care of H. reidi sea horses?

[sharuq1]

Does anyone have or know of where I can get info on care of these sea horses? Also, having a bit of a disagreement with my other half. I have a small 7 or 8g that is cycling. He seems to think a pair would be ok in there, I think it would be too small for two and wonder if they would die from ammonia poisoning. Thoughts?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

seahorse.org is a good site.

I personally wouldn't want to put a pair in anything smaller than a 20g, even that's small. I have kudas in a 27g long but I'm upgrading them to a 30" by 24" by 18" tall tank.

Anthony

[Chaloupa]

go to www.seahorse.org they have tons of stuff, and I agree I think that would be too small, not just for water quality issues but they need room to stretch out head to tail and a stable environment...I only know a few basics of seahorses...several other members will pipe up!

[justinl]

seahorses like tall tanks. 8gal will definitely not suffice for even one. the reason you would want a tall tank is so they can display their courtship behaviours (requires more height than width). they do this usually in the morning and is really quite fascinating to watch.

H. reidi is by no means a dwarf so i would recommend a 30gal off the top of my head. like Anthony suggested 20g might work, but i really think 30g would be best as a minimum.

+1 on seahorse.org

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Yup, with Reidis, I might start with a 20g when small, but would look into a 30 tall or 33g for long term care.

[bulletsworld]

seahorse.org is a good site.
I personally wouldn't want to put a pair in anything smaller than a 20g, even that's small. I have kudas in a 27g long but I'm upgrading them to a 30" by 24" by 18" tall tank. Anthony


I agree with Anthony, seahorse.org is the best informational site for seahorses. A 8gal would be sad. I also agree nothing smaller then a 20gal and even that is small. They like a tank that is tall and more room for them to glide is best for happy seahorses.

I do however have a tank for sale thats just shy of 30gals and was a perfect tall tank I used for my Seahorses. If your interested. Check out the buy/sell forum on the board here http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=33654. :mrgreen:

[justinl]

i also just saw that your tank is jut cycling. so ill also assume that you dont currently have a mature tank for them. if that is the case, I would highly advise waiting until you have a proper setup that is mature and has a good high population of pods and other little food stuffs living in it.

When you buy seahorses you HAVE to buy captive reared. NEVER wild caught because they do terribly in home aquaria, most due to the fact that many never even consider eating prepared food. that said, the live food in a mature tank would act as a buffer of sorts until you figure out how much you need to feed your particular horses.

a seahorse tank is not something to be taken lightly. they are one of the more challenging animals to keep and require lots of discipline.

[bulletsworld]

i also just saw that your tank is jut cycling. so ill also assume that you dont currently have a mature tank for them. if that is the case, I would highly advise waiting until you have a proper setup that is mature and has a good high population of pods and other little food stuffs living in it.


a seahorse tank is not something to be taken lightly. they are one of the more challenging animals to keep and require lots of discipline.


Justin, GOOD EYE!

AGREE!!!! YES, the MOST challenging EVER to keep! I can AGREE to this. I love seahorses but will NEVER have them again. Spot feeding. Very fragile creatures. Need Perfect water quality. Even brittle worms are harmful to them! They need TONS of care, as all noted above. It's NOT for a tank thats not even mature. Your just putting the seahorses to death or slowly starve to death. If you don't get bubble disease first! :sad: MUST read read read!

[Scavenger]

http://www.syngnathid.org/ is also a good source of information.

[sharuq1]

Hehe, that is what I thought! Now I can bombard him with other ppl thinking the same thing, lol. Bulletsworld, saw your tank, looks very tempting indeed. Does anyone know where I could get some live pods local or semi-locally? (For future reference; don't worry I won't be putting SH in the nano, lol-I am thinking a single fish and some inverts.) And please if you have more info on SH care continue to post, I would still like seahorses some day so the more I can research the better. Has anyone local had success in keeping and breeding them for example?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Breeding seahorses is relatively easy. The real challenge is raising the young ponies to maturity. I've had breeding pairs in the past, but the babies are sooooo tiny when born that it is an extreme challenge to keep them well fed on live foods like rotifers and baby brine shrimp.

They like slow flow, lots of hitching posts (like gorgonias or gorg. skeletons), and its best to train them to eat a feed station, like an oyster shell with hitching posts nearby. I had several in my cube refugium before and they loved swimming through the Prolifera and red Halimenia "forests".

Get them to feed defrosted mysis at the LFS before taking them home. You want to be sure they are already eating before deciding which one to keep.

No bubbles in the tank. Seahorses love going where there's bubbles, but they often end up getting in trouble from that habit. Not sure what causes bubble-disease (when air bubbles get trapped under their skin or in their pouches - for the males).

Anthony

[sharuq1]

Might seem like a dumb question, but I figure I am a noob so I am allowed :lol: Why can't the babies be fed frozen mysis that is pulverised or some other non-live food? I am guessing there is a perfectly logical answer for this one, but I was asked this and I don't actually know why. Also, how long would a tank need to be set up to be considered safe to add seahorses to and should a fish like a damsel or something just be kept there until that time, then taken out so the tank remains cycled and so forth? What is the purpose in waiting a long period in time past cycling if you have no live rock? Does the extra time make it more stable somehow or is it just to build up a copepod population?

(Sorry these questions are so nooby :redface: and thank you so much for having the patience to answer them!)

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

The babies would probably not think crushed up mysis is food, because it would not trigger a natural feeding response.

There should be some LR in the tank for biological filtration & it needs to be cured. Seahorses are sensitive to chemical changes so don't have them in the tank until after the tank is stabilized.

[trilinearmipmap]

I think this is a species best avoided except by the insane.

My 30 gallon seahorse tank is cycling now. I will keep one pair of kuda's, maybe two. I agree with the others that an 8 gallon tank is too small.