seahorses
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Sea Horses
If I may...When we had the store, we kept wild caught Sea Horses.
We would hold thiem in store for 2 weeks prior to selling them, and very seldom lost one.
They do have special requirements, but they are not hard to keep given the right environment.
1) very little water movement, which would limit the corals you could put in. Tree Sponges worked great, they come in different colors too. No skimmer, we used a mellinum 3000 and no power head. We kept the flow on the mellinum to a minimum unless we were feeding, the we would increase the flow to have the mysis "swim" around. NO POWER HEAD
2) since they are slow eaters you are limited to the fish you could put in with them. we put yellow head rose gobies in with them. They ate different things, so this worked out great.
3) they do need to be fed daily. How we got around this is 2 ways, one we made sure there were lots of pods in there for them, and fed them frozen mysis shrimp. daily
Water change about 1 gallon every 2 weeks.
We kept track of our little babies after they went to their new home, and as of today all but one is still alive. All others are doing great. As a matter of fact, last week I received an e-mail and apparently one is going to have babies.
Here's a pic of them in a 18 gallon Via Aqua tank with the lighting system that comes with those tanks. Worked out very very well.
If I may...When we had the store, we kept wild caught Sea Horses.
We would hold thiem in store for 2 weeks prior to selling them, and very seldom lost one.
They do have special requirements, but they are not hard to keep given the right environment.
1) very little water movement, which would limit the corals you could put in. Tree Sponges worked great, they come in different colors too. No skimmer, we used a mellinum 3000 and no power head. We kept the flow on the mellinum to a minimum unless we were feeding, the we would increase the flow to have the mysis "swim" around. NO POWER HEAD
2) since they are slow eaters you are limited to the fish you could put in with them. we put yellow head rose gobies in with them. They ate different things, so this worked out great.
3) they do need to be fed daily. How we got around this is 2 ways, one we made sure there were lots of pods in there for them, and fed them frozen mysis shrimp. daily
Water change about 1 gallon every 2 weeks.
We kept track of our little babies after they went to their new home, and as of today all but one is still alive. All others are doing great. As a matter of fact, last week I received an e-mail and apparently one is going to have babies.
Here's a pic of them in a 18 gallon Via Aqua tank with the lighting system that comes with those tanks. Worked out very very well.
Attachments
Lise,
I have been thinking about putting some seahorses in my Refuguim. It is 20 gal and above my main tank. Water is pumped up from the main tank and trickles down to the main. The water does get skimmed from the sump below the main tank. Could I keep a pair of SH in there and not decimate the population of pods that I have up there. My hope has always been to have pods drifting down into the main tank to suplement feeding below. What do people do when they go on vacation. Do others come over to feed the SHs or do you transport your SH to another's tank in your absence?
puntific
I have been thinking about putting some seahorses in my Refuguim. It is 20 gal and above my main tank. Water is pumped up from the main tank and trickles down to the main. The water does get skimmed from the sump below the main tank. Could I keep a pair of SH in there and not decimate the population of pods that I have up there. My hope has always been to have pods drifting down into the main tank to suplement feeding below. What do people do when they go on vacation. Do others come over to feed the SHs or do you transport your SH to another's tank in your absence?
puntific
I can't recommed doing that. That would not even be close to giving them their natural habitat. Too many varibles to worry about.
Our main goal in the hobby is to give the animals their natural home, and this would not be it.
I've set up Sea Horse tanks as small as 11 gallons and the largest was 28 gallons. I like the 28 gallon via aqua tanks for Sea Horsebecause of how slow the water flow is. you don't need to mess with it, it has that filtration system built in the lighting system works great for corals that don't need a lot of water movement, and they look soooo nice when you have it all finished...finished is a relative term here.
I know it's not the answer you wanted...but...
Our main goal in the hobby is to give the animals their natural home, and this would not be it.
I've set up Sea Horse tanks as small as 11 gallons and the largest was 28 gallons. I like the 28 gallon via aqua tanks for Sea Horsebecause of how slow the water flow is. you don't need to mess with it, it has that filtration system built in the lighting system works great for corals that don't need a lot of water movement, and they look soooo nice when you have it all finished...finished is a relative term here.
I know it's not the answer you wanted...but...
Squid, how long do mysis shrimp stay alive in a tank? Do you use sand on the bottom of the tank or crushed coral? How long should I set up for pods before I introduce some seahorses? If I feed live mysis shrimp will that mess me up for giving them frozen ones also? Are seahorses that finicky? Lots of questions. LOL
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Live mysis around here come from fresh water or cold water off the coast. Cold water mysis might make it a day. We've tried several experiments to determine their life span.
Seahorses
WARNING! SEAHORSES ARE HIGHLY ADDICTIVE! BE ADVISED!
On saying that, let me just say HELLO OREGONIANS! and everyone else out there
Seahorses are wonderful, frustrating, a world all their own! Hmm, sounds like a reef tank!
Either you wont like them, or you will be immediately and permanently addicted to them!
They CAN do well in SOME reef tanks, but not all.
You CAN keep WC just as well as CB if you learn the tricks to it. And the minute you introduce WC fish with CB horses, you've ended most of the reason for owning CB horses, introducing possible disease. WC horses can be taught to eat frozen foods, but its time consuming and not always 100% effective.
I know some of you know Woody at Seahorse Aquariums in Portland, he doesnt carry seahorses, but he can order both WC and CB.
