I was thinking about turning my tank into a seahorse tank. I have a 46 gallon tank with about 35 pounds of live rock. For filtration, I have a Fluval 404. Living in my tank is a firefish, a feather duster, some xenia coral, two short-spined urchins, and some hermit crabs. The tank has been set up for several years, and the water quality is excellent. I plan on getting a bunch of macro-algae for the seahorses to hitch on to. I want to start with a pair of h. erectus. Any comments/suggestions/problems with this plan?
Thinking about converting to seahorses...
- Thread starter Ali88
- Start date
ann83
New member
Before adding the seahorses, I would get rid of the urchins and the hermit crabs. They both present a danger to the horses. Seahorses are slow moving and like to hitch to things, so anything that can poke them or sting them when they hitch to it is not a good idea. Hermit crabs can injure a seahorse's tail and complications can cause death. There are a few species people have had luck with. I would check the "tankmates" forum on www.seahorse.org to see whether you think you will be able to keep a couple of them. I'd also take a look at your flow rate. Seahorses like low flow (a turnover rate of about 3-5x). Most reef tanks have too high flow. There are various mods you can do to make the flow work for your horses.
ann83
New member
I think that if you hypothetically stuck your pinky all in between the spines and maybe tried to wrap it around a couple, and you wouldn't get poked at all, not even a dent in your finger, then you are definately okay. But, if your skin would get punctured and you'd end up with a little hole in your pinky then that might not be so good, since a little hole in a seahorse tail can cause big problems, especially since their tails get less blood flow than the rest of the body.
