Looking for Seahorse homes

[Aerinah]

I just aquired a pair of wonderful (TANK RAISED YAY!!!) seahorses from one of my LFS's and We are now in search of trying to find them some "acceptable" habitats for them to hang onto etc... I've done a bit of research, and they mention gorgonians and black coral trees?

 

We have a 40g Hex tank that is inline with our main reef tank (as seahorses are not aggressive feeders), and are having a hood built for this as we speak (bartering work with a friend of ours who makes stands/canopies) for a compac fluorescent light to be installed in (our friend is also doing our lighting for us).

 

I've read that they don't need a lot of light but would like to find something that would do well in our tank! I'm looking for suggestions at this point and frags that we might be able to pick up for cheap... Still on a PT budget LOL (sigh - I need to win the lottery for this hobby LOL). We would like bright colorful stuff, but not sure what is available as far as colors go at this point. Photo's would be wonderful if you can point me in the right direction... or send me a pic of what you have if you're willing to frag it/them out. Purples, reds, yellows, pinks... all welcome we have a lot of green in our system right now and would like to try to stay away from that particular color.

 

Please let me know in your response, what kind it is, what lights it will need, and any special requirements so I can be sure that this is something we can keep alive once we do add it. We've had incredible luck with our tank and have lost very little out of it (now that we're not hooked up with slimeballs who just want money) and I would like to keep it that way.

 

Anyway, Looking forward to hearing from you!

[JManrow]

I have found that they seem very happy with full spectrum lighting. Double fixture standard fluorescents should be fine, and Power Compacts should work great for your tank. A tall tank like your 40 Hex is ideal.

I would recommend having some liverock, but don't overdo it, and possibly a DSB if you like.

 

My horses bred like crazy under 6500k Daylight/ Actinic 03 combo. Do you know what species you have? I have raised Hippocampus zosterae several generations and have had many other species spawn in my LFS setups when I was in the trade.

 

You may want to check out http://www.seahorse.org/ and http://syngnathid.org/ and get involve in those forums too!

[mrgreenthumb]

I know that you are trying to get away from the green, but in the wild they are found and hunt in macro algea. Macro algea also provides a great hitch, nutrient export, and oxygen. Plus they are not all green there is always the red grape caluerpa. Gorgs are great too I'm always trying to find more of them for my seahorse tanks Sponges can be harder to find but are also great for promoting color. I also love colt corals and ployps both add color and the colt coral also provides a great hitch. As far as lighting goes that is going to depend largely on what type of corals you want to keep with your seahorses. Compact fluorescents should be good for anything you want to keep. I would also include some branching live rock for another great hitch. IME the one thing that can make the biggest difference in bringing out your horsies naturl color is to use a blue background. Go figure thats what color their background is in the wild. So if you want to bring out those bright colors use the blue backrgound!! Another thing you might consider doing is lowering your water temp to 76 as seahorses perfer the cooler water and it won't bother any of your other inhabitants in your main tank as well. If I had to put my money on it I would say you probably picked up either kudas or kellogi as these are the only ones I've seen in the lfs's. Glad to hear another person is keeping seahorses!! Good luck and keep us updated on how everything is going!!!LMK if you would like any green macros I know your tryin to stay away but thats all I have to offer. Getting ready to frag the colt so I could get you some of that in a couple weeks as well once it is all healed up, but if your not wanting to wait the colt is usually really inexpensive, and I think about every lfs in town has some. Oh and I almost forgot about xenia too also seahorse safe soft coral. I'll post a picture of my seahorse display here in a couple of minutes

HTH

[Aerinah]

Thank you both for the wonderful information. I'll be welcoming any and all ideas as this is our first trial with seahorses. Unfortunatly I don't think one of them is going to make it but the other seems to be doing fine. I could be wrong on both cases though, like I said this is our first go around. One of them is a yellowish brown with darker spots, the other is a darker yellow/brown with even darker spots. I really dont' know what kind they are other than they are tank raised (I know my bad for not asking).

 

We're doing this for our daughter who is in love with the nemo movie, she really wanted the seahorses, so here we are

 

I welcome any frags that are available (even green) although I need to talk to our daughter about re-locating her choclate chip starfish that she wanted (and that are now in the seahorse tank). We'll see what happens about those. I'd love to get soem grape algae (can't remember what the correct name is, calupera?) Red would be awesome (I've never seen it) but green would be fine as well, we want to have a happy home for them over anything else.

 

We do have a few peices of LR in the tank, along with a fake blue plant and a coral peice with fake leaves on it (cloth). DSB? Something Sand bed? We have a 2-3" sand bed in there right now (size 0 or 1) I Can't rememver what size. and shrimp (tiny ones) like crazy and weird little bugs all over. ALso have some kind of green seaweed stuff in there with a small peice of cleto? Oh and Spongebob's house.

[mrgreenthumb]

all right then next time I do my weekly pruning I will send you a pm and give you lots of grape and a ferw other of my favs as well. I usually just end up throwing them away so it will be nice that someone else gets to benefit from it. Stuff grows like crazy!!! I will say that it is also important to have your lights set on a timer because having a changing photoperiod can cause some macros to go a-sexual and release alot of I don't even know what but its green and can cause tank crash if not delt with quickly. Also what is the horsie doin that makes you think it might not make it??? Where did you get him from?? you can pm me if you'd rather not say on the forum. The only reason I ask is this might help us figure out where the horse originally came from and what species it is so we can help you more and know what we are dealing with.

[mrgreenthumb]

DSB = deep sand bed. I usually do about 2 -3 in in all my tanks as well so I would say that you are good with that. Another thing you may consider is a feeding dish. I know it sounds crazy but believe me it works. I use one in all of my seahorse tanks. There are many benefits to doing this: Prevents seahorse from snicking or sucking up sand while eating which can injure their snouts if they do get sand stuck in them , sand is where poop settles so is very unsanitary and this is important because seahorses are very suseptable to bacterial infections, the dish also allows you to pull any uneaten food out which will cut down on waste and the chance of one of your babies eating wrotten food, it also allows you remove and wash the dish keeping eveything more sanitary, and last it allows you to see which ones are eating and which ones aren't. It is very easy to train them to eat out of the dish. I use a turkey baster and just squirt mysis shrimp into the dish so that the horses can see them falling into the dish. Before you know it they will be waiting at there feeding dish everyday for their food. Like a horse waiting at a trough:D