Seahorses: advice from those who keep them please?
 

I'm going to be setting up a 72g with the intent of housing a couple seahorses some time down the line. I don't have any personal experience owning ponies. I've read through quite a bit of material as well as browsed sites like seahorse.org, but I was wondering if some of the folks on canreef could pipe up about their own personal experiences and tips about owning seahorses. I'd like to know what you do for husbandry, flow, feeding, breeding, care of ponies and fry and anything else you can think of for tips. Thanks so much!

Plans:
My 72g will be low flow (may end up using only the sump pump or may keep the FX5 on there--which I am using for the seeded sponges at the moment). I plan on screening off any intakes so nobody gets sucked into anything. It has a 33g sump and an ATO.

I will likely use some kind of base rock so I don't have to deal with aptasia/hydroids (thinking combo of eco-rocks and tuffa). Lights are 4 t5s with a parabolic reflector (not horrible, but not awesome either.) I'm unsure if these would be adequate for photosynthetic gorgs, but I might get away with it if I put them near the top. I have a couple other coralife t5s I could throw on there if I fix the ballasts and a x2 48" PC if I have to, but I'd prefer to not add too much in the way of lighting at this point in time. I might also add a couple fake brightly colored gorgs just for something colorful for them to hang on to.

It only has a coralife 65 skimmer on it at present, but I will upgrade that when I can. (Would like to buy a bigger skimmer for the 120g and then will give that tanks skimmer--a Euroreef 135--to this tank so I can feed heavily if necessary.)

I am not super picky about what kind of pony to buy, but I'd like bright colored ones (of the same breed) which are captive bred and eating frozen.

Low flow, lots of places for them to hang on with their prehensile tails, no fast eating fish (just fish like Leopard wrasse, jawfish, small gobies, but NOT lawnmower blennies or similar fish), feeding minimum twice a day, preferably more.

If you can train them to eat from a specific feeding station, like an empty clam shell, that would be best.

I keep lots of large nassasarius (sp?) snails in the tank for scavenging, since seahorses are slow eaters & not very thorough.

Try to keep bristleworms out of tank since the uneaten foods will cause a population explosion.

I've kept pairs of cleaner shrimp in their tanks before to provide a feast of live food every few weeks.

Not recommended, but I've kept corals & anemones even in their tanks. My ponies were smart enough to go under the anemones & nudge them up with their heads, always careful to avoid the stinging tentacles. Like I state, NOT recommended.

They don't like strong light needed by many corals. I just use spiral compact fluorescents (Phillips Daylight 6500k).

The only flow in the tank is from the return and that is high up, where the ponies usually don't go.

Good luck.

Anthony

there is a real discusion with skimmers with horses some say they are harmfull and some say they needed. I never had one I used a canister filter and realy lightly stocked the tank (4 poneys in one 60 gal) Mine bread many times. NO air bubbles the male horses and fry can injest the air and die from it (I lost a complete batch of fry from putting bubbles in it) Buy lots of eather fake or real seafans for them to hitch on.

+1, could you plumb the 72 into your main system? A 72 with a random surge pattern and a whole bunch of types of macro algae would be really interesting. Take a look at this web site they sell tones of different Macro algae for a few ideas.
http://reefcleaners.org/index.php?pa...mart&Itemid=34
Get a few gorgonias and you have eliminated nitrates in your 120 (if you have any) plus the Sea horses will have a constant supply of pods to hunt.
Levi

My seahorse tank is also my refugium for the fowlr/now softie reef. Its always full of macroalgae, especially stuff like Prolifera, which is tall and slim, for pony hitchingposts.

So I may not have to upgrade my skimmer? That would be a big plus.

Do you think photosynthetic gorgs would do ok under only 4 bulbs of t5s in a standard 72g? If so, that would be great, one of my gorgs really needs fragging anyway.

When your return pump is turned off how do you avoid bubbles in the tank when you turn it back on? Also, what is your porcedure for doing water changes without getting bubbles? Just how many bubbles are a problem? I get a few fine ones from my return, but not much.

I can't hook the tank into my 120 at present (we rent and where the tanks are would = a tons of sharp corners and nowhere to put the pipes). When we get a new place in a few years I will be hooking them up though.

Interesting about the anemone. I told my husband it was either ponies or nem with clowns and couldn't be both, but now I kind of wonder. I guess it is one of those risky take a gamble things that I will keep in mind.

Is anyone feeding anything besides mysis?

Has anyone here raised fry successfully? I'd love to hear all about it if so.

NOT recommending keeping Anemones & Seahorses together. Just mentioning that I've done it successfully in the past. Maybe my ponies were just smart or I was just lucky.

Anthony

Hello! I have five seahorses in a 46 gallon tank and I have not needed a skimmer in there yet. I feed carefully, with a feeding station, and perform a 10% water change every week. I have had great water quality and no problems with not having the skimmer. So whatever one you have should be good, as long as you don't over feed. I also have a canister filter with live rock rubble, carbon, and a sponge that is changed regularly. I point the output spray bar at the surface for some surface agitation, and also have a small powerhead for some more flow.

I have not had problems with bubbles during water changes, I could be wrong but I don't believe adult seahorses are too bothered by minor bubbling.

I used to feed only mysis but I've started adding in some enriched brine shrimp and the seahorses seem to appreciate the variety. Still primarily mysis though.

Haven't tried raising any fry yet, but good luck to you if you try! Of course you have been to seahorse.org, they have lots of info on that sort of thing.

Good luck! Keep us posted!

That's great, then I won't worry about the skimmer thing unless the tank looks like it "says" different. Now I just have to attempt being patient waiting for this tank because I am itching to stock it and decorate it. Thank you so much everyone for your advice. If you can think of any further tips please post 'em up. :D