Seahorses how cold?

[NewbieForever]

With 4 tanks in my house and the fact that the noise from my SH tank in my room is driving me nuts at night I offered my mom my seahorse tank for her house and told he I would come over for w/c and general maintance but she needs to feed them twice a day.

The thing is she likes to pretend she is very poor and can afford to turn her heat about 59-60 in the winter, the tank has a heater in it but I dont know how high I might be able to get it if her house is so cold. The tank is a 20 tall and has an erectus and a reidi in it. you think they would be fine under 70 degrees?

[pledosophy]

IME they are fine at temps as low as 68F. I haven't gone much lower. I keep my tank at 72 with the help of a heater in the winter and a fan in the summer. My house is pretty cool in the winter too, I just like it that way.

If she can't afford the heat, does she know how much electricity a seahorse tank will use?

[REEF-n-Chicago]

He is saying she likes to "pretend" she is poor

[ann83]

Well, she's going to have to "pretend" it doesn't cost money to heat the house then, or "pretend" that heaters connected to a controller don't cost money (both purchase price and electricity). I wouldn't trust just dropping heaters into the tank that are strong enough to pull the temperature up 10 degrees. They would need to be on a very good quality controller (and in a sump to protect the seahorses); or she'll have to heat her house.

[NewbieForever]

lol yeah, the tank has a pacific coast 1/10 hp chiller with built in controller. She will be fine with it, or if she complains Ill chip in for her bills, thats what a good son does right? The heater directly in the tank might be a problem as there is no sump but I have a large HOB filter I could put on and put the heater in it. There is also a HOB skimmer with a large empty compartment I think I could put a good sized heater into.

[brynkal]

We catch seahorses in the intercoastal here in Sarasota (both dwarf and not), and the water temp right now is about 70, in August near 90. So, they are really able to withstand a much wider temp range than you might think...

[DanU]

Most of the tropical species seem to do fine down to 69 degrees. They will still breed and carry on as usual. Once you start getting down below 68 degrees their activity begins to slow down. They can survive even lower temperatures, but the lower you go, the more dormant they become. If you can keep the tank at 69 degrees, you should be fine.

Dan

[pledosophy]

Originally posted by brynkal
We catch seahorses in the intercoastal here in Sarasota (both dwarf and not), and the water temp right now is about 70, in August near 90. So, they are really able to withstand a much wider temp range than you might think...

Over the years we have experimented with temperatures quite a it and found that there seems to be a higher rate of disease in tanks with temps over 74F.

There was some research done that is published in the book "Working Notes" which shows the bacteria most common to casue disease in seahorses grows much faster at temps over 74F, and is much more virtulent. Other research shows these bacteria change there protein structure at the higher temperatures, the new protein structure may or may not be recognized by the seahorses immune system as soemthing they have a previous resistance for. Many believe the seahorses carry the bacteria internally in an asymptomatic carrier state.

In the ocean where dilution is vast the increase in bacteria populations is minimal to seahorses, but in closed systems where dilution is insignificant having a lower temperature seems to do best for keeping seahorses long term.

If you track the boards for a few years you will see a huge rise in cases of seahorse disease during summer months.

Just my observations.

[David123]

Originally posted by brynkal
We catch seahorses in the intercoastal here in Sarasota (both dwarf and not), and the water temp right now is about 70, in August near 90. So, they are really able to withstand a much wider temp range than you might think...

Pots can handle a vast range of sg, temp and pH.

This is because they can be found from deep oceanic water, to shallow estuaries.

The temp ranges between about 8°c up to 28°c

I have bred many thousands of pots, and shipped them around the world.

My observations, try not to take them over 20°c and nor below 16°c. Tween 18-19°c is perfect.

Like Kevin says, its not what they can handle in the ocean, we are closer to the other side of the universe than a home tank is to the ocean.

Why do we warm our tanks so as to cycle faster, bacteria breeds far faster at warmer temps.

Nutrition is horrific compared to wild food, water quality same, temp fluctuations only happen in the home tank, the ocean varies, but months in the change, not a few times daily, pH flys up and down in the home tank, sg is not a constant, 02 levels go hay wire, C02 is higher than should be, overcrowding is very common in the home tank, not in the wild, like I say, nothing even remotely similar to the ocean.

All of the above amount to a highly stressed horse, and what a healthy unstressed horse (or human) will brush off with no thought, can kill quite quickly.