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2K views 8 replies 5 participants last post by  Alice 
#1 ·
The 35 had finished cycling but i think adding the four seahorses at once was a bit much and made the ammonia jump a little but it's gone down totally now, i've got a mandarin fish in their and a orchid dottyback. I purchased some of the color enhancing food when i brought the seahorses it's a powder that you add to the frozen mysis shrimp.
 
#2 ·
Hi Bollox,

Glad to hear the horses are doing ok, FWIW I believe once they get settled in they should change color. Just a couple of things I wanted to address. The mandarin dragonet you have in the 35 will most likely starve to death. A 35 is too small to support adequete fauna populations for the fish to eat. Unless you got lucky and have one that will eat prepared foods, then its another story. The second thing is the orchid dottyback. They have a rep of being aggressive to normal fish, so I don't want to think of what they could do to a seahorse. I'm not saying that it will fight with the horses, just that I wouldn't put the two in the same tank. HTH

Drew
 
#3 ·
I wouldn't seperate the horses...especially if they are getting flirty. They are very social and do best in groups. The mandarin shouldn't bother them, but the dottyback might, although the orchids are usually more docile. The mandarin is going to get hungry if the horses are the more aggresive feeder. If you are feeding the horses enriched frozen mysis, the mandarin might learn to eat the frozen food.

Good luck with them!
Brooke
 
#4 ·
Thanks for the replies, i heard about the dottybacks being aggressive but when the seahorses were in the 35 for a few days the dottyback didn't bother them at all he seems very docile he just lives in his rock and pretty much only comes out to feed i rarely see him. The mandarin is eating live brine shrimp and he's nice and fat but if he starts to get skinny i'll change something the problem is I have another mandarin in my 70 gal so i can't put them together. The thing about the seahorses flirting is that one pair is chasing the other pair and flirting but the others don't know what sex but they don't seem interested they just swim away, I don't really want to seperate them but I don't want to put all four in the 35 and have the same problem with the ammonia again i want to put 2 in and see how the tank goes.
 
#5 ·
I just want to add that the dottyback is a juvenile and if he becomes aggressive i can put him in the 70 gal he was in there before but my six lined wrasse was bullying him but now that the wrasse is back in a reef tank at the lfs it won't be a problem.
 
#6 ·
Bollbox,

How mature is the tank, and what's the setup. I have 4 OR's in a 15 and dont have an amonia problem. I have about 6lbs of LR and 4" of sand along with a copious amount of macro algae. I'm getting some cyano now so a major water change is scheduled for the weekend.

I also have to make an in-line carbon filter as the tank always has an odor because of the Vibrance.
 
#7 ·
The tank is about a month old I filled it with 15gal from my 70gal tank and the rest of the water deionized salt water from the lfs i have a 1 inch live sand bed with about 25lbs of live rock from my 70gal and also a good amount of macro algae, the filtration is a emperor filter with the biowheel, charcoal filter and some kind of live filter substrate in the cartridge compartment, i also have a 170gph powerhead i know the seahorses don't like strong current but the water flow isn't that strong and helps so much in keeping the brown algae off the gravel and macroalgae. I guess from whats happened that the tank obviously wasn't mature enough but now the water quality is good and i'm going to wait maybe another week before i put 2 of the seahorses in and then i'll see what happens, unless of course you guys can tell me otherwise i'm always opened to suggestions. I think I just got too anxious and impatient with the seahorse tank and rushed things but atleast nothing died on me, I think i maybe got over confident from my 70gal because it went so smoothly and i've never had the slightest of problems with it.
 
#8 ·
Not sure if anyone is interested but the seahorses I got from OR are doing good, i originally had them in a 35gal tank but the ammonia jumped up so i moved them into my 70 to let the 35 settle down. After I put them in my 70 gal my sixlined wrasse started attacking them so i took him out and traded at the lfs, all the other fish in the 70gal don't bother the seahorses at all. This weekend i'm going to put 2 of the 4 seahorses back in the 35 gal and see how things go if it's all right then the other pair will follow, right now the seahorses are eating good and look happy they're flirting with each other so i guess they're pretty happy but i still wish they were a brighter color i got some orange and yellow corals for the tank but it hasn't made any differance to their apppearance it just annoys me that OR can sell a seahorse called sunburst and show pictures of bright yellow and orange seahorses and the customer ends up with two brown and two grey seahorsesl.
 
#9 ·
Is the original Sea Horse tank done cycling yet? Are the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates all at zero? If not, I'd let it sit empty until it's done with the cycle.

Sounds like they're doing ok so far in the main tank. I think that OR sells a color enhancing food for their seahorses. Have you checked the website?

~Alice
 
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