Does anyone have lr and cc in seahorse tank?

[dolphinluvr]

Does anyone have liverock and crushed coral in their seahorse tank? If so, is it working out okay?

[aquawolf]

Welcome to TRT!!!

I do not, I have live rock and sand.

Do you already have the tank setup with crushed coral as the substrate? I am just curious as to what is driving your question.

Hopefully others will chime in soon to tell you if they use CC.

[YLChik]

I also had sand and live rock.

I guess I have always stayed away from cc to try to avoid detritus build up.

[dolphinluvr]

yes, I do already have cc and 50-60lbs liverock in my tank. The cc is VERY fine grained but not sure if that matters. I am wanting to get a pair of seahorses really bad. My tank has been up for about a year and I hate to disburb what I have now unless it is necessary. Do you think live sand is a must for seahorses? I only have a small clown in there right now.

[jojon60]

The CC should be fine. I would remove the clown before adding any seahorses and make sure you only by captive bred.
What temp is your tank running at? This is one of the most important things in keeping healthy seahorses in my opinion.
Keep us posted.

[dolphinluvr]

My temp is at 79 right now. Is that okay or should I drop it down? I found a pair of reidi horses at the lfs and am considering buying them tomorrow.

[VWD]

Originally Posted by jojon60

The CC should be fine. I would remove the clown before adding any seahorses and make sure you only by captive bred.
What temp is your tank running at? This is one of the most important things in keeping healthy seahorses in my opinion.
Keep us posted.

I agree with JoJon here, Will be ok and please remove the clown fish

[YLChik]

Originally Posted by jojon60

The CC should be fine. I would remove the clown before adding any seahorses and make sure you only by captive bred.
What temp is your tank running at? This is one of the most important things in keeping healthy seahorses in my opinion.
Keep us posted.

Originally Posted by dolphinluvr

My temp is at 79 right now. Is that okay or should I drop it down? I found a pair of reidi horses at the lfs and am considering buying them tomorrow.

I third JoJon's advice!

I think your temp is too high and would work to get it to between 73 and at the highest 75. Seahorses are prone to infection and much more so at temps above 75 degrees.

I would advise you against purchasing the ponies tomorrow and waiting until you have that tank temp down.

what size tank is it? can we see a pic!!! We love pics here at trt!

[aquawolf]

Good suggestions form everyone above.

The clown fish will eat the food before the seahorses have much of a chance to get to it whcih is why that suggestion is being made.

[dolphinluvr]

sure, give me just a sec and I will take a pic for ya'll.

[dolphinluvr]

Not sure if I did this right but Im trying to upload the photo

[dolphinluvr]

I tried to make this one larger, I am horrible at taking pics.

[Loverotties]

Horses our VERY slow,so no fish with them.I even had a hard time with the pipefish(they are faster then the horses.)

[YLChik]

Thanks for the Pic! You are going to have lots of room for your ponies!

[pledosophy]

Originally Posted by YLChik

I third JoJon's advice!

I think your temp is too high and would work to get it to between 73 and at the highest 75. Seahorses are prone to infection and much more so at temps above 75 degrees.

The max temp number is 74F not 75. The research came from Dr. Belli and is published in the book Working Notes. It is the conclusion of years of observations and labratory testing on various strains of bacteria with the main focus on the strains of vibrio that most commonly affect seahorses. The 74 temp is delibriate and not arbitrary.

At temps above 74F not only do the bacteria reproduce faster, but also change there protein structure to be more virtulent. This is why you will see the more experienced keepers dropping temps down to 68F in times of illness, temps that low stop the reproduction cycle and the bacteria's involved are no longer aggresive.

Seahorses have been shown to be asyptomatic carriers of the various bacteria on there own so they are contributing it to the systems they live in. While they have some built in resistance, not immunity, to the bateria at temps above 74F the bacteria has an altered protein make up and the resistance is no longer helpful.

Yes seahorses live at higher temperatures in the wild but through dillution the bacteria density is kept lower which limits infections.

JME