two females?

[kg4izw]

I thought a seahorse tank would be a great addition right next to my reef tank so I am taking the plunge.
1. I want to know if I would be OK having a tank of only two female seahorses.
2. I have been reading up and have encountered conflicting reports about halides and seashorses. Will strong halides around ten watts per gallon hurt my horses as long as I can keep the temperature down. And if so, will it be only their color that suffers, or also their health?
thanks, Paulb.

 

[cmsargent]

Keeping two females in a tank is fine. Lots of people keep same sex tanks when they don't want to deal with fry.

Halides themselves won't harm the seahorses. The big concern in keeping the temp down around 74 which can be hard in a tank with halides. If you're running a chiller and know you can keep the temp down then halides are fine. It would be good if you could aquascape the tank in such a way that the seahorses have option to get out of the bright light if they so choose. You could do this with overhanging rock, a macroalgae bed the seahorses can hide in, a large leather that offers shading etc.

Why do you want halide lighting? What else are you planning to keep with the seahorses? If it's a larger tank you could consider lighting one side with halides and the other with dimmer lighting.

 

[Duddly01]

Same sex tanks are fine.

I am also curious why you would need halides with a seahorse tank. Most corals, including clams, that would need halide lighting are a no no with seahorses. Clams can clamp down and hurt a horses tail, most LPS and many SPS would be able to sting the horses. Most corals that are seahorse safe, softies, zoas, etc. do not require such high lighting. Personally I believe 10 watts per gallon would be extreme overkill and would certainly be hard to keep cool enough. You can get great results with T-5s at about 5 watts per gallon (or even less) and easily keep the tank cool and support most any corals that would be safe for seahorses.

 

[kg4izw]

Thanks for the responses.
The reason for the tank and light combo is just because I have them from a previous purchase.
As an addded bonus, the halide bulb is old and probably not emitting light like it did when new.
Oops, I think I forgot to mention, I have my own homemade chiller.
I'm not into clams and SPS, not even in my reef tank.
The only other tankmate planned for my seahorse tank is my yellow clown goby who is currently being outcompeted for food in the other tank. He has recently began having to share the natural pod population with the new scooter blenny and has become quite skinny.
I will have to made changes in the planned aquascaping if I am to provide some shelter from the lighting. Will an area of dense vegetation provide the shelter needed?
Am I correct that seahorses need 14 hours of light each day? My other tank is computer controlled at 8 hours.
OK last question, I promise...
I have been looking everywhere for some DIY seahorse feeder plans. I want a tube and some type of platform suction-cupped to the side of my tank, not sitting on the bottom. This will give the horses a little time to eat before the nacarius crew locates the food on radar. Does anyone have plans or a pic that I could use to build this type of feeder?

Thanks again,
Paulb.

 

[pledosophy]

10w per gallon is kinda overkill. In the long run you'd save more money buy just getting a PC or T5 fixture if all your planning to keep with the is a clown goby, then you really only need enough light for the seahorses and goby to find food.

Also an old bulb still puts out the same amount of light, just at a different color spectrum that tends to favor nuissance algaes IME.

IME seahorses do not need 14 hours of light. My light cycle has always been closer to 8.

Dense vegetation will not provide enough shelter, IME the seahorses retreated to a cave when the MH came on and were to bright. JME.

As fas as I know there is currently only one auto feeder of frozen mysis and it is not sold in the U.S. If you want a place to feed the seahorses just to keep the food off the sand, do a search on a feeding dish. Many people just use shell's placed on the rocks, however you can buy acrylic modles that suction to the glass.

JME

 

[Paul B]

This is wierd, my name also being Paul B but many people post me as Paulb.
And I invented and patented a seahorse feeder which I have sole over 6000 of them.
very wierd.

http://www.breedersregistry.org/Articles/v4_i3_paul_b/paul_b.htm

 

[aceheart1976]

pual b, is that really your design? thats very cool the way the article says it works. im wondering how much one of those would cost me for my 47 gal soon to be horsie tank

 

[Paul B]

That is my design and my patent.
It works very well. I sold over 6,000 of them.
Unfortunately I retired from the seahorse feeder business and I don't manufacture them anymore.
Paul

 

[aceheart1976]

well, could you pm me how to make them or where i might be able to get on?

 

[Paul B]

It would be hard to explain. I have a few half built, I will see if I can get some time to complete them.
Paul

 

[aceheart1976]

pual, thank you so much, how much would one cost? my area code is 29816. im in s.c. but sometimes go up to staten island n.y. for work....

 

[Paul B]

I sold them for $9.95. I will let you know if I can finish some of them.
Paul

 

[aceheart1976]

great paul, let me know something, the tank is still over a month or so away from having horsies

 

[whatnot45]

For my tank, i just took a water bottle, cut off the bottem, punched a hole in the back, put a suction cup in, and poked a red plastic stick through it for a hitching post. I use a turkey baster and just squirt the food in every day. The food stays in, and it works well for me. Coraline took over the plastic so now it blends right in w/ my tank, and my seahorses are trained to hang out on it when ever they get hungry.