Lookee!!

[mogurnda]

Hey All,

I have been waiting for this for months. After MACNA, I decided it was time to set up a tank for some of Draco's seahorses. After some reading, talking to the folks at seahorse.org, and a lot of messing around, the tank was ready.

 

 

It's a 30 xtall, with 250 watts of 6500 K halide light and a 6" vDSB for the turtle grass and manatee grass; 12" aquafuge and corallife super skimmer. The gorgonian frags are progeny from frags I got from pupchow and scott711, and the sea blade colony is from floridapets.

 

Here they are, two fairly large H erectus. Cute as buttons, huh?

 

A couple of shots of the male:

 

 

The female, smaller, lighter, spikier:

 

The happy couple:

 

They were raised on frozen mysis, but don't seem to be that excited about it when they can hunt amphipods.

[rocko918]

Welcome to the Seahorse club!!!

 

I have 4 erectus, 2 male and 2 female in a 30 g high. They are eating frozen mysid as well. They have mated 3 times already and have been doing it every 3 weeks. I also have 11 week old fry in a 10 gallon.

 

Your SH's have great features on them. The tank looks great, do you have alot of flow in there? Looks like you have a few pumps in it.

[Lee Stearns]

I have a 54 corner set up with two males and a female Redi. They have bred three times and the male pops at a time I never seem to expect- I will be ready one day to try and get some of the cute little ones into a 2.5 g tank and try to raise like Bob did.

They are fun to watch come feeding at the horse trough- get them trianed to it and you will waste a lot less food and not have as many bristle worms. I keep a couple of gobies in there to eat some of the excess. I have made it a softy coral only tank, and still do not have enough light.

Your MH over your tank should allow you to have a beautiful set up-

Regards,

[magic9418]

Very Nice :77: I want to get into sea horses at some point in time.

Laters

[mogurnda]

Good to see there are other SH people around here.

 

It's about time I set up a little trough for them. Right now a lot is wasted. A few porcelain crabs, brittle stars, and (before the seahorses started eating them) amphpods are helping take care of the excess, but I expect the bristleworms will be in heaven.

 

I do have a lot of circulation, between the skimmer, an AC301 powerhead and the aquafuge. It's more than a lot of people recommend, but others (like Jorge) seem to think it's just fine. The plants and gorgs like it, and the SHs can easily navigate in the current when they feel like moving. I have been shutting off the 301 PH when I feed.

 

The Thalassia has been growing steadily, and I will have a few more plants arriving today, so I'm hoping for a nice grassbed.

[scott711]

that is very cool, I would like to see sometime :2thumbsup:

[Lee Stearns]

You get that grass bed established and let me know when you want to trade a few sprigs off after it really gets going.

Regards,

[rocko918]

Same here,

 

 

I have some stargrass but it is not growing all that well. So i would like to try something else.

[Guest Larry-T]

I'm interested in getting into seahorses, but I need to get some of the proper grasses for them. Anyone have some to sell at the Feb meeting?

 

<<** Larry **>>

[mogurnda]

When the turtle grass starts to spread, I won't need to post. You'll hear me all the way in Virginia.

 

I was getting great growth with stargrass until something ate it.

 

Remember guys, Jorge will be bringing 10 seahorses for the raffle, so it's good to start thinking about setups now if you're going to enter.

[mosheikh]

Very nice tank..I am considering turning my 29g into a Seahorse tank. I am getting about 40lbs of liverock and a used remora this weekend. What is an ideal temperature for keeping seahorses? How much flow should you have? I have 1 Maxijet 1200, but I also have 2 small aquaclear powerheads. As for lighting, right now I have a 150w hqi metal halide pendant. Is there going to be any problems using metal halides beside the heat problem? How many seahorses can you have in a single tank? Does anybody know where the Feb. Meeting is going to be held?

