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starting up 1st horse tank, need advice


GrimReefer

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So my daughter wanted a seahorse while at the dome and I said I would get her one without thinking. So guess im going to have 3 tanks now.

My wife is going to pick up my new tank tomorrow its a 18" rimless cube and a 70w halide and stand with 19" square for a sump in stand.

Going to drill the tank myself for return and drain. But need some info on what equiptment I will need for horses. Also have to fit it all in the stand. Might just build a sump/fuge myself if I cant find one that will fit.

Any info would help and thanks

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You have dove into an entirely different world!

Your first priority is to figure out what species of seahorses you purchased. Often times, our LFS bring in wild-caught seahorses, which can carry parasites and many different diseases. Typically, these are still somewhat hardy, as they are usually H. Erectus.

Though seahorses do not move much, they still require a large enough tank to fit their needs. It is usually recommended to have 1 pair in at LEAST 35g, with a tank height of 18". The tank height is important, as these (not so) little guys can reach 9" in length.

As for equipment in the tank, this doesn't sound like it will be a huge issue for you, as you're drilling the tank. However, make sure any equipment in the tank, i.e. powerbeads, heaters, etc. are all seahorse-proofed. They will hitch their tails onto just about anything they can. If they do this on a powerhead, the results could be deadly. Unfortunately, they are very prone to infection and illness, so the slightest break of their skin could be the end of them. They don't necessarily like low-flow, as you will see them play in the flow of a powerhead from time-to-time. However, and this is super important, if you have a considerable amount of flow in the tank, MAKE SURE THEY HAVE A PLACE THAT IS CALM! They will need this space to rest.

I strongly recommend researching on www.seahorse.org, as well as www.seahorsesource.com - you will be able to find some very useful information on both of these sites. Additionally, check out my (OLD) thread from my seahorse tanks.

Good luck!

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Thank you for the info. Was researching last night but not sure if my new tank will be big enough as its only an 18" cube. Are there any pairs I can get for that size tank? Not worried about breeding them seen that a larger tank was needed for that

Its actually a green leaf aquarium there dimensions say 45 cm. cube at 24 gallon

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Thank you for the info. Was researching last night but not sure if my new tank will be big enough as its only an 18" cube. Are there any pairs I can get for that size tank? Not worried about breeding them seen that a larger tank was needed for that

Its actually a green leaf aquarium there dimensions say 45 cm. cube at 24 gallon

You could put quite a few dwarves in a tank that size, but I wouldn't put any other of the larger species in there. You could probably put a single specimen in the 24g.

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Thanks for the shout out JR. I love my girl. I learned a ton of information on seahorse.org. There is a library of free public articles and resources. I highly encourage you to join their discussion forum. You'll be able to dialogue with some of the most experienced seahorse keepers and breeders. I think the most important piece of equipment for keeping my seahorse sucessfully is a chiller. I lost a number of seahorses to disease until I purchased a used chiller from the forum. 24 gal is enough for one or two seahorses, but not more.

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk

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  • 2 weeks later...

If it's wild caught, getting it to eat can be very tough. They will want live food and are stubborn about it. Some individuals can be impossible to transfer over to frozen. There's really zero reason that an erectus would be wild caught though. They have ~100 baby horses that are about the size of a mysis shrimp and are big enough to eat newly hatched brine shrimp right out of the pouch, so they're easy (relatively speaing) to breed in captivity. I've successfully raised several to about an inch. Unfortunately, getting them to eat something larger than baby brine was more than I was capable of and there just wasn't enough baby brine to sustain them. I really could have used ARC for baby help- we didn't have a Minnesota Reef Club. However, this again illustrates the difficulty in getting horses to eat non-living food. A tank bred horse will be eating frozen by the time he/she gets to you. If you're buying locally, ask to watch them eat mysis. Not eating? Do not buy.

Reidi, on the other hand, have 1000 babies that are more like a pinhead. Certainly not impossible for an aquaculture operation, but a hobbiest is going to have a nearly impossible time raising those. You should be able to find tb erectus. They aren't as flashy as the orange/yellow Kuda or Reidi, but I'd highly recommend this route. I was successful enough to get two different pair of CB erectus to breed in my tank multiple times, but I was unable to get a wild Kuda or Reidi to eat (one of each). Avoid wild erectus for the same reson as Kuda or Reidi. (disclaimer- the last seahorse I bought was 7 years ago. If the other speicies of horses are now all CB, they should be fine. Just avoid wild.)

Seahorses are very fun. They like to interact with you and will hitch to your fingers. They're worth an extra species-only tank IMO, and you'll probably thank your daughter for talking you into it. Also, don't forget to check out pipefish. I had a pair of bluestripe pipefish that added some brilliant color and horizontal swimming to complement the vertical swimming of the seahorses. They're a smaller breed of pipefish that I've read can be difficult to transition to non-live as well, but the pair I got did just fine. They were also willing to breed in the tank. They carry the babies externally though, which was... unattractive. I didn't have much luck with the pipefish babies. Again, much smaller than erectus babies. I'll see if I can find a video I took a few years ago of one of my boys delivering. Not many marine fish can offer you that possibility, and it's an exciting day.

Erectus girl at the feeding trough: They aren't yellow or red, but they're still pretty.

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