new year, new seahorse build!!!!!!(many pictuers)

Well Looking at that "mandarin in an 8.5 gallon tank" thread I guess i was just trying to avoid argument like that epic war that we had in said thread.

 

lol ya haha that was just a bad thread from the start.

 

It's not my practice to fight in threads. You will find, reading through my posts, I can pretty much keep myself in line without assistance.

If you read my post again, you'll see that I was clarifying that my practice of feeding once a day also carried over into the period of QT. I wouldn't have re-hashed that point if it wasn't "new material". I actually feed a little light in the QT period/tank, for fear of causing an ammonia spike. I often use an uncycled tank and it can be problematic if fed heavily IME.

 

no matter what works for the seahorses it doesnt even matter how often or frequently you feed the horses. i had seahorses and i would feed 3 times a day for one tank and once for the other tank. but i fine it better if you feed more often just smaller quantities then there is less waste. as if you just add in tons of brine shrimp for a once a day feeding then most likely lots of the shrimp will not be eaten and therefore wasted. but more feedings with less shrimp i find is more appropriate as they dont feel overwhelmed by the amount and eat most of it and there is little waste.

 

99% of my tanks have feeding dishes. You pour it in and they park it and eat at their own pace.

 

I agree with that!
For those that don't know, Incognito has a lot more seahorse experience than I have.
We disagree on various parts of the hobby but that is no different than the salt water reefing hobby where many opinions abound.
I have differing opinions on various aspects of the hobby than many experience hobbyists do, not because something can't be done, but that when advising a new hobbyist I feel that we need to give the advice that gives the best chance of success.
Once they succeed doing that, then I have no problem with them doing something different as by that time the experience gained can help in doing things different.

 

My approach has changed a lot over the years. I had an idea of what the absolute best environment for seahorses would be and that everyone who wanted to keep them, had to abide by every one of these rules to succeed. Years back we would push these ideals on the Org and come flying down on all who would disagree. We kind of became known as Seahorse Nazis. We have now softened our approach by not giving absolutes, by seeing more than one solution even though it goes against all that "we know", and by realizing seahorses are being kept successfully in the very tanks we deem inappropriate and ill-fated.

The big rules of my own that I've "broken" are:

1) Tankmate selection
2) Mixing Species
3) Use of skimmers.

 

...just wondering, but were you advising, to or not to use skimmers in seahorse tanks? What was your logic behind this?

 

I too don't always stick to what I recommend. Also, I have seen much change on the org even though I've only been on there since 02.
I'm hoping that as knowledge improves and stock quality improves with it, that even more changes are going to be quite evident.
I just can't get it out of my head though, after seeing hobbyists around here, and reading posts over the years, that MORE seahorse deaths occur when new hobbyists set up "inappropriate" tanks because most of them don't realize the problems that seahorses can get into until it's too late.
For me, if more seahorse deaths will occur then I can't see recommending it to new keepers.

 

We were advising against having them on seahorse tanks a few years back. SHs in tanks with skimmers had a higher occurance rate of External Gas Bubble Disease (EGBD). We didn't know the science behind it, just that it was occurring. We even set up "control tanks" with skimmers and without and we were able to repeat the results. I still have no idea what was going on at the time, but the occurrance seems to have slowed down in recent years.