your oppinions about H. erectus

[craigshup]

Hey guy's,

I have had a 90 gal. saltwater tank setup for about 13 years now,VHO lighting
I don't care about haveing a tank full of corals or fish, been there and done that, i have more fun setting for hours watching blue leg hermits shell jacking there tank mates shell then watching corals.
I also have a 35 gal. SW setup.
I added 50 lbs. of live rock from tbsaltwater.com a few weeks ago, very good stuff, ammonia never even changed from 0. for a total of about 150 lbs. of liverock. Tank mates are, 90 small blue leg hermits, 45 ast. snails ,2 serpant stars, 1 red gorgonia, 5 + p. crabs (filter feeders) 1 green emerald crab, 1 red matr. crab, 2 pepermint shrimp,2 branching frogspawn, 2 shrooms and cup corals,sponges,tunicates,feather dusters and alge that was on the TBS rocks and lots of small sea flees don't know the proper name, and thousands of little might looking things crawling on the glass and rocks. I use to have a mandrin that loved to eat the little small one and some of the sea flees.
I waited for years to try sea horses, I finally got in my new house about 5 years ago, all I kept going during the build was the live rock and a small cleaning crew, so now I am ready to jump in with both feet

The 35 gal. setup consits of regular Fl lamps 2 atenic 2 daylight not VHOs. 75lbs. of tbsaltwater.com liverock, 35lbs. TBS sand, and the 35 gal. cleanup crew, cup corals, tunicates,sponges, and various alge growing on the rocks!

Both tanks will support a couple mandrin fish with out any other feeding, however I started raising brian shrimp about playing around to see if it was difficult, but it was easy, so I can supply that also every day.

Which setup would work better for the breed H. erectus ?
I like the way they look better and the large size.
Does anyone have an oppinion about what I should change in which ever tank would be best for a pair of this type? Either tank can have things removed and placed in the other tank if needed!

And any other advice?
Any problems that you know of this breed?
Rearing their young?
any help will help, i am not doing this tomarrow, maybe in a few weeks tho if i feal everything is ready and if i haven't lot my skill a raising brian shrimp, will no in a few day of playing

Thanks Guys in advance!

 

[rayjay]

Before doing anything I would suggest reading information on the links at the bottom of "MY SEAHORSE KEEPING" page.
Conditions you mention in your tanks are not the best recommended situations for seahorse keeping.
There is a tank mates link as well as a temperature link with information that conflicts with normal reefing conditions and inhabitants.

 

[craigshup]

ok, thanks!
I know most of what I have read over the years suggest a tall tank, with basically fake or real plants. I haven't seen anything addressing liverock or alge.
I was just wondering if it was a bad idea to use like the live rock and certain types of alge to help with the waste from left over food and their droppings to help the water quallity.I don't mind the water changes, i already do regular ones anyway, but if I could use some of the stuff i already have to make them a more natural looking and better working habitat i don't mind spending the money!
New unused tanks I could also setup: 2=40 gal. 1=29 gal. 1=20 gal.
I have these on hand incase I need them for a crash or whatever if these would be better!
I will check out the link but any other suggestions would be appre. Thanks for the responce!

 

[craigshup]

I checked out the sight RAYJAY, Thanks again
If you or any other experianced with the southern H. erectus (from like the gulf area have further suggestions, please feel free, I would like the here some stories about this species good and bad if you all don't mind. As we all know we can learn from your mistakes so we don't do the same, and may try your tested and tried methoids!
I understand the min. size but is there a max. size tank for this specie? Can I go with too big of a tank? I posted the sizes I have, 5 sizes to choose from? I just want what is best for them not the min. requirments.
Any breeding stories?
I have books that answer all of these questions,but even tho my books are only a few years old they are still old information in them,maybe someone here has newer and better!

 

[craigshup]

Petco $1.00 per gallon tank sale 8/29/2010

Petco $1.00 per gallon tank sale 8/29/2010

Just to let every body that may need a new tank, Petco starts there $1.00 per gallon sale tomarrow at 10 am I called them this morning to varify!

 

[rayjay]

I think with the links on that page, you can find most information a new seahorse keeper needs to know from tank sizes to tank mates and the recommended conditions that give the BEST chance of survival.
Keep in mind that just because you read of someone doing something doesn't mean you will succeed in doing it the same way.
Most seahorse losses come from people bucking the recommendations, or just plain not having done the research to actually KNOW what would work best for them.
If you keep a system set up for a NATURAL setting for seahorses, you will probably seldom ever see them.
As for choice of tank size of what you have, the 29 and 35 would be suitable for a pair, while you could keep two pair in the 40 but it would take better than normal husbandry than just having a pair in it.
For seahorse keeping, cleanliness is next to godliness, as most seahorse deaths come from bacterial and parasitic problems that are exacerbated by decaying food that provides excellent breeding grounds for them, especially when kept at temperatures above 74 F.

