Cycling new seahorse tank

deerivers · 11/05/2006, 07:23 PM

Hello All!
I am new to all of this and already you guys have been a great help. Which corals are seahorse friendly? My tank is 21" tall w/ ~5" LSB, is this tall enough for seahorses?

sea student · 11/05/2006, 09:20 PM

It depends which seahorses you plan to keep and if you want them to breed. When I kept them, my tank was 24" tall and had a shallow sandbed, so much deeper tank. Have you checked out seahorse.org?

deerivers · 11/07/2006, 10:13 AM

Dear seastudent,
Thank you for your reply. Sorry it took me so long to get back, I got busy w/ work. Ok, as far as seahorse.org, I have only begun my research and just wanted to know what you guys thought. I think they say a minimum of 20" but I didn't know about the sand bed.
As far as breeding them, how difficult is that? I plan on doing a lot of reading and take it very slowly understanding all of the inhabitants of my tank before I get to that. For me that is the ultimate aquarium.
Right now still cycling w/ a prawn. Ammonia 0.0-0.25, ph 8.4, SG 1.028, nitrites 0.0, and nitrates 20. How do you think everything is going?
Sorry for all the questions but I get so much information that I want to make sure I understand it all. Thank you for all of the time that you take with me. My hubby's tank has fish but I think corals and inverts are much cooler so my research takes me in different directions than his does. We love it!

Amphiprion · 11/07/2006, 10:20 AM

Like seastudent said, it will depend upon the seahorse. I would make sure the tank is at least 3x (preferably 4x) taller than the longest seahorse (head to fully extended tail). Deeper is better for these fish. Breeding them is relativley easy (just provide food and appropriate conditions), but raising the young is not. I never really attempted to raise the young while I had my seahorses, but others have done so successfully. I would check the breeding forum or wait for an experienced breeder to reply.

sea student · 11/07/2006, 10:46 AM

My personal recommendation is to have all females and not worry about breeding. Most of the species are hugely difficult to raise the fry. Some of them would be literally a full time job. My seahorses bred like crazy and I never got any babies past 6 weeks. It was horribly depressing. I even shipped babies to more experienced breeders and none of them got the babies to live. Mine were the brazilians, or H reidi. Their fry are tiny and have to eat specially cultured foods and be kept in circulating tanks to keep them from swimming to the top. If I had it to do over, I would have gotten all one sex and avoided having fry. If you are not breeding, your tank is tall enough.

It is worth every penny to buy a CB seahorse that is already eating frozen mysis shrimp. You can save literally hundreds of dollars and a lot of trouble from not having to feed live shrimp. You will probably want to get an H. erectus, or H. reidi. I would get two, as they do seem social. Do not be tempted to buy wild caught.

I no longer have seahorses after keeping them for several years. I would have enjoyed them immensely more if I had stuck with all captive bred seahorses of the same sex.

deerivers · 11/07/2006, 10:53 AM

Thanks for the info.

seastudent how did it look like my cycling was going?

deerivers · 11/07/2006, 10:54 AM

amphiprion what type of seahorses do you have? what were major problems when you began?

J. Montgomery · 11/07/2006, 12:00 PM

The few seahorse tanks that I've seen all have fake plants. They're supposed to like gorgonians, but I've read that they find a favorite spot, hang on all day, and eventually the gorgonian dies b/c it nevers opens up to feed.

11/05/2006, 07:23 PM	#1
deerivers Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Los Angeles, Ca Posts: 24	Cycling new seahorse tank Hello All! I am new to all of this and already you guys have been a great help. Which corals are seahorse friendly? My tank is 21" tall w/ ~5" LSB, is this tall enough for seahorses?

11/07/2006, 10:20 AM	#4
Amphiprion Premium Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Mobile, AL Posts: 6,611	Like seastudent said, it will depend upon the seahorse. I would make sure the tank is at least 3x (preferably 4x) taller than the longest seahorse (head to fully extended tail). Deeper is better for these fish. Breeding them is relativley easy (just provide food and appropriate conditions), but raising the young is not. I never really attempted to raise the young while I had my seahorses, but others have done so successfully. I would check the breeding forum or wait for an experienced breeder to reply. __________________ You've done it now, haven't you? Current Tank Info: 40g breeder patch reef w/ seagrass; 2-250w XM 10K; Vortech MP40wES & MP10wES; BM Curve 7 skimmer; carbon & occasional GFO

11/07/2006, 12:00 PM	#8
J. Montgomery Mouth Pipetting Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Charlottesville, VA Posts: 6,278	The few seahorse tanks that I've seen all have fake plants. They're supposed to like gorgonians, but I've read that they find a favorite spot, hang on all day, and eventually the gorgonian dies b/c it nevers opens up to feed. __________________ Josh

11/05/2006, 09:20 PM	#2
sea student Premium Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Arkansas, USA Posts: 297	It depends which seahorses you plan to keep and if you want them to breed. When I kept them, my tank was 24" tall and had a shallow sandbed, so much deeper tank. Have you checked out seahorse.org?

11/07/2006, 10:13 AM	#3
deerivers Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Los Angeles, Ca Posts: 24	Dear seastudent, Thank you for your reply. Sorry it took me so long to get back, I got busy w/ work. Ok, as far as seahorse.org, I have only begun my research and just wanted to know what you guys thought. I think they say a minimum of 20" but I didn't know about the sand bed. As far as breeding them, how difficult is that? I plan on doing a lot of reading and take it very slowly understanding all of the inhabitants of my tank before I get to that. For me that is the ultimate aquarium. Right now still cycling w/ a prawn. Ammonia 0.0-0.25, ph 8.4, SG 1.028, nitrites 0.0, and nitrates 20. How do you think everything is going? Sorry for all the questions but I get so much information that I want to make sure I understand it all. Thank you for all of the time that you take with me. My hubby's tank has fish but I think corals and inverts are much cooler so my research takes me in different directions than his does. We love it!

11/07/2006, 10:46 AM	#5
sea student Premium Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Arkansas, USA Posts: 297	My personal recommendation is to have all females and not worry about breeding. Most of the species are hugely difficult to raise the fry. Some of them would be literally a full time job. My seahorses bred like crazy and I never got any babies past 6 weeks. It was horribly depressing. I even shipped babies to more experienced breeders and none of them got the babies to live. Mine were the brazilians, or H reidi. Their fry are tiny and have to eat specially cultured foods and be kept in circulating tanks to keep them from swimming to the top. If I had it to do over, I would have gotten all one sex and avoided having fry. If you are not breeding, your tank is tall enough. It is worth every penny to buy a CB seahorse that is already eating frozen mysis shrimp. You can save literally hundreds of dollars and a lot of trouble from not having to feed live shrimp. You will probably want to get an H. erectus, or H. reidi. I would get two, as they do seem social. Do not be tempted to buy wild caught. I no longer have seahorses after keeping them for several years. I would have enjoyed them immensely more if I had stuck with all captive bred seahorses of the same sex.

11/07/2006, 10:53 AM	#6
deerivers Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Los Angeles, Ca Posts: 24	Thanks for the info. seastudent how did it look like my cycling was going?

11/07/2006, 10:54 AM	#7
deerivers Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Los Angeles, Ca Posts: 24	amphiprion what type of seahorses do you have? what were major problems when you began?