Sea Horses

djnzlab1 · 05-16-2007, 06:00 PM

HI,
well I decided to turn a small 20 gal into a seahorse only tank, I put a few small plastic plants for tail holds and several live rock in the back to improve water quality , the substrate is plain white sand. Many small snails a small shrimp, and three sea horses that a fairly young captive bred. I believe they are H. eructus. Visited that sea horse org and followed their feeding guide and found a source of myosis thats enriched with hupa's to improve health and less stress on their systems.
I have reduce the water flow in this tank to a very slow speed its in the main water column to the sump but the water return is very slow.
Doug

omard · 05-16-2007, 07:26 PM

cool...I want to do same.. have 2.5 gal nano which should make a good home for them.

coral reefer · 05-17-2007, 02:44 AM

Best of luck!!! Unfortunately I have heard of limited survival with Sea Horses, especially long term!

amcarrig · 05-17-2007, 05:38 AM

Pictures please

rayjay · 05-18-2007, 09:32 AM

Unfortunately, you did not read enough on the org site to find out that your tank is not suitable for the horses you chose. Only dwarf seahorses belong in a tank of that size. A 20g tall could keep a pair of the smaller horses or you could put a lot of the dwarves in that size tank.
Seahorses need a tank that is deep and have sufficient volume for the size of the horses in it. (roughly figure at least 4X the adult height of the seahorse for the tank depth)
Erectus are probably best keep in a tank that is about 2 feet deep allthough some keep them in tanks of about 20".
To keep captive bred seahorses is not all that hard a task but one should do a lot of research on their needs before buying them, to be sure you are prepared to do the things needed for their survival when problems arise.

djnzlab1 · 05-18-2007, 08:32 PM

HI,
well tomorrow I look for a 37 tall tank it will fit the 20 long stand and hood its 22 3/4 tall that should work better for those guys,
Thanks for the info , they are cutties too, very active, one was pestering a small left handed crab/ another was checking out the peppermint shrimp, they hide when they see one coming good idea...
Doug

I added a couple pics they are really growing my new tank should arrive this weds.

The picture don't do them justice, I was feeding them some myosis shrimp and they blow out the top of their head when they eat must some type of vent or gill. they also use their mouth tube like a blow gun to stun/kill shrimp.yikes , they look so bizzare up close .

djnzlab1 · 05-23-2007, 12:19 PM

Hi,
Well the new 37 gal tall is in the car with some new plastic tall plants and a couple bags of new sand, I 'll rinse the sand over night pull the critters to a ice chestin the am put in a airstone pull the water remove the overflow and move the live rock to another ice chest.
And pump the water to water jugs and swap tanks refil add 17gal of new water start the sump let her run a while and be done.
oh yea return the sand/rock/critters.
That should be it.
Its pretty tall may have to upgrade the return pump to get any flow.
Doug
let see now 37+ 20+55 should be over 100 gals total cycling thru the system. give or take some sand/rock spaces+ two skimmers full of water.