looking to set up a SEA HORSE tank!

[az]

i need newbie(tobe)info, from own experience would be the best, if not some urls would help too, thanks in advance!

[dannypd]

They are NOT good in captivity.

I did have a friend who had them in a 160 gallon tank with 80 gallon sump.  He only had 2 of them.  They eat a lot of zooplanton and other MICRO organizms on their OWN, they will not travel to your hand.  There has to be almost NO circulation in the water, the use of undergravel water movement is a must (almost like a UGF, but not the goal).  The goal is to circulate a LOT of water without disturbing the water.  The guy I know lives in Timmins and one side of the tanks UGF pumped water in, the other sucked it out.  He never removed the UGF plates, the micro-organizms in the sand took care of the junk.

He regurlarly paid 500-1200 for his horses, lasting from 6 months to 7 years.  He told me he's the only one within several thousand kilometers to have been able to keep one longer then 1 year (P4N7Z8 is the postal code).

The key points: 
i)LOTS of water volume. 
ii)LOTS of water critters (micro-organizms, use white bread to start it)
iii)LOW water movement
iv)ACCURATE water heaters
v)SUNRISE/SUNSET lights, no instead on/off lights (they will freak)
vi)PATIENCE...much MUCH more then other fish
vii)MONEY MINIMUM investment is $1500 equipment + $500 for fish.
viii)Confidence...these fish wont generally live past 1 year in captivity.

(ed note: Most of this was written by Paul, not dan)

[az]

the wild yellow ones are hard to keep, the captive bred brown ones known to survive and eat frozen food, the ones i am hoping to get will cost me no more than $50/pc for the brown/black ones, and $80/pc if i get yellow captive bred ones, the wild ones i can get for less than $50 but whats the point if they not going to make it! 

thanks Dan & Paul

[dannypd]

the wild yellow ones are hard to keep, the captive bred brown ones known to survive and eat frozen food, the ones i am hoping to get will cost me no more than $50/pc for the brown/black ones, and $80/pc if i get yellow captive bred ones, the wild ones i can get for less than $50 but whats the point if they not going to make it! 

thanks Dan & Paul

Not a problem...I guess the prices are cheaper here south...upnorth they are HARD to get, and his were always wild caught.  But, he also held some good records on keepin' them alive!

[mseguin]

All seahorses are threatened to some degree. Don't buy wild seahorses.

[Insane79]

My understanding is that they need a dedicated tank.  Tank raised sea horses usually eat mysis shrimp.  Marinescape has had some tank raised ones for awhile now. They would be a great source of info.

Good luck

[dannypd]

All seahorses are threatened to some degree. Don't buy wild seahorses.

They were wild, but not "wild" from the ocean.  They were farmed out in europe near a place called Albufeira or Faro.  It was near a salt evaporation place...  They raise them in a huge HUGE estuary type place...

[mseguin]

Sorry, wasn't really referring to ur post. Just saying, avoid wild seahorses :-)

[dannypd]

Sorry, wasn't really referring to ur post. Just saying, avoid wild seahorses :-)

Personally, I would say avoid all seahorses.  They are too fragile and require such a huge water volumn and specific diet...

...go with puffers, atleast they have stronger limbs, but still hover    oh, they live till atleast 15-30 years!

[mseguin]

I generally say the same thing, but there are some people who can do it right. I even know of a few people in Ottawa who have bred them.

[dannypd]

I generally say the same thing, but there are some people who can do it right. I even know of a few people in Ottawa who have bred them.

hey, to each thier own eh?

My motto is if yuo can breed the population without killing it (eg: inbreeding beyond control), you are helping keep one more animal from becoming extinct.

[az]

que for the pros: what kinda lighting do i need for putting these pcs along with few yuma ricordias, thanks in advance.

[dannypd]

que for the pros: what kinda lighting do i need for putting these pcs along with few yuma ricordias, thanks in advance.

Would this be for the horses tank?   Its tought doing see-horse + coral.  Natually it looks neat in the wild, but corals need "generally" lots of watermovement, and sea-horses dont.

[tbarb]

Go to Aquascape on carling avenue. They have/had seahorses and they would tell you what it takes to care for them. I must agree though that from the minimum info I know of them, they are very fragile. Daily care is a must.

[mseguin]

Hourly care is generally needed.

[gvv]

que for the pros: what kinda lighting do i need for putting these pcs along with few yuma ricordias, thanks in advance.

Cannot be sure, as picture is not clear, but it seems like Caulerpa racemosa (Grape Caulerpa) to me and not a coral.
If so, I have it spreading like crazy with 2 screw-in 13W (4500K) CF in the sump. So, very low light requirements.

Regards

[Julie]

Az, did you set one up?

[az]

still in the process, tank has been running for 3 months (with other fish)....not too long now!

[mystic_january]

I know this is kinda an old topic but here I go, firstly seahorse.org is the best place for information on seahorses. I have had seahorses for about a year now, IMO never do wild caught, they are endangered and still people are taking them from the wild and drying them out by the millions in asia... so sad. plus they do poorly in captivity.

if you get captive breds, they will usually eat frozen mysis or brine twice a day, if they do not eat frozen foods, it is not hard to get them to begin accepting it.

they do not need a lot of water to thrive, i have 2 adult seahorses in a 29 gallon. they can do well with medium water current as long as they have many places to hitch their tails to, the only problem would be when feeding them, if you do have a moderate current, a feeding station will be your best friend, a glass bowl with a few hitching posts around it in an area that gets less of a current will be fine. training them to learn this as the feeding area is also not hard, for the first few times just collect them up and place them at the feeding station, after a little while they will got there on their own at feeding time.

water quality is surprisingly not as demanding as corals, they need of course o ammonia and 0 nitrites but nitrates can be up to 50 before there is problems. depending on what type of seahorses you are planning on getting they might tell you to have ur temp up to 80 in some cases, it is now found that any seahorse will do best in lower temperatures between 70-74, this is because in higher temps bad bacteria will grow, and if your seahorses immune system is down for some reason, they will be infected much easier than any other fish by the bad bacteria.

I have been told they can live aound 4 years, but there is little information about life expectancy and I have heard of someone's living up to 7 years.

filtration: undergravel filters are a nono! it doesnt have to be expensive fltration, in my 29 gal i just have a surface skimmer hooked up to a hang on power filter. weekly maintenance is of course needed ie. siphoning the crushed coral to get rid of access food and debris. I am however setting up a new tank for them and going the expensive route of a sump, protein skimmer, cannister filter, crushed coral can work, but it is more work because of the cleaning issue, in the new tank im using sand, much less hastle so I'm told.

one more thing, be very careful about what you put in your tank with them, http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles/tankmates.shtml this is a page that will tell you exactly what is seahorse safe and what you should avoid.

sorry to rant, hope this is of some help.

[Julie]

Thank you for the informative link.  Post pictures as you progress.

Where are you purchasing them?