Not exactly sure where to post this...

[Coral Dolpfin Cove]

Has anyone here ever tried to raise/breed seahorses? I want to get a couple (they are absolutely fascinating!), but I need to learn more about them. How many can you keep together? How much room do they need in a tank to stay happy and healthy? Any information would be helpful!

 

[AlexsDaddy]

try the marine and reef section under salt water fish. HTH!

 

[Coral Dolpfin Cove]

Thanks!

 

[Navarre]

I will answer as i have strong views on them. I know others dont agree with me however.

Definately NOT a beginners fish, they need extremly good water quality and conditions taht make them suitable for a species only tank.


If you are new to marines then I dont recomend them.

 

[Fishy411]

they need a relatively small tank to feel comfortable( 30 gallons) and they need to be kept in a species only tank but as navarre stated they are not for beginners and i am yet to meet someone who has successfully raised them for an extended period of time.

 

[Opcn]

I must disagree, if your trying to breed them you want as big a tank as you can get, then fill it with live rock, live sand and macroalgea, Seahorses are not reef fish but rather lagoon fish, the macoalgea is what they life in, and the LR in addition to the algea helps produce loads of micrcrustacions since seahorses only eat live food Have lots of patients and if you do add a partner or two to the tank (keep it looking empty) you need to make sure that they are doscile and very slow, other seehorses or pipefish.

 

[Navarre]

The problem i forsee with tis is that large amounts lof liverock needs loads of circulation to make it an efficient filter. Seahorses dont like high water movement so the liverock as a sole filter might be a problem.

 

[Opcn]

Well, if your understocked you dont need it to be a very effective filter, and a seperate filtration system would still be very nice and expected, Your th only fellow I know of that doesnt use one Nav.

 

[mellissa1]

My first marine tank set up was for seahorses. I have no trouble with them.
I know that captive bred seahorses are available all over the world and eat FROZEN food. I can not understand where the notion that all seahorses eat live food only came from.

As for tank size it depends which species of horses your are wanting to keep. The dwarves need fairly small tanks. Like 5 gallon or so. And no live rock or live sand or water from the ocean for the little guys. Hydroids will kill dwarf seahorses and their fry. Hydroids will also kill larger horses fry.

As for filtration anything is fine. As long as the flow is not too strong. I started with an underground filter. But I now have a hang on filter.

Breeding the horses is the easy bit. Once they are mature enough, they constantly mate. Raising the ponies is the hard part. They need live baby brine shrimp. Enriched.

I personally know of a lot of people who raise both dwarves and larger horses. Capensis, erectus, reidi, barbouri and procerus are all being bred and raised by people I know.

If you would like any more info you can pm me. Saves people in this forum getting flabbergasted because their misinformed beliefs about seahorses are being proven incorrect.

It really bugs me that someone has asked a question in this forum, a legitimate one at that, and can be answered correctly by the right people yet all they get is a tirade about how hard it is to keep SH and not to do it. So what happens when a person can't get the correct info and goes out and spends a lot of money only to have everything to fail? I know what would happen.... A lot of the members of this forum would turn around and say " I told you so." Whose fault would it really be

 

[Navarre]

It really bugs me that someone has asked a question in this forum, a legitimate one at that, and can be answered correctly by the right people yet all they get is a tirade about how hard it is to keep SH and not to do it. So what happens when a person can't get the correct info and goes out and spends a lot of money only to have everything to fail? I know what would happen.... A lot of the members of this forum would turn around and say " I told you so." Whose fault would it really be

I get my information directly from the National Marine Aquarium which has an enormously succesfful breedin program with seahorses. Their official stance is that sea horses should be banned from export due to the so many of htem being caught and killed for medicines etc.
The reasonings for them being "hard" to keep is because so many people do not realise they need different requirements to normal marine fish and thus a person who comes here thinking they can add them to a reef setup needs to know that this simply should not be done.

