will this work?

[Shortkid09]

I'm very new to saltwater and have a 33g long. Right now I have no fish and thinking about making my tank a seahorse tank. As far as setup I have a biowheel and a closed lope which can be on or off. Do you think this will work o ya also I have some zoos mushrooms and starpolops

 

[ReefNutPA]

I don't see why it wouldn't work. Just remember - buy captive bred seahorses. Many hobbyists have juveniles for sale during the year. You can also buy direct from large-scale breeders as well. Be very careful if buying from a LFS, as many times the seahorses they sell are not truly captive bred, but are simply "tank raised" and have the same issues wild caught seahorses have.

Tom

 

[Shortkid09]

I'm not totally sure on the difference between captive bred and tank raised care to fill me in?

 

[suzimcmullen]

I'm new too. From what I understand the wild-caught have quite a few internal parasites and people feel that it's a risk to buy them. When they do get them they routinely treat them for various parasites and it's quite an expensive and time consuming process.

I'll be honest. I'm not sure that I believe in the idea of just routinely treating for something they might not have. Also, there is an ethical issue. Those tha have been in the hobby a long time would like to see the horses left in the ocean so that they won't eventually dissappear.

When horses have bred in tanks and the young have been raised in the tanks they don't know the ocean. They are generally healthier because they haven't been exposed to the diseases from the ocean. Also when the wild-caught ones get put in tanks with the ones bred in captivity, they will exchange diseases. I guess it would be similar to when white man came to America and the Indians were unable to withstand the European diseases and they went from 100 million indians to about 100 thousand or something like that. I know about 95% of the Indians died. About half the first settlers died for the same reason. But the diseases didn't get them nearly as much as hunger. ACH...sorry for the history lesson.

Anyway, I'm told that many people throw up pens in the ocean and then they when they take the seahorses from that part of the ocean they call them captive raised because they were technically born in captivity. It's deceptive.

Or, they will find pregnant seahorses from the ocean and then call the babies born and raised in captivity but make no mention of the fact that they still probably have the parasites from their parents.

The way I look at it, it's no different from all the fish we get that have been caught from the ocean. The ones that survive will have babies and those babies will grow up and have babies. Once a few generations have passed they won't know anything of the ocean and by then hopefully any parasites would have been caught and treated for.

I'm getting 2 h. comes horses from Ebay. I'm hoping they will be as healthy and eating frozen mysis as promised. If not I'll set up a quarantine tank just for them and buy the medicines needed to treat them. I'm saving so much money from buying them cheap that I can afford to take my chances. I bought the expensive horses that were supposedly bred by a reputable breeder. One of them died in the first 15 hours I had her. The other one refuses frozen food and I'm struggling to get her to take it before she breaks me financially. Keeping live mysis is another chore altogether!

Suzi

 

[Shortkid09]

thanks for sharing with me i was told that you have to have your temp somewhere between 72-74 F if this is true? how do you keep corals alive or can you not have any with the temp so low

 

[suzimcmullen]

The temperature depends on the type of Seahorse. Some seahorses do need the lower temps. My seahorse has been doing very well at 75 degrees. Sometimes it even manages to get up to 77. But I keep tank water in the fridge and pour it in every time it starts to creep up. I also keep the lid up on my biocube part of the day with the fan blowing on it.

The only coral I have is some zoos that are not at all happy and some fire and ice chalice that is growing nicely. I know that many people have gargonians in their seahorse tanks. I've actually read about all sorts of corals. But I don't know a lot about corals.

My zoos closed up on me the same week I got her and only one has opened back up. I have no idea if they will ever open up again.

Suzi

 

[Shortkid09]

are pipefish the same way as far as temp wise?? see i already have about 10 corals so i need to keep them alive and my temp right now is about 79.5 F

 

[suzimcmullen]

How soon do you plan on getting seahorses? I am uncertain about pipefish and temps. If I were you, I'd start to back the temp down a little bit at a time, maybe a degree per week. Watch the corals and see how they do. If you can get them to be ok at 75, then you should be ok with most seahorses that I've seen. BUT, I'm told that the water perameters need to be as perfect as possible for seahorses and that they become lethargic at higher temps.

One person told me that if the water perameters are perfect, they may be able to withstand the stress of higher temps, but only a degree or two higher. My girl is an h. comes seahorse, also called tiger tail. She is not lethargic at all even when the temps reach 77 degrees. My water is maybe not as perfect as it could be. I sometimes have about 20 on the nitrates. But usually it's 10 and negligable or zero readings on everything else. I don't test for phosphates and have no idea how that effects the seahorses. But I'm fighting red slime so I'm sure I have plenty of phosphates.

I'll bet it depends largely on the horeses and where they came from. Like most creatures they can probably adapt. But that would incluse the corals too.

Suzi