Fish - Seahorse Info Needed

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Seahorse Info Needed

Printed From: Utah Reefs
Category: Specialized Discussion
Forum Name: Fish
Forum Description: This is the place to ask questions about fish.
URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=34096
Printed Date: July 12 2025 at 9:27pm
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Topic: Seahorse Info Needed

Posted By: vadryn
Subject: Seahorse Info Needed
Date Posted: July 06 2009 at 11:11am

I was in at The Aquarium on Friday and my wife saw their 8g Nano with seahorses on the desk there and really liked it. I want to put something in her office that will keep seahorses well and not be a PITA to maintain.

I understand that a seahorse tank is a low-flow tank where you can't keep anything that will compete with them for food. What I'm wondering is:

How difficult are seahorses to keep?

Can they be kept in a small (20L) sumpless system?

Good online resources to read up on them?

Recommended tankmates for seahorses?

I would love to see pics of your seahorse setup, too.

I have a 20L and standard 30g tank I can convert from FW to SW to do this. I can move LR and LS to kickstart the system. I am leaning towards running a Powerhead (or two) on a sponge for flow.

Replies:

Posted By: Adam Blundell
Date Posted: July 06 2009 at 11:17am

In general seahorses are just terrible hunters. So having no tankmates is probably the best idea. How difficult they are to keep is dependent on a few things. First, tank raised horses are much more likely to feed on prepared foods. They are incredibly cheap to buy so I can't see reason to get wild caught.

Second, they "need" macro algae. If I had a seahorse tank I would load it up with caulerpa... both for the horses and more importantly as a breeding ground for inverts.

Third- I would run a uv sterilizer on the tank. I've seen dozens of hobbyists lose their horses to disease. That would be my number one fear.

Adam

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Come to a meeting, they�re fun!

Posted By: griffith
Date Posted: July 06 2009 at 12:24pm

I agree - I had them for about 5 months, but lost them to disease, and child/seahorse birth. Every time one would die my wife cried and I felt like a bad caretaker.

They are fun, but be warned.

Linn

Posted By: vadryn
Date Posted: July 06 2009 at 12:34pm

Tankmates wouldn't have to mean fish. Crabs and other inverts would be good, too. Thanks for the input.

What about LR? How much sand?

Posted By: pa_reptileman_4
Date Posted: July 06 2009 at 2:14pm

imo easiest seahorses to keep are dwarfs. here is my suggestion for them.

1st get a 1.5 gal nano from walmart or petco. like this one.

http://www.petco.com/product/102093/Tetra-Water-Wonders-1-5-Gallon-Aquarium-Kit.aspx?CoreCat=FishFC_Tanks - http://www.petco.com/product/102093/Tetra-Water-Wonders-1-5-Gallon-Aquarium-Kit.aspx?CoreCat=FishFC_Tanks

2nd dont use the filter that comes with it, just the airline and get a sponge filter for it.

3rd add a thin layer of sand and water from your main tank. add some macros from your sump.

4th get a small cleaner crew, 1 hermit maybe 2-4 snails all must be small under 1".

now dwarf seahorses only eat live food, you have a few options here

A. Hatch bbs daily and feed to the horses.

B. just add bs eggs to the horse tank the airline in the tank will keep the bs eggs suspended and they will hatch in 18-30hrs.

C. hatch your bbs in the hatchery daily but dont take all the bbs out when you feed, but do add more eggs to the hatchery, keep the water tinted green with algea paste. empty the hatchery every week for sanitary purposes. now the reason behind this way is that the horses will get a varied size of food when they eat.

since you will be feeding live food there is no need to filter aggressivly.

also keep the water in the horse tank barely tinted green to keep any bbs that dont get eaten right away to survive for a later snack.

this has all been based in my experiance with the dwarfs i started with 6 adults and ended up with almost 30 horse only 6months later.

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pitiful guppy tank.
shane

Posted By: seahorse2007
Date Posted: July 07 2009 at 8:02am

Since you have too much, do you have any for sale?

Posted By: OceanBlueSky
Date Posted: July 16 2009 at 12:35am

The bigger the tank the better. Seahorses don't last very long unless you keep thier water conditions exreamly stable. Dwarf seahorses would be the way to go with a small tank.

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Arthur
220 Reef, 90 Lightning & RBTA, 7 nano

Posted By: Aquaristnewbie
Date Posted: July 16 2009 at 9:08pm

check out seahorse.org its a site on seahorse care and info on different kinds. I have been debating having them and this site has shed a little light on what i need.

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150 gallon Reef
Millcreek Utah

Posted By: pa_reptileman_4
Date Posted: July 16 2009 at 11:47pm

if there are people who want dwarfs i can put together an order. pm me for more info.

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pitiful guppy tank.
shane