Hippocampus Kuda Tank

[Paradise3]

So I've been given the honor of helping my boyfriend set up another seahorse tank He's had Hippocampus Kuda before and he did want Reidi but they have a nice bonded pair of Kuda in his shop at the minute so he's having them instead. So, here's a journal on how the tank goes and progresses Not much to look at today, just the basics currently.
 
Day One(16/03/13)
 
Tank alone.

 
Basic tank, nothing in it. Just fitted the light unit but need new bulbs as these are just testers that won't work.
 
Day Two(17/03/13)
 
Sand in.

 
Sand in today, all washed ready for the LR to follow suit.
 
LR.

 
Live Rock in it's Poly Box. Doesn't look much but the tank is 100 litres so there is quite a bit. In tank photo to follow.
 
LR in - Still a bit to do before it's ready for the livestock.

 
Live Rock in the tank. No lid as he was still working on the the external and other things.
 
Waiting game - Livestock in the next 6 weeks in the form of a CUC.

 
Right so now we wait, CUC in about 6 weeks maybe less since the LR is from a friends mature tank along with the water.

 

[Paradise3]

Wow! Late reply, sorry about that. Completely forgot and not being at my partners 100% of the time I son't have the tank there to remind me Here's some more pictures and a run down of the tank
 
Ignore the plastic plant, it's for the seahorses to hook on to until some better caulerpa arrives. He ordered some and it was only scraggly little tiny bits and he paid £10 for them :O
 
The tank before the annoying plastic plant was added. You can however see one of the 2 pieces of caulerpa he ordered on the front left piece of rock.

 
Some Mushies They are very vibrant green actually but my camera seems to wash them out

 
Some ponies Can't have a Kuda tank without Kuda can we now?
This one is sat on the other scraggly piece of caulerpa he ordered.

Swimming

The other one

Feeding and the annoying plastic substitute.

 
Now... Can anyone ID this little crab from these pictures and a small video? He's very small, no red eyes, furry legs, grazes on algae and "blunt" claws. The reason I say "blunt" is because obviously they are still sharp but they are more blunt than a crab that's going to eat mean would have. My partner put it like "They are more like spoons than knives" XD He is literally about 0.5" across his carapace and from toe to toe he's about 1-1.2".

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYOEZ-f7Kwc

 

[Donya]

Looking good!
 
The crab is likely a Chlorodiella sp. Basically a funny-looking version of the standard emerald crab: herbivorous preferences but technically an omnivore and therefore needs access to meaty stuff periodically to be well-nourished. 

 

[Paradise3]

Looking good!
 
The crab is likely a Chlorodiella sp. Basically a funny-looking version of the standard emerald crab: herbivorous preferences but technically an omnivore and therefore needs access to meaty stuff periodically to be well-nourished. 

 
Thanks And they seem to be predominantly Black or dark brown which he isn't He's a cream colour with redish-brown claws and cream claw tips.

 

[Paradise3]

Just looked at him again and he's actually purple on the shell... My camera seems to have trouble picking it up properly so it does look blakc in the middle of his shell with a cream outlining but it's purple
 
With Flash - Actually shows the purple on him. I looks black without flash because of the actinic lights and stuff and the angles he sits at.

 
Without flash - Looks slightly purple but a lot darker.

 
His claws are a nice redish-brown colour with creamy tips to them.

 

[Donya]

Purple-ish hues are within the range of color variation for various Chlorodiella from what I've seen of them. Nuances of the color and patterning aren't a very reliable IDing mechanism. The better first step is to get a shot of the carapace from above for the purpose of counting prongs and such. However, seeing the amount of hair on top in the last two pics does make me wonder, since that is somewhat uncommon in the genus (although it's something that can vary from juvi to adult).

 

[Paradise3]

Purple-ish hues are within the range of color variation for various Chlorodiella from what I've seen of them. Nuances of the color and patterning aren't a very reliable IDing mechanism. The better first step is to get a shot of the carapace from above for the purpose of counting prongs and such. However, seeing the amount of hair on top in the last two pics does make me wonder, since that is somewhat uncommon in the genus (although it's something that can vary from juvi to adult).

