care of H. reidi sea horses?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

seahorse.org is a good site.

I personally wouldn't want to put a pair in anything smaller than a 20g, even that's small. I have kudas in a 27g long but I'm upgrading them to a 30" by 24" by 18" tall tank.

Anthony

[bulletsworld]

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

seahorse.org is a good site.
I personally wouldn't want to put a pair in anything smaller than a 20g, even that's small. I have kudas in a 27g long but I'm upgrading them to a 30" by 24" by 18" tall tank. Anthony

I agree with Anthony, seahorse.org is the best informational site for seahorses. A 8gal would be sad. I also agree nothing smaller then a 20gal and even that is small. They like a tank that is tall and more room for them to glide is best for happy seahorses.

I do however have a tank for sale thats just shy of 30gals and was a perfect tall tank I used for my Seahorses. If your interested. Check out the buy/sell forum on the board here http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=33654.

[justinl]

i also just saw that your tank is jut cycling. so ill also assume that you dont currently have a mature tank for them. if that is the case, I would highly advise waiting until you have a proper setup that is mature and has a good high population of pods and other little food stuffs living in it.

When you buy seahorses you HAVE to buy captive reared. NEVER wild caught because they do terribly in home aquaria, most due to the fact that many never even consider eating prepared food. that said, the live food in a mature tank would act as a buffer of sorts until you figure out how much you need to feed your particular horses.

a seahorse tank is not something to be taken lightly. they are one of the more challenging animals to keep and require lots of discipline.

[bulletsworld]

Originally Posted by justinl

i also just saw that your tank is jut cycling. so ill also assume that you dont currently have a mature tank for them. if that is the case, I would highly advise waiting until you have a proper setup that is mature and has a good high population of pods and other little food stuffs living in it.


a seahorse tank is not something to be taken lightly. they are one of the more challenging animals to keep and require lots of discipline.

Justin, GOOD EYE!

AGREE!!!! YES, the MOST challenging EVER to keep! I can AGREE to this. I love seahorses but will NEVER have them again. Spot feeding. Very fragile creatures. Need Perfect water quality. Even brittle worms are harmful to them! They need TONS of care, as all noted above. It's NOT for a tank thats not even mature. Your just putting the seahorses to death or slowly starve to death. If you don't get bubble disease first! MUST read read read!

[Scavenger]

http://www.syngnathid.org/ is also a good source of information.

[sharuq1]

Hehe, that is what I thought! Now I can bombard him with other ppl thinking the same thing, lol. Bulletsworld, saw your tank, looks very tempting indeed. Does anyone know where I could get some live pods local or semi-locally? (For future reference; don't worry I won't be putting SH in the nano, lol-I am thinking a single fish and some inverts.) And please if you have more info on SH care continue to post, I would still like seahorses some day so the more I can research the better. Has anyone local had success in keeping and breeding them for example?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Breeding seahorses is relatively easy. The real challenge is raising the young ponies to maturity. I've had breeding pairs in the past, but the babies are sooooo tiny when born that it is an extreme challenge to keep them well fed on live foods like rotifers and baby brine shrimp.

They like slow flow, lots of hitching posts (like gorgonias or gorg. skeletons), and its best to train them to eat a feed station, like an oyster shell with hitching posts nearby. I had several in my cube refugium before and they loved swimming through the Prolifera and red Halimenia "forests".

Get them to feed defrosted mysis at the LFS before taking them home. You want to be sure they are already eating before deciding which one to keep.

No bubbles in the tank. Seahorses love going where there's bubbles, but they often end up getting in trouble from that habit. Not sure what causes bubble-disease (when air bubbles get trapped under their skin or in their pouches - for the males).

Anthony

[trilinearmipmap]

I think this is a species best avoided except by the insane.

My 30 gallon seahorse tank is cycling now. I will keep one pair of kuda's, maybe two. I agree with the others that an 8 gallon tank is too small.