My 2.5-Gallon Soon to be Dwarf Seahorse Tank!

[Fishgirl2393]

Well, the macroalgae (which has been looking bad for a while) I removed because it was turning to mush. I may eventually get some more but for now, I'm going to just have fake plants. The tank is still stable (thank goodness) and looks good. I'm working on a computer fan to put into the hood (to cool the tank in the heat of summer) and have everything I need to do it, just need to figure out how to mount it. When done, I will be able to turn it on or off without having to turn the lights off (or if they are already off, I can still run the fan if needed).

[Fishgirl2393]

Things are still going well with the tank. The seahorses will probably be shipped Monday or Tuesday because I was nervous about shipping on a Thursday and having them arrive on a Saturday (much less room for error on the mail side what with the weekend) so I told the breeder to delay shipping.

[Fishgirl2393]

Just talked to shipper and seahorses will be shipped Monday. Will be hatching brine shrimp either over the weekend or on Tuesday (or both) so that I can enrich (if I decide to bbs hatch over the weekend) or can feed newly hatched (if I hatch bbs on Tuesday). The tank is ready except I need a new light (I've been using an aquarium incandescent bulb over it which is very yellow and ugly). I'm considering LED (but nothing really bright because seahorses don't like bright lights and don't need them). Any suggestions (links to products, names of products, etc) would be most appreciated!

[sillycupid]

Are you putting a filter on your tank? I prefer going without.

[Fishgirl2393]

Yes. I'm running a Tetra Whisper 1-3i filter on the tank (air driven filter) with pantyhose over the intake to keep the little dwarfs out! The tank is probably going to have some more fake plants added because it's kinda bare (to me) right now (there are plenty of things for them to hitch to but I'd like some more things).

[Fishgirl2393]

The seahorses were shipped yesterday (later afternoon) and will (supposedly) be here Wednesday (I hope the tracking info is right because last time it wasn't). I started a hatch of BBS last night and will enrich half of it (when it can be enriched) and feed the other half to the newly arrived dwarfs! I'm getting really excited!!!

[Fishgirl2393]

The seahorses are here now! They're being acclimated to the new tank and look GREAT! I have a little blackish female it looks like. And I think one may be pregnant (not sure though since they're still in the bag).

[sillycupid]

PICTURES!!!

[Fishgirl2393]

I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow if I can. The seahorses seem pretty happy in their new tank. I need to add a bit more saltwater because I had to remove a bit when acclimating them and since everything works (filters, etc) and the water is fine (no pollutants)/salinity is fine, I haven't bothered adding any more saltwater since it would just stress them out more. Will probably add some tomorrow though.

[Fishgirl2393]

Well, my seahorse population has doubled now. Yep, that's right, I've got 6 baby seahorses now! Will post pics as soon as possible.

[Fishgirl2393]

Sorry about not posting pictures. I've been extremely busy with other stuff right now. I'll try to post pictures soon. I still have all twelve seahorses (six adults and six babies!)! After using the new tank for a while now, I can say that it seems more stable and obviously gives the seahorses more room to "play". Still need to replace the light but not sure when I'll be able to do it. One of my males MAY have more babies soon!

[Fishgirl2393]

Seahorses are still doing good. I need to do a water change/clean the glass but things are going well. Still have the babies and they're getting bigger! Think I may have more babies soon but don't know for sure. I'm hatching brine shrimp pretty regularly.

[Fishgirl2393]

Well, the remaining seahorses are doing good but guess what....

I ended up with MORE amphipods that killed and ate some of the seahorses. I had to restart the tank yet again (with brand new Caribsea Arag-Alive and new water, etc) and am waiting a bit before adding the seahorses back. The tank looks good and I don't THINK I'm going to get much of a cycle but I'm waiting a bit to be sure.

[sillycupid]

Have you tried a bare bottom floating decorations only? So the amphipods do not have anything to hide under and you can clearly see any pests floating around. Im sorry to hear about your loss. Did you lose the adults or babies?

[Fishgirl2393]

Hey guys. Sorry it's been so long since I updated. In response to the question asked above, I lost the babies and some of the adults. I still have 2 of the seahorses (and have for a while) and am hoping they're going to breed (I have a male and female as luck would have it!) and give me more babies. They are in a 2.5-3 gallon tank with the Caribsea Arag-Alive sand and all fake decor (except a dead birdsnest coral skeleton). They are very healthy and seem to be doing very well. I will try to get some pictures and post them but first I'll have to charge my camera batteries.

[Enavas]

Any update on your seahorses?

[Eclipse]

Pics!!! You're killing me here lol

[Fishgirl2393]

Thought I would do an update. I haven't had dwarf seahorses for a while now. The adults did GREAT and had babies (many times they had 10-15) several times (I lost count!!!) but I was never able to get rid of the predatory amphipods and they ate the babies (I'm positive of this). The adults lived for about a year (they were adult when I got them so that was actually a pretty long time!) and eventually all died off (with no babies to replenish the population). I'm working on a better designed tank for them currently. I'm planning on using a 10-gallon glass tank and dividing it (possibly with fine mesh but I'm not sure yet) so I can use stronger filtration (behind the screen so they don't get sucked up or blown around) and keep water quality more stable with less work. The tank will be set up with sand and probably rock rubble (NOT live to start with since hydroids are always a risk) and fake plants/fake gorgonia. I think the main reason for the amphipods before was the live plants and I don't intend to repeat that mistake again. So, this thread is likely to become active again... but not until I have time to finish designing the tank, set it up, and cycle it for dwarf seahorses.

[Fishgirl2393]

Still working on design for the new tank in progress. Going to run a mock-up today and see if my design will work. My plan is to separate the tank into a refugium/filtration area and the display area with a mesh like material. I might go with the full on AIO overflow design but we'll see. The idea is that with a setup like this, I'll be able to keep it filtered really well without injuring the ponies. And the extra water provided by the 10-gallon will provide more stability for the tank.

[vlangel]

Hi fishgirl, I'm gonna follow your updates since I would love to raise ponies someday. Did you feed yours 3xs a day? That's one of my biggest obstacles, how do you ever go away and leave them in someone else's care when they need live baby brine that often?

[Fishgirl2393]

Hi fishgirl, I'm gonna follow your updates since I would love to raise ponies someday. Did you feed yours 3xs a day? That's one of my biggest obstacles, how do you ever go away and leave them in someone else's care when they need live baby brine that often?

Thanks! It's not that tough feeding them (which is the hardest part besides keeping predators of them out of the tank!) and I usually fed them 2 times a day (they were nice and plump so it seemed to be plenty). The thing is, they require live bbs (as I'm sure you know) and/or copepods. It's best to enrich them but you don't HAVE to every feeding. I alternated between enriched and newly hatched (usually newly hatched if I had babies in the tank). They're so cute and have a lot of personality! I was gone for about a week at least once and left instructions with my family as to how to care for them and everything was fine when I returned. If I had to leave them with a friend for a few days, I would hatch some bbs, enrich it and put it in the fridge (keeps the bbs alive but keeps them from growing) and maybe leave another hatch going (to feed in a day).

[Fishgirl2393]

The mock-up last night went really well. My plan of using screen mesh is what I am going to be doing (it's nylon so it shouldn't be an issue). The purpose is to keep the filtration in a separate "chamber" from the ponies so I can use stronger filtration on the tank (and therefore, keep it cleaner) without hurting them. It will also perform a second task and that is keeping them away from the heater (a dangerous object if a seahorse decides to wrap its tail around it) that will go in the tank. I may get sand (dry) soon. I've got some dry rubble rock that I may use some of but not sure yet. Love the way live macro looks but probably not to use it because of the risk of hydroids (I'm going to be using fake plants and such).

[vlangel]

Thanks! It's not that tough feeding them (which is the hardest part besides keeping predators of them out of the tank!) and I usually fed them 2 times a day (they were nice and plump so it seemed to be plenty). The thing is, they require live bbs (as I'm sure you know) and/or copepods. It's best to enrich them but you don't HAVE to every feeding. I alternated between enriched and newly hatched (usually newly hatched if I had babies in the tank). They're so cute and have a lot of personality! I was gone for about a week at least once and left instructions with my family as to how to care for them and everything was fine when I returned. If I had to leave them with a friend for a few days, I would hatch some bbs, enrich it and put it in the fridge (keeps the bbs alive but keeps them from growing) and maybe leave another hatch going (to feed in a day).

Ok, that sounds better than I thought. I know how to hatch bb and have a hatchery because I raised baby clowns once. They were very cute and it was fun once but a tremendous amount of work. The bb wasn't bad but the rotifer culture was really tough and that is all they ate at first til they morphed.

My next question: what are hydroids and where do they come from?

[Fishgirl2393]

Yeah, the feeding is not too bad. Hydroids are tiny jellyfish and/or anemone like little critters (or colonial hydroids are tube worm like) that can hitchhike in on almost anything that has saltwater on it. There are SOME people who say that they can come off brine shrimp eggs but I never had that problem. They can sting and kill dwarf seahorses. If they are found in a tank, usually people use panacur (a dog/cat/horse dewormer) to kill them.

[vlangel]

Yeah, the feeding is not too bad. Hydroids are tiny jellyfish and/or anemone like little critters (or colonial hydroids are tube worm like) that can hitchhike in on almost anything that has saltwater on it. There are SOME people who say that they can come off brine shrimp eggs but I never had that problem. They can sting and kill dwarf seahorses. If they are found in a tank, usually people use panacur (a dog/cat/horse dewormer) to kill them.

Do they always hitchhike on something or can they be in the water column of a reef tank? The reason I asked is I was thinking of using my WC water to do WCs in the seahorse tank. I usually do 10-15% in my reef tank weekly, mostly to replenish calcium and minerals so that water is still reasonably clean. If they do travel in the water column maybe I could catch them with a fine mesh or screen?