 
Thing is, he's that shy that I can only get pictures when I sneak up to the tank and am very quiet. He darts away when you move quickly or anything. He doesn't even just do the whole "Freeze and they can't see me" thing so getting a picture of his Carapace is most likely not going to be completely possible for a while since I'm going home tomorrow and won't be back till Friday and it all depends where he sits because netting him is a nightmare and he's too smart to fall for traps.

 

[TooManyChoices]

What's the water change routine like? Seahorses are big eaters and without a skimmer lots of water changes will be important. It'll be good when the caulerpa grows into start binding up some nitrate.

 

[Paradise3]

What's the water change routine like? Seahorses are big eaters and without a skimmer lots of water changes will be important. It'll be good when the caulerpa grows into start binding up some nitrate.

 
25% weekly. I know they are big eaters and my partner has successfully kept them before so all is good. Tank is also 100 litres in case I haven't mentioned that lol.

 

[Paradise3]

My partner just spent 10 minutes luring this thing out and grabbing it with tweezers to pull out. Creepy little buggers. I'm not totally convinced it's a good one as it looks a lot like an Orange Fireworm though apparently the only bad ones are Caribbean Fireworms which look different.

 
Excuse the black-brown one... He caught that last night and froze it...
 
Edit: This is the picture my partner took of the other one he pulled out last night.

 

[Donya]

It can be very hard to tell the "good" and "bad" species apart, and a good species in one tank can be a pain in another, so there's no clear cut classification really. The most well known bad one is Hermodice carunculata, which has a distinctive, lumpy-looking sensory organ on the head, which I'm not seeing on these. However, that sensory organ crinkles up with the rest of the head when the worm isn't fully extended, so it can be hard to see - and it's poorly photographed on the web as a result. Hermodice isn't the only one to be a problem though. Some of the other "harmless" varieties will can also cause problems when the population is allowed to grow unchecked and then starved in an attempt to control it. If there is nothing in the tank to naturally control the worms (which basically requires a large, nasty Crustacean or invert-eating fish) then many hobbyists will remove large worms when they become visible to help keep the population in check.

 

[Paradise3]

It can be very hard to tell the "good" and "bad" species apart, and a good species in one tank can be a pain in another, so there's no clear cut classification really. The most well known bad one is Hermodice carunculata, which has a distinctive, lumpy-looking sensory organ on the head, which I'm not seeing on these. However, that sensory organ crinkles up with the rest of the head when the worm isn't fully extended, so it can be hard to see - and it's poorly photographed on the web as a result. Hermodice isn't the only one to be a problem though. Some of the other "harmless" varieties will can also cause problems when the population is allowed to grow unchecked and then starved in an attempt to control it. If there is nothing in the tank to naturally control the worms (which basically requires a large, nasty Crustacean or invert-eating fish) then many hobbyists will remove large worms when they become visible to help keep the population in check.

 
I think this one may be a Eurythoe Complanata but not sure. He's removing them when he sees them, there's a rock that is just crawling with them as we found when feeding the seahorses about 10-15 minutes a go. They all came out and started mooching about for brineshrimp. This was the easy to catch one, there's this one left in the tank. It may look small but this is stretched out in the tank and it's as big, if not bigger, than the pink one above that was a good 2" curled up and shrunk.

 

[Paradise3]

Donya, I got this video before he went and hid again.
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4XupWYS_BE&feature=youtu.be

 

[TooManyChoices]

I think more often than not people find bristle works eating a dead fish and immediately blame the death on the worm, but a heathy fish should generally be able to resist a worm, so the death probably occurred before the worm started eating it. Bad water etc

My lfs allows these worms (they look exactly the same) to live in the tank because they do such a good job at scavenging left over food. And as seahorses need such a vast quantity of food they can be really useful!

That lfs had no problem. Still I'd definately keep the population in check, and they get enough food from scavenging, I highly doubt they'll bother the seahorses. (Disclaimer: if they do, not my fault )

 

[Paradise3]

No these were caught catching and eating the fish... He had a female Lyretail Anthias that was quite happily swimming about until a 10" Bristleworm got her and ate her...
 
Edit: That and the fact that one we can't catch keeps reaching out when the seahorses swim past it...