seahorses

[dwhite18]

When i am willing to try the daring task of seahorses, does anyone know of somewhere i can get them? I'm looking for dwarf seahorses. This is still a project that is a little ways out.

 

[Peppie]

Mercenarygrunt, is running a seahorse tank. He will be able to direct you in the right direction.

 

[rayjay]

For true captive bred dwarfs, it cost more but quality is much better.
seahorsesource.com and seahorsecorral.com

 

[sedrostyle]

I think I may want to do seahorses too in my 20. Someone get merc in here

 

[mercenary-grunt]

im here... im here. in a 20g your kinda limited on what you can do. depending on your hight. you can do dwarf if its less than 18", but more than 12". but the bare minimum for full size is 30g. exept, you can do full size in a biocube but thats pretty much it in that one. but the minimum hight for full size seahorses is 18". they like unwavering parameters. and long time fully established tank, with lots of pods. also stuff to climb on. smooth rock scape, with little things to hang on to. live plants, fake plants. what did you have in mind? and did I confuse you?

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[rayjay]

I agree. Your 20g tank is too small for standard sized seahorses and too large for dwarfs. If H. fuscus were still available you could squeeze a pair in a 20g but it still would be more work with houskeeping and water changes than say reidi or erectus in a 30g.
For dwarfs, too large a tank means that you are using too many enriched bbs to get a density of them in the tank suitable for dwarf feeding. The dwarfs aren't known for going after their food, but most usually wait to snick it up when it passes them by.
If you check out the links at the BOTTOM of the "My Thoughts......." link in my signature, you can get some basic needs before you start making the hobby more difficult for yourself.

 

[sedrostyle]

I have done a little glance into the seahorse world. Not nearly enough tho.
I had read about that height restriction and thought of going 29 gal
I was just worried about flow. What flow would you use just a return from a CPR bak pak?
I would go all live plants and probably just pull all the rock and water out of my tank so it's semi mature.
I'd give t time tho because the seahorses locally at least were 200 a pair last time I looked.

It's just a thought. I have a lot of equipment sitting around and have been dying for another tank.
Maybe a pico

Now my wife came up with the idea of getting a hedgehog............
Haha

 

[mercenary-grunt]

low flow. and no power heads. be careful about taking water and rocks from your main tank. there can be parasites on it that seahorses can't handle.

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[blk822822]

I have also thought about a couple dwarf seahorses , the wife loves them. I have a 20gal tall in the garge I was going to use and a hang on back refuge. Figured I could put some of my long blade calurpa and other macros in the display and a bunch of rubble int he refuge. No skimmer, just refuge with a small return pump. But I need to do the research befor doing it. The wifes always loved them and everyone know if the wife is happy then everyone is happy.

 

[rayjay]

As already mentioned, the 20g tanks are TOO SMALL for standard seahorses available to us, and TOO LARGE for dwarf seahorses unless you are going to waste a pile of live enriched baby brine shrimp every day.
Also, you would be hard pressed to even SEE the dwarfs in a 20g tank unless you had 50 to 100 of them in there. You could fit a probably about 6 to 8 adult dwarfs on a silver dollar.
Just remember also that keeping grasses and macros are going to require a fair bit of light and that usually means heat added to tanks that should be kept in the 68° to 74° F range for best chances of success.

 

[blk822822]

As already mentioned, the 20g tanks are TOO SMALL for standard seahorses available to us, and TOO LARGE for dwarf seahorses unless you are going to waste a pile of live enriched baby brine shrimp every day.
Also, you would be hard pressed to even SEE the dwarfs in a 20g tank unless you had 50 to 100 of them in there. You could fit a probably about 6 to 8 adult dwarfs on a silver dollar.
Just remember also that keeping grasses and macros are going to require a fair bit of light and that usually means heat added to tanks that should be kept in the 68° to 74° F range for best chances of success.

O see I need to do my research.....I didn't know that the dwarfs were soooooo small. I'll watch for a bigger tank, deeper is better than more surface area, right?

I think if I did a horsey tank I would set it up with all dry rock and clean sand and just grow macros and pods for quite a while befor adding any seahorses. Just something I have been thinking about for a couple years now.

 

[blk822822]

I am going to read all your links you provided and see what I can learn befor thinking about this anymore. And will check out the site mentioned in your post. Thanks for the insiteful info.

 

[mercenary-grunt]

not so much deeper as it is taller. they like to be able to swim up and down. and they need about 18" of water hight to dance. so 24" tall is kinda perfect. more of the macros like sea grass. like to have deep beds. about 4". so you would still have about 20" of room for them to dance.

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