What sand, rock & fauna for H. Kuda ?

[Duddly01]

We are planning on converting our 24DX Nanocube from its current quarantine tank duties to a seahorse tank within the next couple months, once the current inhabitants are given a clean bill of health and move into the 50gal. I am starting to try and put together a shopping list of what sand, live rock and possibly coral and macroalgae the seahorses would prefer. Other than a pair of H. Kuda we were also thinking about a pair of Black & White Percula and maybe a small goby, would those be reasonable roomates?

 

[ann83]

Clownfish are hit and miss, I wouldn't risk it because they tend to be too fast moving and aggressive for SH. But small gobies usually make good tankmates. I'd consider getting a pair of clown gobies instead. I would go with a shallow sand bed because seahorses need height. For Kuda, I'd shoot for 20" of water height. Slightly shallower is okay, but the deeper the better.
Live rock is good, and it is safe for adult large species horses like Kuda.
No stinging corals or anemones, no clams (can close on sh tails), and no aggressive tankmates or aggressive feeders (SH are slow moving and slow eaters and don't stand a chance at eating enough with aggressive feeders).
Macro algae is wonderful and your seahorses will love it. Lots of people go with caulerpa prolifera, feather caulerpa, and red grape kelp. I keep Kenya Tree coral and feather dusters with my SH, and am working on getting more macro. Right now my SH prefer to hitch to the rockwork and the Kenya Trees.

 

[Duddly01]

The advertized height of the 24DX nanocube is 19.7, so I will keep the sandbed at 1" or less. I have about 1" of fine argonite sand in the tank now, I have a blenny and goby in quarantine right now and they like to sleep in burrows. I assume Tonga Branching LR would be better than Fiji? It appears it would lend itself to being hitched to better.

 

[ann83]

Yep, tonga is better than fiji. Some marshall island lends itself to hitching as well. I forgot to ask you what the cube is running at temperature wise. Tropical seahorses should be kept at lower than advertised temperatures to decrease the incidence of disease. Diseases that affect seahorses are more aggressive at higher temps, so temperatures of 72-74 are recommended. I have never had a nanocube but I have read that they run a lot hotter than that without modification.

 

[Duddly01]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9165219#post9165219 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ann83
I forgot to ask you what the cube is running at temperature wise. Tropical seahorses should be kept at lower than advertised temperatures to decrease the incidence of disease. Diseases that affect seahorses are more aggressive at higher temps, so temperatures of 72-74 are recommended.

It is currently running at 78-79, but I don't have any problem lowering it when it is no longer being used as a quarantine. I actually keep it that high in quarantine to force any disease the fish might have to show up quicker. I also have the salinity lowered slightly (1.020) in case I have to run them into hyposalinity to kill any parasite that might rear its ugly head. There is argonite sand in the tank, and PVC fittings right now, no rock or anything else. It is using the stock filtering system right now. The bioballs will be pulled as the live rock is added. Don't worry, no sea horses will be added till everything is stabilized and the LR and macroalgae are in control of filtration.

BTW, how do you quarantine a sea horse?