Seahorses

[puddle_inc]

yeah, i guess the filter will create plenty of surface movement.

i've decided just to work on getting a nice coral reef built up. so it will be a slight more natural and way better for the seahorses. it will probably be around spring now when i have everything ready and got enough money for the seahorses. i'm going to check my favorite lfs for more live rock and stuff.

in a 55 gal, with a coral reef look, with anemone and stuff, could i put a couple clownfish in? i wasn't sure if there would be room to put some fish in besides the seahorses. i want them to feel right at home and i want them to have a nice home. so will some small fish be a good idea? i'd love one of those big fish like a butterfly or something but i know i don't have the money or space for one.

if anyone here has live rock they would like to sell, and especially if it comes with plants, anemone, corals and stuff, let me know!


EDIT: i just remembered. in spring i am going to go on vacation, probably near clearwater florida. i'm gonna snorkle and stuff looking for inverts and rock i can use. of course i will quarentine, cure and all that before i add it to the tank. but does anyone know good diving areas for inverts and live rock and stuff in florida? i did google earth and clearwater looks the best but i don't know. so if you know a good diving spot let me know!

 

[andywg]

in a 55 gal, with a coral reef look, with anemone and stuff, could i put a couple clownfish in? i wasn't sure if there would be room to put some fish in besides the seahorses. i want them to feel right at home and i want them to have a nice home. so will some small fish be a good idea? i'd love one of those big fish like a butterfly or something but i know i don't have the money or space for one.

A reef set up for nems is not a good one for sea horses. The gerneal consensus is that nems need bright lights and high water movement - often quoted at SPS levels of up to 40x turnover per hour, sea horses prefer a more sedantry tank and are unlikely to appreciate the stringer movement.

Clowns are often considered a bit boisterous with their feeding habits to be kept with sea horses.

 

[puddle_inc]

when i said anomene i didn't mean it litterally. i was just poiting that direction. as in corals and stuff, i just said anemone because its the first thing that popped into my head. and there will be water movement but it was be low. i don't want to have it high for the seahorses but i've heard that they don't mind a little movement. sometimes i've heard they hang on near filters for the movement.

i just bought 30lbs of live rock

it made a whole in my pocket though, $105. but it's very nice rock. i should get it tomorrow, if they ship it where it can arrive saturday. some people deliver on saturday and some don't. so lets hope they do. it's next day delivery. next thing is to save up for the aquarium + supplies. then i will save up for my horses


i also bought phytoplankton if i didn't already say that. and i added more things to my brine shrimp culture. i'll be starting with copepods sometime next month. i will enrich them all with selco probably. the bs should get plenty of nutrition from the phytoplankton. i'm also trying to get my shrimp to adult size, they are now big enough to see the shape of there body. i want them to get adults. maby they can giv me some free eggs.

 

[puddle_inc]

i just called the people i bought the live rock from and it will get here tuesday or wednesday. it won't be shipped till monday. i read the free shipping thign wrong. the overnight was 90lbs+ and the ground dhl was everything below. so it's like priority mail i guess.

should i buy reef things to help things grow?

and will this come with small plants or stuff that will eventually grow plants and corals, etc?

 

[puddle_inc]

i just bought the marine reef aquarium handbook

i'm a little over halfway done with my saltwater aquariums for dummies book. i'll get some books from my library at school probably too. any book suggestions? and if anyone has some time could you please help with my unanswered questions?

 

[SkiFletch]

Well if you lived in the UK you could expect some good macros and maybe even corals, but our US rock isn't quite as good anymore so expect some basic coraline, small calcerous algaes, bristleworms, pods and other stuff, not corals .

By "reef things" what exactly did you mean?

 

[puddle_inc]

guess i wasn't very informative to what i ment when i said that. i ment like those containers with stuff in them to help live rock and coral grow. i just bid on a piece of live rock with a few different types of zoos on it.

i got good news and then questions.

good news is, the stuff on the live rock pieces is in the same container i have live sand in and i put some dead coral pieces in there that i got when i was little at the beach. one of the pieces already, after just two days, has colored spots where stuff is starting to grow. i bought 10 pieces of white reef sand stuff that was compressed into reef shaped rock that is suposed to attract seeds/spores from other plants onto the fake rock. that rock doesn't have anything yet, but that one piece of dead coral has stuff growing after just TWO days of being in the same container. i have 30 lbs of live rock coming this week, don't remember if i said that already.

the questions:
should i get activated carbon? i'm going to get a refugium soon, i'll put live sand in it. what else small could i put in the refugium to help clean water and stuff? i'll put brine shrimp and stuff in it also, so they can slowly be put inot the tank. along with phytoplankton.

i'm trying to get some copepods soon. what should i get though that the reef tank/seahorses will like best? copepods? rotifers?

i'm gonna get a cheap little box of 'reef bug' eggs that hatch in 30 minutes that should feed the corals and stuff. i'm guessing it's like phytoplankton/zooplankton eggs?

i'm gonna get a cheap powerhead for like $10 at walmart. it won't make a current much at all but it will help circulate the water a little. the $150 thing will have a filter, heater, food (wich i won't really use), everything.

my friend is going to ask his parents if they want fish to put in it or would be willing to sell this really big tank. i don't know how big exactly but he said about 3 school desks pushed together, and about 1-2' wide. so if i can get that, it will only be $20 for the tank!!

if that happens, i will have a real big reef tank. i will give my bearded dragon the 55 g and then use it's supplies for the big one. then i can use my bearded dragon's 20-25 gallon long for young seahorses/aquaculturing new rock.

i want to aquaculture rock sometime. so i can create more for me and sell some to others. it may not help much, but it's the best i can do to help save natural reefs. for now.

i've only bought aquacultured rock so far too. don't want to buy anything thats been taken from it's natural habitat.

and you should do the same!

 

[andywg]

i've only bought aquacultured rock so far too. don't want to buy anything thats been taken from it's natural habitat.

and you should do the same!

There are very strict rules on what, where and how much Live Rock can be collected from the wild. None is allowed to be taken from the actual reef, but it should be collected from the nearby rubble zone where corals that have been broken off of the reef and died (leaving their skeleton which we call Live Rock).

Live Rock does not have a great impact on the natural reef environment, and gives locals a different collection income from the reef itself.

I don't know of anywhere in the UK that actually sells cultured LR, though I understand a large amount of Florida LR is man made.

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, culturing in the states is bigtime. Its done in hawaii, tampa florida, and the florida keys. Most of the operations actually involve buying rock rubble from construction sites through out the carribean since the rock there is all porous stone that used to be reefs thousands of millions of years ago anyways. They then take the rock, dump it behind reefs, wait 6-12 months, and then start collecting

 

[puddle_inc]

glad everyone can help with my questions...

could someone please answer my last questions?

 

[puddle_inc]

update: i just got my 30lbsz of live rock. it's setting in the pool room (wich is very warm) and it's alot of rock..

i got some green algae like stuff, some wierd bumpy stuff, sponge, small plant like things starting to grow, and then i got alot of little red things. they had a small stem and then a small red ball thing. there small, and wierd.

i got some cool stuff!

 

[puddle_inc]

ok, so should i buy some reef calcium and other things to help corals grow? i'm gonna buy a bottle of phytoplankton for like $5 at petsmart and start culturing that and feeding it to my brine shrimp, and my clam. my biggest oldest clam died recently. (there freshwater fyi)

i'm gonna get a small protien skimmer after i get the tank and everything. i'm also gonna buy a refugium.

i have live sand to use in the refugium but is there a plant or something i should have in there to help it clean?

i'll probably have like glass shrimp in it someday. that is where i will put copepods, phytoplankton, brine shrimp, etc.


about halfway trhough saltwater fish for dummies AND the marine reef tank book. the latter book is a handbook thing. about 140+ pages.

anyone suggest any other books for seahorses? i've read everything i could find online and i want to get atleast 1 book about them to start reading once i finish my reef book. i am going slow on the dummies book.

if anyone wants to help support my tank money, i'm selling pond snail eggs, and baby ramhorn snails. i am still working on getting a pond snails population really big because i may be supplying my fav lfs with feed pond snails in the summer, ifi'm lucky.

the snail eggs are $5 for 1 clutch plus s/h

the ramhorns are .10 each for baby brown/tan ones

if you want a colorful baby, its a strain i've worked on for a while now, it has blue and red in it. i don't have any adults like this yet, it's just the newest ones that are finally showing both colors. so they may change through age, but they look beutifal right now. i don't have many colorful ones i can risk to sell because i want to breed them. but i can sell these colorful babies for .25 each. i know it is alot but it's awesome babies and they started out months ago as brown pond ramhorns and it took alot of selective breeding. and selective breeding snails is hard

if you may be interested in buying some snails, it will all go towards the fund for my tank. i'm currently $144 away. it costs $150 but about $160 with tax. so all i have is $16, everything else went towards the 30lbs of live rock.

speaking of my rock, i found out that one of my rocks have about 5 or so real small anemones. and i found out the hard way, i think the biggest, about an inch long when it's out of water and spread out, stung me i think.

i've seen a few baby snail shells with the rock soi'm hoping snails will pop-up sometime. i got anemone, small ones, as said above, and sponges, little tube things (i think small tubeworms that died), little red bumps, some seem to have small stems, and i got some polyp type thing too. i will get pics of my nice rock with the cool stuff on it as soon as i can so you guys can see it. don't forget, ifyou need snails, or want some puffer food, please buy some snails and help me get the tank!

also don't forget to answer some questions i had at the beginning of this novel.

 

[puddle_inc]

the 55g will only be for the breeder adults. i will probably only have 2-3 at first. by the time the babies are adults most of them will be sold. so i shouldn't have more then 4-5 adult seahorses in there at once. it will be a reef tank. i was wodnering, i'd like to have a few other fish, not to breed, just as pets and stuff. i am planning on either getting a couple cardinals (kaudern's), neon goby pair (may breed), or, what i'd really like, a snowflake eel. they are easy to care for compared to other eels and the 55g is big enough for one. i just want atleast 1-2 other things in there besides the seahorses. so either a pair of gobies or cardinals, or a snow flake eel. i'll read more about the eel, but i'd like to here other peoples thoughts about one. they only get 2', maby bigger, but rarely bigger. and it is 50g minumum so i am 5 gallons more then minumum. he will have lots of little caves and stuff in the rock too. i'll read up more about them, so no one come out and yell at me. it's just a thought.

 

[Mr Miagi]

i'll read up more about them, so no one come out and yell at me. it's just a thought.

That it is! (Just a thought) Just to clarify though, no one has been yelling at you, we are here, in our own free time, and giving advice we know suites. We all know yelling and abusing someone is the wrong way to go about feeding them information.

Im not a SH expert, but I highly dought an Eel is a suitable tank mate. The waste they produce from feeding is quite extensive (not great if your trying to breed something in top water conditions) and they could stand a chance of consuming your slow moving horses.

The neon gobies on the other hand sound perfect, as do the Cardinals. Dont forget that Bangai Cardianls also breed readily in aquaria. Maybe a couple of broods at once if your think your up to it?

i'm trying to get some copepods soon. what should i get though that the reef tank/seahorses will like best? copepods? rotifers?

Is this for adults or the babies?

i'm gonna get a cheap little box of 'reef bug' eggs that hatch in 30 minutes that should feed the corals and stuff. i'm guessing it's like phytoplankton/zooplankton eggs?

You'll probably have t dish out a link, or get the actual name, if thats not it. Im un-aware of anything like that here.

should i get activated carbon? i'm going to get a refugium soon, i'll put live sand in it. what else small could i put in the refugium to help clean water and stuff? i'll put brine shrimp and stuff in it also, so they can slowly be put inot the tank. along with phytoplankton.

I woiuldnt worry about carbon, if you have sufficient LR, LS, a working refugium, and a skimmer. Its cheap enough that you can buy it when you need it anyway, not something you have to plan for. Just whack it in a stocking, in the sump/fuge and your done.

Cheatomorpha works well as a nutrient export, aswell as Caulerpa sp. Beware though, Cheatomorpha is probably your best bet, considering it doesn't "go sexual" ie. sexual reproduction when stressed. You have to prune these algae to actually accomplish nutrient export, another thing you could sell/trade with fellow hobbyists.

The best thing I think you could do is find and join a local reef club or association, with a real name (not puddle inc, maybe introduce this into your signature) and try find bargains, get to know people etc. You will be surprised with the contacts you make, people willing to help out etc.

Your age will limit your ability to go to functions/houses, and money is obviously an issue. I had the same issues before I stared. I think something you should do though, rather than lay out plans now, is just get started. Get the 55 or your proposed SH system going, especially if its going to be a display too. Once thats going, and your SH's actually breed, go from there. All this costs money, and $144 wont last long. Id get my display sorted, running, happy, then finally breeding (hopefully), then go from there.

Im not trying to be condescending, but offering an opinion based from me being in the same position years ago. I started with grandiose plans, but only once I got started did I realize how difficult these things were, and how much Id been kidding myself in regards to money/effort/time involved.

 

[dixaisy930]

No eels....definately no eels....

If you do want to get the neon gobys and cardinals, be prepared to find new homes for them if they don't work out. For the most part they are ok with horses, but my neon tried to clean my seahorses, which they did not appreciate. I've heard of cardinals becoming real pigs, and people having trouble getting the SH enough food. This is rare though. But still be prepared. I would think with a tank that size though, there's not going to be any problems.

What will you be using for QT?

Babies will eat pods and rots, adults for the most part will ignore them. You will also need hatcheries for BBS. Most SH breeders have 2-5 hatcheries going at one time. Oh, and you'll need suppliments for the BBS, as well. As the babies get older, this is going to be a staple food for them. Many people use this to help the babies to transition into frozen foods.

Now, I'm not trying to "be mean", I just want you to be realistic about breeding the SH. Even with the easier SH, like erectus, it has taken some people years to get the fry to survive. It's relatively easy to get a guy "knocked up", but having the fry survive isn't always as easy. Please, make sure you want the SH to enjoy them as hobby, and not just a way to make money.

I can't remember, but were you wanting to keep corals with the SH? If so, you're chooses will be pretty limited. Anything with the ability to sting is a no-no.

Have you familiarized yourself with vibro, pouch evacs, GBD and snout rot? Remember, you have to have the SH "first-aide" kit on hand before you even get the SH.