Starting the Journey!

[Driftwood]

My wife and I recently won a Gift Cert from Seahorse Source at a club auction and we are getting ready to setup a system to house them. The Certificate is for any one pair. We are going to buy a 35 gallon hex tank for them from a friend.

The tank will be setup with 80lbs of sand and 30-40lbs of LR. I will be growing a few different types of Macro in the tank to help the ponies to have more places to hitch and hunt. I am also going to look into buying some seagrass to grow in one area of the tank. Flow will be a maxijet 900 on a spraybar and a korilia nano.

We also have been looking at the types of seahorse that are offered trying to decide what we want to order.

I have been reading on what types of seahorses are easy to care for and also that have babies that are the easiest to raise. We wouldn't be raising babies right off but would like the option of trying available if we choose to in the future.

These are the species offered:

Hippocampus abdominalis
Hippocampus barbouri
Hippocampus breviceps
Hippocampus erectus
Hippocampus fuscus
Hippocampus ingens
Hippocampus kuda
Hippocampus reidi
Hippocampus zosterae

I am not a big fan of the Zosterae, Breviceps, Ingens or Abdominalis seahorses. So those are out right off the bat. I am primarily going by body shape and size in making this decision.

I do like:
Erectus, Kuda, Barbouri, & Reidi

I would be very grateful if someone with some experience with seahorses could give me some tips. I would like to start out with fairly easy to care for ponies but I am not opposed to a challenge either. I would like the option to try and breed them also if I found the motivation to give it a try.

A few specific questions:
What are your favorite types of seahorse? Why?
What babies are the easiest to raise? Why?


Any help in making this decision would be greatly appreciated.
Dave

 

[ann83]

Cross kuda off the list since they aren't available right now.

Of the remaining 3, erectus have the easiest to raise fry and reidi have the most difficult to raise.

Everyone is going to have their own opinions about their favorite species, and each individual has its own personality. What are you looking for in the seahorses?

The seahorse in my avitar is a reidi from Seahorse Source.

 

[CoMMaNdeR]

Are the reidi the more difficult?

Because their fry size right?

 

[ann83]

Reidi and Erectus are both very hardy species as adults.

Reidi fry are more difficult to raise than erectus fry because reidi fry are so much smaller, do not hitch at birth, and need rotifers as first foods.

 

[Driftwood]

We have never kept seahorses before and we are only looking for a couple nice pets. We do love some personality in our critters and have heard that seahorses have cool ones.

 

[Driftwood]

The seahorse in your signature is amazing!

 

[Driftwood]

Does anyone have experience with Barbouri? I really like the looks of them.