 

[craigshup]

Thanks again rayjay for your responding to some of my questions.
I am learning slowly how to surf these pages, I am just not very good at it yet but I am learning. I read I think everything there, It seemed to keep jumping to the same page on some of the buttons, probly me pushing the same button LOL
Yep, I went back and checked again,it was me I wasn't scrolling the page down and the top of the pages looks the same to me
So I will read some more wow I feel like a dumb _ _ _

 

[rayjay]

Now you know how EVERYONE ELSE felt when they first started out.

 

[Peka]

Now you know how EVERYONE ELSE felt when they first started out.

I couldn't have put that better myself Ray....lol

All the information that Ray has given you is fantastic. I like more quantity of water to help out with the water quality. As far as tall tanks, make sure you can reach the bottom comfortably to clean it. Erectus SH fry hitch from birth so they are a good species to work with when raising the babies. When you get to that point, let me know and I will help you out as much as I can...

 

[craigshup]

Thanks rayjay and Peka,
I will let you know when I get to that point.
I read till about 1 AM this morning, This info is much newer then the stuff in my books, and sounds a lot easyier also.
The only thing that concerns me about doing this, is teh closest LFS is about 1 hr 20min. drive, and they don't carry some of the other types of food it talks about, I bought 2 vacumed packed bags a few years ago,when I was raising brian shrimp for my mandrin, and then realized i was eating stuff off the liverock and not the BBS, but the corals I had seen to like them!
I am gonna set up a BBS hatching area and play with that for a couple weeks and see how that goes, after all it has been a while!
I am thinking about trying to raise some kind of baby shrimp like peppermint, do you have a better type that may breed faster or easyier?Just to have some other sizes on hand or maybe trade them to someone local that may have other types!
Where is a good place to purchase the other foods H erectus likes to eat, and medical type stuff I may need to have on hand before ordering SH.
What do you feed your BBS to gut load them, and to grow them out?
Just wandering if there are dif. options for feeding the BBS!
I have some of the stuff like someone on the sight used to gut load.
Thanks again!

 

[rayjay]

If you are hatching bbs to feed to seahorse fry, I wouldn't worry just yet about that as there is enough to learn just about keeping the erectus first.
Other than fry, the seahorses won't eat bbs as bbs is too small for them to be bothered with.
Most people feed frozen mysis as the major part of their diet, and some feed gut loaded live adult brine shrimp.
Many people buy their live adult brine shrimp from an LFS or from livebrineshrimp.com, but for people like me that don't have access to buy them, we grow them out.
MY BRINE SHRIMP PAGE
Best enrichment foods come from Dan at seahorsesource.com. He also has meds but some meds can only be obtained with a prescription.
Dan is also one of the most helpful people posting info on seahorse.org.

 

[craigshup]

Thanks rayjay, thats what I was wanting to know was what and how to feed BBS to reach adult hood so i can see how that goes first, I know how to hatch BBS but I always fed them with in 24 hrs of hatching to the mandrin and anemones, and some corals I use to have but I never tried to feed BBS out to adults!
Thanks for the info, I will need to raise most the food myself because of where I live
And while I am learning and getting supplies i would like to also prepare for babys in case that happens. Just trying not to be too unprepared as I have plenty of time but would like to order most stuff I need in advance at the same time to save on shipping!
If I called a local vet here and asked if they could check out my sea horse he would likely say sure hall him in, and we can trim his hoofs too if they need it
Sorry for the bad redneck humor He don't know anything about stuff like this!
Here basicly cats,dogs,cows,and 4 leged horses or don't bring it in!
Any ways, I will keep reading and playing until i think I am ready then I will tell ya'll at what point i am at and ya'll can tell what i am forgetting! thanks i may not post for a few days here while iam getting prepared and getting setup but i will check this every night to see if ya'll added more and i will start asking here again in a few days or weeks if i think of something else!
So ya'll practice your redneck language so I can getr done right

 

[craigshup]

I need ID on these please!

I need ID on these please!

There are thousands of these little white things and one orange at top right crawling all over the glass but I can't tell what they are and if young sea horses can eat them!
And there are some red bubble alge?, green hair alge, and some red bushy alge?, and I think green calurp?
If you can ID any of this and if any of this would be good to be removed off the live rock and put in my tank I am setting up for H erectus!
Thank in advance!

 

[Peka]

That first picture looks like pods.. are they darting around a little on the glass?

