seahorses

[bill-e]

I'm considering getting into seahorses. I know brooke has them here's what I'm contemplating for equipment

20 gal AGA Hex
live rock
either Prizim, BP2 or skilter
standard AGA flo hood

any comments?

[Brooke]

Hey Bill-

I actually don't even have my horses yet. I just added my clean-up crew this week. If you are going to keep "giant" seahorses, height is very important. Get a tank that is at least 20" high. We had a spare 38g, so that is what we are using. It is 20" high, 3 feet long. I'd probably go with a prizm. I want to get one for this tank. I think that bakpaks are overrated. I even bought the enormous pre-skimmer for ours and it still doesn't do a great job. Standard lighting is fine. That is all I have right now as well. You only need enough light to support your macroalgaes and gorgonians, if you choose to keep them. Another piece of equipment to consider is a UV. If you haven't already been to this site, check it out. www.oceanrider.com. I would not buy my seahorses from anyone else. I keep hearing that horses "don't like a lot of current" So far I just have two smaller powerheads in the tank. I have about 20 pounds of live rock in the tank as well. The horses need hitching posts and room to do their mating dance to be happy. Water quality is very important. Let me know if I left anything out!

Brooke...who can't wait to order her seahorses!!

[bill-e]

brooke,

the 20 hex is 20" tall, hence my choice.

did u go with a DSB? I hear aragonite vice the oolitic.


LR and prizm enough you think...suppose it will be for now.

I was planning on the OR mustangs.

I've read that u dont really need UV or meds for the OR horses, very hardy.

I plan to use marshall island LR or some other very porus rock (manano?) for the critters to hide in. I've found that the marshall island provides a great in-tank refugium.

I'm thinking I'll keep the macros I get from IPSF in there, may have to increase the light for them though.

[Brooke]

Sounds like a good plan, Bill. I have about a 3" sandbed with a mix of oolitic and aragonite. I wish we had gotten the 40g or 45g tank I had my eye on. More height would be nice. I do have a power filter on the tank right now. I'm not sure if I'll keep it going or not. I agree that at UV probably isn't necessary for OR horses. The cup caulerpa I got from Gerald seems fine with the NO light, but the feather needs more light, I think.

Brooke

[RWD]

Hi Guy's,
Have you seen this site:
http://www.seahorse.org/

[bill-e]

RWD,

Yes, I've been there, but I've found it's best not to learn from fanatics Too costly!

[ 03-10-2001: Message edited by: bill-e ]

[Spanky]

Originally posted by bill-e:
I've read that u dont really need UV or meds for the OR horses, very hardy.

I think that there is a big misconception about this. The OR horses are very hardy in respect to feeding, however being 'tank raised' does not give them some magical disease/paracite resistance. Don't forget you can introduce 'problems' on live sand, rocks, inverts, plants, your hands, anything. If you can, cover all bases.
Jerel

[bill-e]

landescaper,

I'm just parroting what I've read on the web. Most folks are claiming that the OR horses are just plain hardy(I assume as far as seahorses go anyway).

UV has just about as many cons as it has pros. It also seems intutive, to me anyway, (or maybe I'm just too new at this) that if a creature is that fragile, then it's important to promote natural defenses, and UV takes much of that away IMO.

[Spanky]

One of the biggest problems with wild caught horses is internal parasites. Tank raised will skirt that.
The cons on UV seem to come from mis-sized units, hobby grade units, well just generally "I bought a 8w UV for my 125gal tank hooked it up to a 300gph pump and it did nothing."
There are a lot of people around here working with horses for a lot of different reasons, they all use UV.
I don't agree about 'natural defenses'. I feel anytime you keep an animal captive, there is always a certain amount of stress. The glass box syndrome, water quality, smaller habitat, food quality, etc. 'Why is that cat staring at me'. Sometimes in a 'glass box' you can reach a state of equilibrium, where the irritant is present, but not at a level to cause problems. Throw off the formula, bang you've got a problem. UV allows you to closer approximate NSW levels of irritants. 'The solution to pollution is dilution' Remember, if it bothers you to use UV, don't run it all the time. If you see a problem in the works, test your water, if it's water related fix it. If it's an introduced problem, you'll have a way to fix that too.
Just my buck 50.
Jerel

[ 03-10-2001: Message edited by: landescaper ]

[ 03-10-2001: Message edited by: landescaper ]

[JennM]

I've had my ORs for a grand total of 1 week...but did a good month's worth of reading/preparing before I got them.

I've got mine in a 25 Eclipse with a Seaclone skimmer (I know..no flames about the SeaClone..mine's been tweaked and it fractionates just fine, thank you, and my params are good). I've got 35 lbs of LR, a fine layer of LS and lots of feather caulerpa that's growing like mad. I've also got the 32 watt PC upgraded lighting, so I might put a few soft corals in there at some point, I have one hermit and 2 peppermint shrimps in for cleanup (need a snail or two soon) and 2 huge Hawaiian feather dusters.

The tank is 18" tall (not quite the 20" recommended) but the horses have lots of room for their courtship rituals that they are doing morning and evening.

I opted NOT to get a UV, have never used one, and I've kept WC seahorses (about 15 years ago...live food...high maintenance). The ORs are easy to feed, and arrived healthy. Good diet and good husbandry should keep them that way.

There are OTHER sources for captive bred seahorses, and I might have chosen another if I had found it before I ordered...there are few resources out there.

In addition to <A HREF="http://www.seahorses.orgSeahorses.org TARGET=_blank>www.seahorses.orgSeahorses.org</A> there are some newsgroups: Seahorse_Talk and Ultimate Seahorse and finally Advanced Seahorses

The Ultimate Seahorse list is VERY busy and has LOTS of informed people. The Seahorse Talk list has the author of a popular book: Seahorses: Conservation and Care as an active member.

We've had a fascinating discussion on Ultimate Seahorse about Ocean Rider and their trademark/patent rules regarding offspring of their seahorses. You should give it a read!

HTH

JennM

[ 03-11-2001: Message edited by: JennM ]

[bill-e]

JennM,

What are the other sources of seahorses?

[Brooke]

Good discussion on the UV. I think we are still going to get one. If not for the horse tank, for our reef. I'm not sure how easy/hard it would be to plumb one to the tank w/o a sump. Thanks for sharing some of the other groups Jenn. FYI, you can just type in the url and the board will automatically make it into a link.

Brooke

[Minnreefer]

Jerel, I know that you posted about uv on another thread about liking a particular brand and or bulb, I would love to get your imput on that matter. A friend/ supplier has a 15 or 25 watt used aquamedic for sale I was wondering if anyone has any info on that brand. I might try to rig it so that it can be used in both Brooke's horse tank and on occasion on the reef. Any thoughts would be helpful.
Jonathan
minnreef@hotmail.com

[Spanky]

Hi guys, You know how nothing ever breaks until you talk about it? Well, woke up this morning to a flooded UV! I'm just going to assume it's user error and let it go at that.

Jonathan, it's a Emperor Aquatics. If I hadn't flooded it, the bulb would have lasted 1 year. It was a 80w HO bulb. Guess what again, I get to buy a new one next week.
Double Double check manfs flow rates, that's the most important thing. Figure tank volume times 3-4, that's the flow rate you'll need. Remember, manf flow rates are usually figured for easy kill organisms. Ask them specifically for Ick kill rates, that's what you want.
Jerel

[JennM]

There is someone on one of the newsgroups who breeds and sells various species of Hippocampus...

Her name is Carol Keen and her email is mailto:fish2nth@earthlink.net

Hope this helps

Jenn