starting a seahorse tank?

IMHO no matter how good the breeding facility is you can't undo thousands of years of evolution. Northern Erecetus are found at temps as low as 43F. JMO. the bacteria that is most common to affect seahorses have been proven scientifically to be more virtulent then temperatures greater then 74F in tropical species.

The seahorses look great. I'm sure you will be happy with them.
 
so do you think that i am keeping the tank to high since its just a couple tenths of a degree over 74? or are you talking about how jorge kept them
 
I think pledo is talking about large SH facilities and aquariums in general. But, I don't think anyone would complain if you decided to keep your SH at 72 in order to give yourself some wiggle room. Since summer is coming up, I doubt you could bring them lower than 72 very easily, but once house temperatures start coming down, I would experiment with gradually lowering their temp to 68 or so to see if they are more active at lower temperatures.
 
My only concern about seeing how low i can go is.. what temperature will start to bother the firefish and the blenny?

They both ate but the female seems to not be eating quite as much as the male (maybe two mysis as apposed to 4-5 with the male)
 
picked up 2 more hermit crabs today and a pep shrimp. Quick question, my female is eating and HITCHING but she isnt moving around much, and shes mostly laying horizontally, the male is almost always horizontal or at least slanted. its almost like shes in the fetal positions sometimes.

Is this just her adjusting still?
 
Mine do that from time to time. It could be them still adjusting. As long as they are eating and acting fine then I wouldn't get too worried just yet. Keep an eye on them, like that'll be a problem, and see if anything changes in the next couple days.
 
just an update, the camera should be back up tonight or tomorow. the male is eating great! he will chase after the food, the female well not so much. She will eat but not as well as the male. The pep shrimp shedded the night i put him in so he is still hiding under the same rock (but i have seen him movea bit so yes he is a live), the blenny is just a pain in the but he hides when i feed and then when im done feeding he shows him self (guess he loves the rock work).
 
here are some more pictures, really wish i could invest in a good DSLR but this camera will have to do.
PICT0937.jpg

PICT0911.jpg

watch her eyes (had to add this lil animation)
PICT0889.gif

PICT0882.jpg

(this photo is showing how the female tends to perch... sideways)
PICT0870.jpg

PICT0921-1.jpg
 
oh how i love the hermit crabs
PICT0930.jpg

what is going on with two of my hermit crabs? even when i moved one off the other they got back in this position
PICT0940.jpg

side shot of the tank
PICT0919.jpg

hehe snails are awesome for clear detailed macro shots
PICT0896.jpg

firefish decided to hide out in his barnacle
PICT0945.jpg

and i know the red scooter blenny is just about everyones favorite but sadly he has taken refuge to the rock work. I rarely get to see him lately he knows how to hide. Also the shrimp is hiding still.

heres a video of the male
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahE0C0rXiXY
it may take youtube some time to process it
 
defintly sounds like a plan, on the 14 ill have my liscense so we'll figure something out.

well the pep shrimp came out while feeding and snagged himself a shrimp
PICT0952.jpg


i'm wondering if maybe i auto pick up a skunk cleaner shrimp or two if my algae doesn't start going away soon....

I'll let you guys know when i get the webcam up

Also, i unplugged one of my heaters and set the other one to about 72, the tank stays at about 70.8-71.2 all day long. Everyone seems to be okay with the temp so hopefully that will be okay in the summer.
 
Cleaner shrimp will do nothing for the algae, they are meat eaters. If you are refering to the brown diatom algae, it will go away on it's on in a short time. It's normal for new tanks. I have found that the more you mess with it, the longer it takes to go away. I know it is unsightly, but it will go away, just give it time.

If you want to add anything for it, try adding some astrea or turbo snails.
 
alright guess i'll just have to stay patient. my 4 astrea snails might need some encouragement ahha.

Oh, and matt just to clarify the pipefish threads, the other day my mother and i were in trop (picking up the shrimp and 2 more hermit crabs) and saw the banded pipefish they had in with the seahorse and she fell in love with it and wanted me to get it badly, i explained to her the risks of putting it in the tank with the horses. So i just figured i'd see what the tank specs would be for one.
 
Hmmmm...Banded pipes at Trop. Sounds like I may have to take a road trip. Actually I'm looking for either blue striped or dragon faced pipes myself.

Of course if I ever find Janns' I'd grab them in a heartbeat.
 
they've had the banded for about 2 weeks or so now. they also have a much smaller guy (the banded i'd say is around 5-6") the other one around 3 or so. Do you know the name of the guy whos kinda tall has a pony tail thats in the fish section, he's helped me the last few times but never got a name, good guy.
I'm sure if you mention it to them you'll try to order you in one they seem pretty good with special orders.
 
women, you cant live with them and you cant live with out em. Same goes with female seahorses!!
I go down stairs before to look at them and hmm funny i only see the male. No biggy shes just perched somewhere i cant see... i look around for another 10 minutes NO FEMALE! i look in the sump nope not in here, no where i can see. I decide to rip down the tank and find her. I get buckets get the male the firefish and the blenny out of the tank and into buckets and start breaking down the rock work (the rock that was so perfectly setup in the tank !)

i go and grab the barnacle and am about to pull it out of the water when i see the seahorses tail on the outside of one of the openings. I look inside and find her... you've gotta be kiding me! So i get her into the bucket with the rest of them and now stare at my tank which is far from clear seeing as i've sturded up the sandbed and al lthe rock work.

well i mine as well syphon out some of the water to get rid of the crap, i do a 25% water change (that went well thankfully). basically the majority of the branch rock broke apart from how i had it (i had it all connected using superglue and aquamend) now i've got lots of little pieces of branch rock :(.

I start to try and rearage the rock work (trying to be careful of snails and the shrimp) the aquamend wont hold on to the rocks. So right now i've got some of the rock in the tank and the rest in the bucket waiting for the mess to settle so i can see inside the tank and then i guess i'll figure out some rock work....

lesson learned: if you cant find a fish wait some time before you rip apart your tank


:mad2: :mad2: :mad2: :uzi: :fish1:
AHH!
 
well everyones okay :)... the tank looks sort of pathetic missing some of its rock but i guess thats what i get for worrying about my seahorse...

The female is eating great now :), also shes starting to turn white with maybe a tint of yellow i want to say? The male is staying dark :). Parameters seem good
ammonia-o
nitrite-o
nitrate- <20
PH8
 
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