Seahorses

[xolo]

Hi, I was wondering if my seabray tank would be ok to keep a pair of seahorses in.
The measurements are depth-56cms width-53cms length-53cms not sure how much water it holds. The measurements do not include sand, live rock etc.
I would appreciate any advice thank you.
Sarah.

 

[dawhits]

Most people here aren't experts on them and some will probably try to persuade u againts them because seahorses are a hard species. the require a species only tank alhtough a select couple fish can go with them. Your size sounds good, there are many different types that need different tank sizes. They need live brine shrimp usually but sometimes u can use frozen for captive bred species. For more information go to seahorses.org they are very knowledgable.
-Erik

 

[pleder]

Hello.

Your tank will be fine for a couple of pairs of seahorses. I am not familiar with that brand of tank, but the dimension size is fine.

You will want to add some liverock, about a lbs per gallon. I would also make some of that tong branch rock so it can double as biological filtration and a hitch for the seahorse. You will want to aquascape the tank so there is a hitch every couple of inches to make the seahorses happier.

You don't need much livesand, just 2" or so. DSB are nice additions to many tanks but are impractical in a seahorse tank because seahorses tank full advantage of the vertical swimming room.

You are going to want to keep your flow lower then normal and also broken up into many different placed. Rule of thumb is 5x tank turnover per hour, but I have found if the flow gets broken up a bit you can go higher. Just use mulitple returns from the sump or a couple of small powerheads instead of one large one.

What are you thinking along the lines of filters?

For nutrition you will need to feed frozen mysis shrimp. It is possible to sustain a seahorse on live foods, but it is much more expensive in the long run. Any good quality aquacultured CB seahorse will readily accept frozen foods. Brine shrimp is not the best choice. Seahorses have a had time digesting them and they lack the nutritional profile of mysis. It is possible to enrich live brine to make it more nutritious, but other porblems come along with this, and the brine is hard for them to digest as it is. THe only time brine is really used as a food for seahorses is for fry. Let's get you started with your adults before you have to worry about fry.

When you are looking for seahorses make sure you find a good quailty aquaculture faciltity that has CB horses, or buy from a hobbyist. Where in the world are you so I can recommend some places? Right now you have to be very careful as to where you get your seahorses from. Within the last year it has become very popular to raise seahorses in ocean pens. Many of these horses are rampant with internal parasites, and often share other bacteria and pathogens with each other. You are far better off to pay just a little bit more, even less in some cases, for a seahorses that is not infected, or has not been exposed to these issues. Make sure you can talk to the breeder.

Dawhits Thanks for the compliment, but it is seahorse.org . Welcome you to come visit us over there.

 

[xolo]

Hello Dawhits and Pleder,
Thank you for you replies, your advice was very helpful.
I live in Worthing, West Sussex, England. This would be my first saltwater tank, i will do a lot of reading and visit the seahorse forums, unfortunately i cannot ask any questions on the wonderful Seahorse.org. forum as i have AOL, but i will be reading all the excellent advice that is given.
No idea as to suitable filters for my tank, do i need a sump? I will go to my local aquatic centre and see if they can help me.
Do you think i should start with a tropical tank then go to saltwater? I am in no hurry as i want to do this right, my last coldwater fish died a couple of years ago aged over twenty years old.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Sarah.

 

[pleder]

Sorry about the AOL thing. They reported as as spammers because we sent people email notifications to threads, when they had asked for them. Got us suspended from a server, had to move, just to hard to deal with.

You don't need a sump, but you want one. Sumps are cool. All fo the cool kids are doing it. There a great place to hide equipment, and you can turn it in to a sump/refugium. Even more benefits when you add the contribution of macro algaes.

Filters are cool I've used them in the past. Cannisters are my favorite, especailly when used as a precursor to a UV. That whole topic depends on how much you want to spend. You can go the sump, refugium, cannister, UV route and the tank will run awesome, or you can do a smaller tank with a hob filter and rely a bit more on the liverock for biological filtration and that will be O.K. to, just a bit more work.

IME I like the cannister UV refugium sump setup the best, but tht's JMO.

A seahorse was my first fish I did not win with a ping pong ball at a carnival. I still have my WC reidi, it's been over 5 years.

IME most LFS don't know much about seahorses, so ask here if you like, or if you decide to get a free yahoo account you can post on seahorse.org and ask there. My SN there is Kevin. You could always wait until we finish the book, but that could be another couple months until it gets through editing. We are joking by the time we release it we will have already updated new info. Just the way it goes.

Would be glad to help you with your setup. I also know a few breeders on your side of the pond when your looking to get your aquacultered horses. Don't fall for those maricultureds at TMC (IMO)

I don't check in this forum to often but I'm around a bit. Can always shoot a PM as well.