I have extremly strong views on seahorses, Sea anemones, sharks and other totally inappropriate animals used for display purposes. just because 1 or 2 people are successful with keeping these creatures doesnt indicate the universal trend on them. Local stores near me had a batch of over 400 lovely seahorses only just before christmas. Fromthis stock, only 10% were sold becuase the rest simply died. Out of this 10% how many do you think survived after being sold to people who simply know very little about these cretures. Seahorses are for experienced people only and my stance on this will not change simply becuase a handful of people have had good results.

Take for example the anemone trade... 1000 anemones caught and only 1 will survive the export to the wholesaler, from every 100 of these only 1 will survive to live longer than 1 year in captivity (and these creautre live for 1000s of years). So out of every 100 or so people that keep anemones, 1 or 2 might say they have had sucess and theirs is thriving after 5 years or so? So this means they are easy to keep? Definately not

If the advice of the National Marine Aquarium is to be ridiculed and ignored then go aherad and purchase them. These guys know alot more about the numbers in the wild and whether they are in decline etc and personally i will stand solidly by their advice.

 

[Navarre]

Well, if your understocked you dont need it to be a very effective filter, and a seperate filtration system would still be very nice and expected, Your th only fellow I know of that doesnt use one Nav.

I do have "standby systems" I have several fluval externals and these are plumed in but are only used for addings treatments.

Im not the only one that uses this form of filtration on a tank. Im a moderator on one of the largest exclusive marine forums in the country (i really am trying not to advetise here as i come here to enjoy the forum not to poach members).

There is an increasingly large folowing of totally natural systems. The only unique difference in mine is that i also use Natural sea water as opposed to artificial.

 

[Opcn]

It really bugs me that someone has asked a question in this forum, a legitimate one at that, and can be answered correctly by the right people yet all they get is a tirade about how hard it is to keep SH and not to do it. So what happens when a person can't get the correct info and goes out and spends a lot of money only to have everything to fail? I know what would happen.... A lot of the members of this forum would turn around and say " I told you so." Whose fault would it really be?sad2.gif???

What?? are you trying to shift blame from someone whos told not to do something and does it anyways to the person who warns them of the difficulty and danger of there path? Generally if someone warns you you go out and take extra precautions unless your an egotistical idiot.

Also Ponies are NOT baby horses, they are small horses so the dwarfs would be sea ponies, and the fry would be sea colts.

Also hydras will eat fry, that happens whenever you have them but there are critters that eat hydras, And hydras can only eat what swims into there grasp, IMO the live food would benefit them more than the partial mortality that would result, Fry do exponentially better when there is a constant suppky of live food

 

[fraservet]

Also Ponies are NOT baby horses, they are small horses so the dwarfs would be sea ponies, and the fry would be sea colts.

Actually, the fry would be foals.

 

[mellissa1]

Actually, where I live, we don't have dwarves, so the fry are called ponies.

OPCN, I did state that fry needed live food.

I am not an egotistical idiot.

I do not agree with the capture of wild caught seahorses, who need live food.

I do not own an anemone or a shark and have no wish to aquire one.

Captive bred seahorses eat frozen food. Mysis shrimp, which is enriched. In Australia, the only live marine food suitable for seahorses is brine shrimp. If fed on brine shrimp alone, live or frozen, the seahorses suffer. Enriched brine shrimp is not very nutritious for any fish.

Maybe next time someone askes a question regarding seahorses, they could be directed to a site specialising in syngnathids.

Yes there are fish that eat hydroids. But seahorses do better in a species only tank. So the best option is to avoid hydroids all together.

I am not really sure of where you get your statistics from, Navarre. 1 or 2 people who are successful at keeping seahorses?? There are a lot more than that in the world. I know of 2 sites dedicated to keeping syngnathids and together their member base is over 3000.

 

[Fishy411]

i agree with not having anemones but i know tons of people with very successfull shark tanks.

OPCn i know a few other people with no skimmers. They like to have as natural a tank that they can possibly get including running their lights on cycles, using wave machines etc.

Seahorses are just too hard to keep for most people unless u are incredibly dedicated to maintanig 100% perfect levels and keeping them healthy