 

 

Thanks,

-Mohsin

Edited January 18, 2006 by Weap0n_X

[davelin315]

Hey guys, I kept sea horses before and one thing I know is that you don't need the intense lighting for them. They're not photosynthetic (obviously) and do well in good water. They often don't hitch to things that we would like them to because of the tendency of most corals to pack a little bit of a sting. One suggestion for everyone trying to grow the grass, put in a plant bulb instead of reef lighting. Don't forget that plants grow better with a different spectrum of lighting than we like to put our corals under. Look at what people use for refugium bulbs and that will give you a better result with growing these aquatic plants than reef lighting. Plants don't like as much blue as we like to see over our tanks and thrive on lower color temperatures (5500K is daylight color).

 

As far as temperature, it depends on the type of horse you're looking at. I know that Hippocampus erectus is found up and down the coast and is an indigenous species to the Chesapeake Bay, which means that it can thrive at temperatures of 65 degrees if that's what you'd like to do. Each species will be different, though, and there's also variation within each species. Figure out which one you like, and then research where they come from. For example, the large Brazilian sea horses are obviously from more temperate waters and would do better in 78-80 degree water. Dwarf seahorses would do better in warmer water as well for the most part as they are typically a Tropical seahorse. If you're luckey enough to ever find a sea dragon, they are from the temperate waters around Australia so plan accordingly.

 

As far as stocking recommendations, I'm not an expert on that although I once had some knowledge about how many to keep in a system. However, it seems as if some of the information contradicts what I was told before as far as size of the system and number of horses to keep in it. Good luck, I'm also going to set up a sea horse tank at Floris!

[GaryL]

Remember guys, Jorge will be bringing 10 seahorses for the raffle, so it's good to start thinking about setups now if you're going to enter.

50500[/snapback]

 

i got a reidi from seahorses.org booth. actually 2 but one did not eat well.

 

so ill be looking for another reidi or 2.

[Lee Stearns]

Wish I could raise my babies- when the male starts to push them out they are everywhere- you'd have more reidi than you could handle.

[rocko918]

Raising fry is A LOT of work, you have to feed with babie brine shrimp (which you have to hatch, have 3 setups running to make it easier on yourself). They require no power heads as they will get sucked in so an air stone with a heater is all that you will need. as you can imagine with out a real filter you have to change water alot, i mean they are talking about everyday, i did not have time to do it everyday, i was able to do it weekly. Recommeded that you feed 3 to 4 times a day, i am lucky to have my wife home to help with that. All in all it's alot of work and you do get alot of die off. i started with 38 fry and have 3 left after 11 weeks.

[rocko918]

If you're luckey enough to ever find a sea dragon, they are from the temperate waters around Australia so plan accordingly.

 

 

50523[/snapback]

I don't think it's legal to have a sea dragon.

[mogurnda]

I think it's legal to own sea dragons, just not export them. Actually, I have no idea. Jorge has 4 at Draco, but he may have a special permit for breeding them. My wife was mad that she didn't come with me when she heard about the sea dragons.

 

Setups can be as simple or as complicated as you want. There are a few factors to keep in mind, like you want to have the tank 2-3 times as tall as the adult length so they can dance when courting. They will need things to hitch onto, but these can be plastic plants, rope, live plants, macroalgae, gorgonians, or even that acro colony that RTN'd and you don't know what to do with.

 

There seems to be a lot of controversy about things like temperature and currents. The seahorse.org people recommend cooler temps, even for tropical species like reidi. 74 degrees max for erectus. On the other hand, all of Jorge's tanks are in a room that's about 78-80 degrees, and he's got some broodstock fish that are 5 years old. As far as currents, some say you don't want too much, but Jorge says that they like a lot of turbulent flow.

 

According to Jorge, you can keep SHs in a reef, as long as there are no fish that will harrass the ponies or steal too much of their food. That is rather controversial, but I am now seeing posts here and there of people doing it and succeeding, so who knows.

 

Stocking? Some would say that two adult erectus or reidi is maximum in my tank, others might say two pairs. I tend to stock conservatively, so started with one pair.