 

[craigshup]

Yes, they are very fast when they want too!
Some of them are so small I can't see them move unless I just look at one spot for a couple minutes, and the largest showed up in the pic.
They always stay where green alge is on the glass,
If I clean the glass completely on the front and left side they don't get on the clean glass until it starts getting alge on it again!
I tried to get a better look through a magnifying glass, it looks like some of the bigger ones may have 2 little antinas in front and really fine shiny things out the back side too? The largest ones are about the size of a BBS or smaller!They multiply very fast too.
Never see them swimming, just crawling real fast and eating the alge.

What kind of pods are the little ones?

I know I have a few adult Amphipods (about 1/4 inch) in there also but they stay in the hole in the rocks and come out at night, I put them in my tank over ten years ago and they have been there every since.I have seen baby amphipods over the years but the ones in the pic. are different.

Would these be good for baby sea horses if I ever get any?
If so I will set up a separate tank with a 6500k day light lamp that that kind of alge likes and let them do their thing.

Also I am thinking about setting up a tank to raise Mysis in also, do you have any suggestions for me on raising my own SH food?
Like size of containers required, what to feed the BBS and Mysis out to adults?
Any personal advice or recommendations?

Thanks for responding!

 

[craigshup]

I got my Erectus last week!

I got my Erectus last week!

Hey RayJay, and Peka
I just wanted to show ya'll Pics. of my 2 pair of H. Erectus
I got them from Sachs Systems Aqu. in Fl.
He said they are C.B. and C.R.
The largest is about 4in. and the smallest is about 3in.
I started cultures a few weeks ago of Green Water, Tiger Pods, (L) Rodifers, Mysid, and Brine Shrimp just seeing if I can raise the food.
If you don't mind look at the pics. of the SH and see if they look good to ya'll!
They are all eating frozen Mysis and Frozen BS very good.
I first placed them in a 29 gal with fake plants and they didn't look for food they stayed in the same place for a couple days not eating much maybe 10-15 BS a day each and 1 little male only about 5 BS a day so I put them in my 35 gal. liverock tank and put the same plastic plants in with them but they instantly began to search for food so I fed them and they were like dif. SHs.
I had to remove 2 of the 4 lamps in the top to get the temp down to 74 deg.Yesterday I got in real sponges!
I still have 2 29 gal. tanks setup and cycled if I need them.
The only thing in the tank with them them right now is the liverock, alge, sponges and cleaner crew. 1 hr after feeding I turn the sump back on and any floating BR left goes down the tube to 2 hungry damsels in the sump.
After putting them in this tank I am feeding 2 cubes of BS and 2cubes of Mysis a day (I feed 3 time a day) they eat about 2-3 cubes the rest is eaten by the cleanup crew and damsels.Is this too much or not enough food for 4 SHs of this size? They still swim around looking for food during the day.
After they are settled in for a couple months I may move them to the separate 29 gal. tanks with real stuff later.
I would welcome any comments good or bad.

 

[rayjay]

Congratulations on your purchase, and good luck with your cultures.
Unfortunately to be able to tell you how they look requires pictures that are close up with a profile shot and another in line shot. (from the front or from the rear of the horse)
As for feeding, I judge by how much is left after the feeding. Much left means to decrease the amount fed.
Any excess that gets trapped in unseen places and uneaten by cleanup crew, can harbour colonies of nasty bacteria that seahorses are so prone to picking up.
I personally no longer put any fish in the system that hasn't been bred in the same facility as the seahorses. All too often they can succumb to pathogens introduced to them by these other fish. Having the damsels in the sump still allows pathogens to move to the display tank.
Always keep in mind, that old saying, "cleanliness is next to Godliness", is very meaningful in this hobby.

 

[louicopp]

Ditto what Ray said. You might also want to consider putting a feeding station in the tank.

Just in case you are not aware of what a feeding station is; its usually a small bowl or shell that is placed in the tank (preferably not on the bottom) and the food is placed directly into the bowl/shell. The seahorses can be trained to eat directly from the bowl, and this way you can easily remove any food that has gone uneaten - obviously this will only work with the frozen food and not live food

If you do a search on here for "feeding station", you will probably find lots of different idea's.

 

[namxas]

*waves to Lou*

One thing I might add is that for the food to stay put in the feeding station, it's best to thaw it in a bit of SW, then rinse under the tap and return it to a bit of clean SW. Then you can carefully add it to the feeding dish via a baster or simply pour it down a tube and let it sink, then remove the tube (we use a 1" UGF tube).

Depending on the placement of the dish, you may need to switch off the flow so the mysis doesn't blow out of the dish. Just remember to turn it back on.

 

[timinnl]

You can make a feeding dish from a beed feeder with a magnet glued to it.

Tim