, if a tank has been established with live rocks for about a month wouldn't that be enough of a pod population to support the seahorses...

P.S : I went to a local pet store similar to PETCO...Its called the PETCLUB....I saw one of the sadest things in their saltwater area...(Hate to say it but, a dead black seahorse...And one other left all alone right above the dead seahorse...

This PETCLUB....certainely has some nice stock but, it just seems that they cannot seem to keep the stock alive...The workers just seem not to know enough in order keep ick, fish disease, and dying seahorses from occuring in their tanks....
 
can you get a side shot that includes the tail and crown.

Are you feeding just BS? I think that's ok for a little variety, but their staple should be PE mysis.
 
i'll see if i can get another shot.

do they shed or somthing because they appear to have algae growing one their heads and backs (they move so dang slow that it can grow on them!) i can stand having snails w/algae on their shells but its unsightly on the seahorses! there are some soft corals in w/them so leaving the lights off more won't work too well.

inn addition to the algae they have been changing colors! they are active and happy and eating well so i don't think any thing is worng, but now the black one is brown most of the time and the white ones stripes change intensity. this is normal correct, i seem to recall reading how they change colors.

as for food, at the store i asked for whatever was best and easist to feed and that is what they gave me, but i will get some enriched mysis shrimp later this week.
 
Piscine Energetics brand Mysis shrimp is what you should be feeding them. It's what public aquariums use. All the other brands I've tried are inferior.

O Street Aquarium sells this brand.
 
okay, but what about the brown algae on them, its bugging me!!!!!!!!!!!
is it okay that its on them?

should i take the corals out and keep the lights out?
or will they shed it off?
 
Dunno. I've seen baby Aiptasia actually land on healthy ones before. In that case you can just scrape them off. I can't imagine it's a good sign if algae is growing on them.
 
Algae isn't a problem. In the wild, algae helps provide camouflage. If it bothers you, you can brush it off with a very soft toothbrush, or just provide them some macro. If it bothers them, they'll brush it off on their own, just make sure it doesn't grow over their eyes, but that rarely happens.
 
i guess i will get used to it, its just kinda strange seeing algae on a living creature, i guess its not as bad as the sloth though that has moss and such growing on its fur because it moves so slow.

i just wanted to be totally sure it was normal and they were not going to get sick from it.
 
Back
Top