If you are interested in seahorses, and want some info on keeping them, check out seahorse.org (are plugs allowed? I dont work for them, I just like the site )
I myself am ordering h.zosterae next week, some for Woody, if you can get to Portland when I deliver them, you are welcome to save some bucks and add to my order. Contact me ASAP though so I can set my order!
Happy reefing!
WARNING! SEAHORSES ARE HIGHLY ADDICTIVE! BE ADVISED!
On saying that, let me just say HELLO OREGONIANS! and everyone else out there
Seahorses are wonderful, frustrating, a world all their own! Hmm, sounds like a reef tank!
Either you wont like them, or you will be immediately and permanently addicted to them!
They CAN do well in SOME reef tanks, but not all.
You CAN keep WC just as well as CB if you learn the tricks to it. And the minute you introduce WC fish with CB horses, you've ended most of the reason for owning CB horses, introducing possible disease. WC horses can be taught to eat frozen foods, but its time consuming and not always 100% effective.
I know some of you know Woody at Seahorse Aquariums in Portland, he doesnt carry seahorses, but he can order both WC and CB.
If you are interested in seahorses, and want some info on keeping them, check out seahorse.org (are plugs allowed? I dont work for them, I just like the site )
I myself am ordering h.zosterae next week, some for Woody, if you can get to Portland when I deliver them, you are welcome to save some bucks and add to my order. Contact me ASAP though so I can set my order!
Happy reefing!
Ups and Downs of Seahorses
You dont ask for much, do you Mr. S.
Ive only owned seahorses for just over a year. I've owned and sold both WC and CB (I had a retail store for a short time and still do maintenance)
What did I do wrong? I didnt learn enough about them before I got them. Ignorance is NOT bliss with these guys. They aren't unmanageable, but they do require more knowledge than alot of your bread and butter saltwater fish.
Yes you CAN keep them in the classroom with a bit of extra care and consideration for their feeding. And yes kids are totally fascinated by seahorses.
I was successful at keeping the hardest to raise (H. Reidi) fry alive for two weeks. Unfortunately I lost the female to fungus after that so couldnt try again.
Out of my nine original seahorses, I lost one to tank stress (I didnt acclimate it slow enough, or the right way...ignorance at that time) One arrived DOA, but four of them I had for a year. Sadly I sold them to a customer who had hounded me that entire year to buy them and someone poisoned her tank (it was in her tourist shop)
During that time I have gotten better at housing them, treating them for diseases, and teaching the WC ones to accept frozen foods. As much as I love ALL saltwater stuff, I just cant get away from seahorses!
They are the most amazing of creatures.
I highly advise to anyone that has caught the seahorse bug to read everything possible about them before buying them. I dont find them any more challenging than other saltwater fish, just 'different".
They definately arent for everyone.
You dont ask for much, do you Mr. S.
Ive only owned seahorses for just over a year. I've owned and sold both WC and CB (I had a retail store for a short time and still do maintenance)
What did I do wrong? I didnt learn enough about them before I got them. Ignorance is NOT bliss with these guys. They aren't unmanageable, but they do require more knowledge than alot of your bread and butter saltwater fish.
Yes you CAN keep them in the classroom with a bit of extra care and consideration for their feeding. And yes kids are totally fascinated by seahorses.
I was successful at keeping the hardest to raise (H. Reidi) fry alive for two weeks. Unfortunately I lost the female to fungus after that so couldnt try again.
Out of my nine original seahorses, I lost one to tank stress (I didnt acclimate it slow enough, or the right way...ignorance at that time) One arrived DOA, but four of them I had for a year. Sadly I sold them to a customer who had hounded me that entire year to buy them and someone poisoned her tank (it was in her tourist shop)
During that time I have gotten better at housing them, treating them for diseases, and teaching the WC ones to accept frozen foods. As much as I love ALL saltwater stuff, I just cant get away from seahorses!
They are the most amazing of creatures.
I highly advise to anyone that has caught the seahorse bug to read everything possible about them before buying them. I dont find them any more challenging than other saltwater fish, just 'different".
They definately arent for everyone.
Seahorse Prices
Prices for seahorses are as vastly different as the seahorses themselves. THe bigger they are the more they tend to cost. CB are also more expensive than their WC counterpart. Alot of online saltwater fish stores sell seahorses. Its a good way to research size/price/WC vs CB prices.
One of the smallest horses, the dwarf (H. Zosterae, being about 1" in size) range anywhere from WC @ $5 each to CB @ $15 each.
Size of tank needed depends on size of seahorse you are interested in. Dwarfs are best kept in a 10g and under tank, whereas some horses demand huge tanks. It all depends on the horse you are interested in. Most sites that sell seahorses show what size of tank minimum they need.
If you read the seahorse site, you will find alot of recommended places to buy horses from, and places not recommended. Sometimes you can even buy them from the hobbyist breeders on the site.
Prices for seahorses are as vastly different as the seahorses themselves. THe bigger they are the more they tend to cost. CB are also more expensive than their WC counterpart. Alot of online saltwater fish stores sell seahorses. Its a good way to research size/price/WC vs CB prices.
One of the smallest horses, the dwarf (H. Zosterae, being about 1" in size) range anywhere from WC @ $5 each to CB @ $15 each.
Size of tank needed depends on size of seahorse you are interested in. Dwarfs are best kept in a 10g and under tank, whereas some horses demand huge tanks. It all depends on the horse you are interested in. Most sites that sell seahorses show what size of tank minimum they need.
If you read the seahorse site, you will find alot of recommended places to buy horses from, and places not recommended. Sometimes you can even buy them from the hobbyist breeders on the site.
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