 

I decided to go with a grassbed because I wanted to try something new, and I thought the SHs would like having grasses and gorgonians to play in. Although stargrass and manatee grass can make do with less, the turtle grass needs 5-6" of sand minimum. I'm using the 6500 K Iwasakis because they have high PAR (which is actually more relevant to plants than corals), because people have said that Thalassia does well with them, and because I had a few lying around.

 

A few more turtle grass plants came in last night, plus a few shaving brush, and I'll post photos when I can sit down and take them.

[davidm]

Welcome to seahorses - my kids love watching them - I started my seahorse tank in 2001. I've also found many contradictions about flow - I personally feel they're fine as long as they can find refuge from the high currents.

 

Excuse my ignorance - It's been yrs since I've bought new horses - where do people get them from now- who is Jorge?

 

thanks, David

[mogurnda]

Excuse my ignorance - It's been yrs since I've bought new horses - where do people get them from now- who is Jorge?

 

50602[/snapback]

Sorry, I should have elaborated a little. Jorge is Jorge Gomezjurado, who was in charge of the seahorse exhibit at the Baltimore Aquarium, and has started his own seahorse aquaculture facility (Draco Marine Aquaculture) nearby. He will be our speaker on Feb 25.

 

As far as sources, the commercial aquaculture facilities I know of are Draco and Ocean Rider. OR is developing a lousy reputation for customer service, but they have a large selection of lines. You can often find someone who is breeding on seahorse.org as well. There are probably others, but I don't know of them.

[Lee Stearns]

MY 54 corner tank is running with two male and one female reidi- and one or the other male seems to be carrying about all the time- The female has grown considerably but is still smaller than the males. I have what many would consider too much flow but they are very happy and there are several spots that they can go hiding- often people wonder where the large males are- they hide and hunt well- so far I just have a ball of chaeto and grape calura growing in there with several soft corals, mushrooms, some zoos devils hand, singulara, capnella and colts.

I have to second Bobs comments- raising the fry is extremely time consumming from all the threads at the sea horse web sights. I kept sea horses many years back when they were predominately wild caught and had to be fed live foods. What a huge difference now- captive bred is the only way to go- they thrive on frozen mysis but are thrilled to get small live grass shrimp or copepods- I add some copepoda nad see them hunting for says after wards searching every movement in any cranny.

[fishface]

I have erectus 4 that are going into a 75. Stay tuned for pictures of Frankenstein.

 

I bought a Green Mandarin that was eating frozen mysis at Fins and Feathers to keep them company. I will add some Zoos and shrooms from my display tank for their habitat (and free up space there). I don't see them often enough in posted pics, but they'd have to be fine.

 

The tank will have normal reef lighting 210w vho's, and I will have some clams in with them too. Grass to follow. There a lot of contention back and forth about what corals would live well with them. I bought these horses from Jorge and asked his opinion. He was interested in people experimenting a little with corals. Anything that's low toxicity and not enclined to grab them. Even a Fungia would be fine. Softies are possible too.

 

Meanwhile, I was watching the little seahorse tank at Marine scene and one of the little guys in it sat with its tail draped right on a Torch coral colony.

Seahorse can get stung by anything more aggressive than that even though their skin/scales appear armored when compared to a regular fish.

For the question of tank size-I understand that the tank height must be twice the adult height to allow for the mating dance.

And Ocean Rider vs. Draco.-You can drive to Draco within an hour, and select the exact pair you wish to have in your tank at home....

On the Sea Dragons- Jorge spoke at MACNA and stated that his next challenge is to make Sea Dragons available for the aquarist. So there always hope!

FF

 

 

FF

[PupChow]

Really cool SHs and tank! I have always wanted to do a 10g seahorse nano, but I have been iffy about it due to their feeding habit... how often do you have to feed them? And I assume they take frozen mysis?

 

Good stuff! :2thumbsup: