I want seahorses in my dorm. opinions?

[Pony_rider]

I'm going away to college in about a month and a half and I really want a unique pet that I cant get in trouble for having. (I have a rabbit, dog, and horse that can't live with me in my tiny dorm =/)
I would really love to have a couple of seahorses. the largest tank that I could have would be a 12 gallon. I have done some research and am aware of the amount of care required to keep these guys, and i know that they are not exactly easy keepers. I do want a bit of a challenge, because that is the rewarding part of having a pet.

I would like to get them soon so I can get into the habit of taking care of them, but that also means I would have to move them to the dorm in a month, and I wouldn't want to stress them to the point of death.

opinions, tips, and any other comments would be greatly appreciated.
thanks!

[Allmost]

honest opinion ? stick to school and get a seahorse tank after ure done.

get a GF/BF as a rewarding pet for school time HAHAHAAH JOKES lol

you should cycle the tank for a long time, like 6 months, and u need to take care of them daily, water changes .... something to think about when exam times come or when summer comes and u want to head back home !

all this being said, u can start with dry rocks, and start cycling them from now. I wont comment on the seahorses u can get.

Good luck with the seahorses and school

[Pony_rider]

the move is only 20 mins from my house, but idk if that is still a lot of stress.
I am going to be studying biology, so i thought it might be a cool thing to have.
what does cycling the tank do?
(i'm a total beginner)
a guy at a pet store told me that he would give me water straight from the seahorse tank, would this replace cycling?
i'm still pretty set on a seahorse, but what other fish/ pet would you recommend for me? i dont want a beta haha
I heard that seahorses can be hand fed which really caught my attention. are there any other fish that allow some interaction like this?
I'm obsessed with animals and really must have a pet in my dorm room. haha =]

[B-Willz]

I agree with Allmost. Sea horses need a well established tank, I would say you are looking at a tank being well maintained for atleast a year before you put in horses. They require a lot of care and in that small of a tank you will need to be doing water changes constantly. If you want salt, why not start out with an easy fish and some easy coral. Even with that you can not put any thing in the tank before you leave, just sand and rock. You are looking at about 6 weeks before your first cycle is done.

[Pony_rider]

so i would need to put in my sand and rocks and get the whole thing going and let the tank run without any fish or anything in it until i move pretty much? (i've never done salt water before so i'm not sure how to get started)
what would be a good fish for me to start with?

[B-Willz]

Originally Posted by Pony_rider

the move is only 20 mins from my house, but idk if that is still a lot of stress.
I am going to be studying biology, so i thought it might be a cool thing to have.
what does cycling the tank do?
(i'm a total beginner)
a guy at a pet store told me that he would give me water straight from the seahorse tank, would this replace cycling?
i'm still pretty set on a seahorse, but what other fish/ pet would you recommend for me? i dont want a beta haha
I heard that seahorses can be hand fed which really caught my attention. are there any other fish that allow some interaction like this?
I'm obsessed with animals and really must have a pet in my dorm room. haha =]

The cycle is amonia that is broken down to nitrite which is the broken down to nitrate. You have to develop amonia first, then bacteria will grow, that consumes the amonia to nitrite. Getting dirty water from the LFS will give you bacteria but not bypass the cycle, in fact the cycle never stops it ust runs at very low levels. And as far as being hand fed i have never been able to hold a pod in my hand, they are usually fed from pipets. Slow down and read alot more on here to get an idea of what you are getting into. This is not a hobby that you can just jump into. At the rate you want to go you will kill the horses.

[B-Willz]

Originally Posted by Pony_rider

so i would need to put in my sand and rocks and get the whole thing going and let the tank run without any fish or anything in it until i move pretty much? (i've never done salt water before so i'm not sure how to get started)
what would be a good fish for me to start with?

You can get it started now, but when you move you will start another cycle from moving things. Lets discuss getting started before the fish. What do you have for lights, filtration, tank, ect.

[Pony_rider]

i havent bought anything yet because i wanted to make sure to get the right stuff.
I am looking at buying a used 12 gallon nano cube

[B-Willz]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1031074

Here is a link to help you get started. I do not have experiance with the cubes, but I know the filtration is built in the back. I beleive it is a pretty week filtration, and with having only 12 gallons, you have to be very good with water changes. When a fish releives himself, that is amonia, now that amount of amonia is much more toxic in 12 gallons than in 50 gallons because of the dillution. So things can get out of whack real fast with smaller tanks. I think they are actually more difficult. So you have change water more often with new salt water to help dilute the pollutants from the tank. Also do not use tap water.

[Pony_rider]

hmm, i didnt realize that the smaller tanks were harder to take care of.
do you think the tank will be overwhelming to take care of in college? it sounds like i'd have to change some water weekly?
(i was expecting biweekly)
i would love a salt water aquarium, but i dont want to get one if i could end up killing the life in there. i'm very responsible with my pets and i want to make sure i will be able to handle it.

[B-Willz]

If you are responsible and willing to dedicate the time to the tank, it is possible to do. Water changes are easy and you would be looking at doing a couple of gallons a week. If you are close to a store that you can buy salt water and R/O, keep 5 gallons of each on hand and it will take you a few minutes to change the water. Then you have the feeding of the fish, can't let them starve. The thing to remember is you need to check things almost daily, so you can not go off for spring break and other holidays for to long.

[Pony_rider]

okay, that stuff is very good to know.
and i'm assuming it would not be a good idea to leave the tank in the hands of a friend, even if they are responsible, unless they are very familiar with care of reef tanks correct?

[namxas]

other than zots, the only SH suitable for a tank that small is H. fuscus. however, when you say 12 gal, it sounds like you're referring to a NC12 (or other 'plug-n-play')?

all of the PnP's run too warm for SH, and will need to be modded with a cooler-running pump, a fan blowing over the water surface, or a chiller. tropical species SH should be kept below 74*F to mitigate their propensity for catching bacterial infections.

also, if you repump the tank, you can go for a pump that is a bit lower flow as well, which will run a bit cooler than even repumping with the same flow rate.

HTH

[B-Willz]

Very very correct, leaving a tank with some one who has no experience can be a bad idea. When I go out of town I have a neighbor who I trust and is a reefer, I put the correct amount of food in shot glasses and each one is labled as to when to feed. I use an auto top off to fill the fresh water that evapotates. I also have the numbers of other local reefers posted on the tank if there are any issues. It makes me nervous every time I have to leave.

[timinnl]

B-willz is giving you a lot of good advice. From reading past post from freshman student, they quickly realize they don't have the time to mantain the tank. It is best that you spend the first 3 -4 months just getting use to campus life. Then take it from there.

[rayjay]

To give you an idea of what you might run into in keeping seahorses, I have my experiences put down on my website, plus there are links to excellent information for any new seahorse keeper at the bottom of my page.
MY THOUGHTS ON SEAHORSE KEEPING
Also, as Greg mentioned, the 12g would only house a pair of H. fuscus and that would be tight even for them.
You could put H. zosterae in there but because of the problems with feeding them the live brine shrimp you need quite a few for that size tank. It would be better to go to a smaller tank if you want zots, like maybe between 5 and 8 g.
H. fuscus are not easily obtained as far as I can tell from postings.

[Lance M.]

Originally Posted by timinnl

B-willz is giving you a lot of good advice. From reading past post from freshman student, they quickly realize they don't have the time to mantain the tank. It is best that you spend the first 3 -4 months just getting use to campus life. Then take it from there.

Being a college student with an aquarium in my apartment, I completely agree with timinnl.

I would at least wait until after you start college to decide, especially since you have no experience with a saltwater tank. You can then decide whether or not you have enough free time to take care of an aquarium and then decide if you have enough time to take care of seahorses.

I can tell you from my own experience, I love my aquarium and it's always the first thing people like to look at in my room but I can tell you, at times you will not be able to do anything with the tank because of other things that take priority (like class, labs, seminars, beer, etc.). I think you would be best learning about saltwater in your free time and then when you have time, try your hand in it, but at first, maybe not something as difficult as seahorses.

[merkexpress]

I thought about tanking my seahorse with me to school, but it would be a task and a half to try to keep him happy. I will me taking my custom 13 gallon tank with me though. If you really want a tank do something easier to take care of. Clowns, Damsels, some fish that are a lot easier to take care of. Also Seahorses need to be fed a lot. I read somewhere that Seahorses dont have a true stomach which means they need to be feed at very least once daily. I feed my redi twice daily. Im lucky that each single dorm room has its own ac unit too. Seahorse need to kept in cooler temperatures that a normal reef is. That being said the whole month of Aug could be brutal on the Horses. So if you really want a tank i wouldn't suggest seahorses.

[namxas]

one of our 13 setups is a NC12, and it's home to a little colony of barnacle blennies. they're EZ to care for and are entertaining at feeding time. i also hace a few zoas and some live macro to round it out. there are also a couple of SW guppies swimming around in the tank.

[Lance M.]

Originally Posted by namxas

one of our 13 setups is a NC12, and it's home to a little colony of barnacle blennies. they're EZ to care for and are entertaining at feeding time. i also hace a few zoas and some live macro to round it out. there are also a couple of SW guppies swimming around in the tank.

Do you have a build thread for this tank? I'd love to see some guppies swimming around. I use to have a barnacle blenny a couple years ago but alas, one morning I found him on the ground

[namxas]

nope, no thread...just random pix. i don't think there are any showing the guppies tho. the guppies were actually some that switched to SW when they weren't eaten by a scorp we were weaning to frozen, so we popped them into the NC12.

[Pony_rider]

thanks everyone!!
you have all helped out a ton!!
I think i'll wait till i'm in my dorm for a couple months to decided if i want a saltwater tank.
I decided that if i dont get salt water aquarium i'll at least get myself some kind of easy care fresh water fish, then start a salt water tank when i'm in a more stable home with more time on my hands!

[Allmost]

welll u are wrongly informed about hand feeding seahorses. at least mine wont eat it while I'm holding it lol they are too spoiled.
honestly best pet/aquarium would be a small tank with 2 clown fishes.

take care of adding top off and .... for now, and u will have lotd of fun with 2 clowns, and u can hand feed them and they are easy to take care of. if u pass everything, get ureself an anemone next semester lol

[killarsox]

Just be careful they are a lot of work. It may be hard to give them the amount of time/feedings they need while going to school. Yes you may be able to swing it, but swinging it doesn't provide the horses with the care they need. I'd suggest a small reef tank, hell maybe even one of those pico tanks....

[merkexpress]

Mantis Shrimp would be entertaining!