pony stable

[NanoReef]

i have a few questions about setting up a sea horse tank. what is a good tank size, filtration, temperature, all those good things!!! lots of live rock or none/?? im quite new to the seahores concept!!! any help would be great!

[Beverly]

Two great seahorse boards to ask all of your questions...

http://www.syngnathid.org/

http://www.seahorse.org/

[DanG]

Next time you're in Winnipeg, stop by Salt Water connection on henderson highway and talk to Jayson. He's had very good luck with seahorses, and I've always found him to be very willing to talk to customers as long as they're willing to listen.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Seahorses are fascinating, beautiful creatures but should not be attempted until you have a fair amount of experience with easier to keep fish because they require a large portion of TLC to do well. Even captive-bred ones can sometimes stop eating frzn foods & become extremely picky about their diet. Not sure how much sw experience you have, so I just thought I'd put this out.

If you feel up to the challenge, find out what species your LFS can get in & how much it'll cost so you can make an informed decision.

Then, decide how many you can afford/want to keep & that'll help determine tank size.

Then set up the appropriate sized tank with some LR & LS & let it cycle for several months. This will also give your pod/live mysis population time to reproduce so you'll have a good supply of live food before your seahorses arrive. When stressed (such as going from the LFS to your place) SHs often go off-feed & need live food to survive until you can re-educate them to eat frzn mysis.

Plastic plants & fake corals may look funny but actually make pretty good seahorse perches.

A species tank is best but you can also add some small, slow fish (ie. goby or clownfish) after the seahorses are settled in. But most sources highly recommend a seahorse-only tank.

A refugium with lots of plants is also a great thing to have to repopulate the pods & mysis in your main tank. Remember, seahorses can literally eat hundreds of "bugs" per day, so the more pods you have, the better.

SHs also like very stable water conditions & need a mature system.

Overfeeding is almost a given so be prepared to deal with a bristle worm outbreak.

My ideal system would be a 2' cube tank with an above tank refugium (so live pods would flow down into the display tank) & a below tank sump (for extra water volume & a good in-sump skimmer & extra LR). The tank would be planted with seagrass & prolifera for them to hang on to.

HTH,

Anthony

[JSTR]

The answer is hard to give, cause it all depends on what type of seahorse you can get. Seahorse Fanatic is the right for a basic setup, I would like to just expand on it a little further. Most seahorses will require three times their body height in tank height. Now bare in mind that seahorses range from the tiny pygmy's of less than an inch to the large H. abdominalis at around 12 inches. Most common to the aquarium trade are the kudas, hyterix and barbouri, all ranging in the 5-8 inch range. Now if you want to raise the fry this opens up a whole new can of worms and the best information on doing this can be found in the two link Beverly supplied.

My own experiences are with barbouri, which I had to give to a friend as they weren't eating in my tank (its a pig now, I hear), and dwarf seahorses H. zosterae. Which I keep presently in a 10 gallon hex tank and will be moving them into the new minibow 7gallon with 5 gallon sump/fuge setup, we just finished for them.

Links to pics of the seahorses - remember these are all in the 1-1.5 inch range.
http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=4313

and pics of the new corral for them.
http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=4709

Hope this helps
Paul

[NanoReef]

wow!!! you have givin me some great info, how much do the little horses run??? you know, i am on a budget!!

[Beverly]

wow!!! you have givin me some great info, how much do the little horses run??? you know, i am on a budget!!

If you are talking about Paul's dwarf seahorses H. zosterae, you will have to feed them baby brine shrimp that you will have to hatch daily. Lots of work involved a well as money required to set up a brine shrimp hatchery.

IME, seahorses are not particularly meant for someone on a strict budget, I'm afraid :neutral:

[NanoReef]

no, i know that, i will be saving for them. as for the brine hatchery, i already have one in full production!!! i just want to know how much the actual sea horse costs.

[JSTR]

Cost of course will depend on who has them and when.

Kuda, hysterix, barbouris here in Calgary have been anywhere from $40-$60 a piece.
My dwarfs sold for $35 each, but not likely one will see thes often as a CITES permit is required to import them into Canada.

Cost of feeding varies with how many you have, all seahorses are eating machines.

Larger horses can eat up to 100 food items a day per horse.
Dwarfs will eat up to 1000-1500 brine shrimp a day per horse.
Most require live food till you can ween them onto frozen.
Most require multiple feedings a day to keep up with the food demand.

I feed the dwarfs (10-12 of them) 2 tsp of fresh hatched brine a day, 1/2 in morning before work and 1/2 after. The little tank looks like one of the snowglobes after I add the brine and when I get home from work there are barely any swimming around.

HTH
Paul

[NanoReef]

wow they eat that much huh??? it sounds cool but im not sure if im at the level yet, once i set up my 90 gallon i might want to start one up, it sounds very time consuming and i would like to spend lots of time getting my 90 set up the way i want it!!! thanks for all yor help