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100% COMPLETELY sealed seahorse tank...


Jimmyboo

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Hi guys, I was just napping and had a pretty interesting idea. I like the idea of pico reef tanks and such, but when I run it by other people, they claim that is requires too much work or is too messy, so it got me thinking.... :rolleyes:

 

What if I could create a 100% sealed fish tank? No messes, no hassle, lots of inbreeding (hahaha :lol: ) anyways I was looking into do this as a coral tank, but that seems extremely hard. But what about seahorses?

 

http://www.amazon.com/EcoSphere-Closed-Aquatic-Ecosystem-Sphere/dp/B005IZOB5M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398029037&sr=8-1&keywords=sealed+shrimp+tank

 

I see this ^ on Amazon for $50 and over 250 people have bought it :o thats big $$... and think about how many people have bought one of these before. Ok, so my point is proven, there is interest in this.

 

But there are obvious problems, but I feel like I have a good work in progress.

 

The idea: The idea would be using a 2 gallon jar (just an idea of sizing). completely sealed.

 

the requirement: The requirements would be that the tank be placed in sunlight for (x) hours a day, that would be the only way to let the "plants" and "algae" in the tank grow.

 

The livestock: Live dwarf seahorses, would just guess that the tank could start out with 4 adult seahorses. This would give a roughly 12.5% shot that you get all one gender and thus loose the lasting life of the tank, although apparently its possible to figure out which gender is which. Additionally, there is the potential for a few mini shrimp to be placed in the tank to help regulate the algae and plant growth.

 

Food: This is where the biggest problem lays. Adult seahorse eat Brine Shrimp. Not just normal Brine Shrimp, but BABY brine shrimp. The only way this would work is before sealing I would have to establish a fair population of brine shrimp in the tank. Then add the seahorses. Sadly, as the population of Brine Shrimp goes down, a seahorse would have to die. Seahorses can not last long without food so it would be possible that one would die rather fast. Hopefully the seahorse would then be eaten by a shrimp. But then, the population of seahorses would be so low, the brine shrimp could reproduce faster than consumed and offer more food for the seahorses. As more seahorses are born, the population of Brine shrimp goes down etc etc the cycle never stops.

 

Plants: The purpose of the plants would be to add O2 to the tank and keep the nitrogen cycle working. More research needed.

 

And finally, Water and Air quality: The only way to keep these up without water changes would be some kind of internal filter. I have an idea here, what about a tiny solar panel connected to a mini "fan"? The "fan" would remain half in the water and half out, thus moving the air and water. The only problem is that the fan could only work for a few hours a day... aka only when the sun is hitting it.... So the water quality would be worse during the night.

 

If anyone is interested in making this dream of mine (literally!) a reality, please post a comment, I am happy to talk about it. :)

 

Best,

JB

 

Ohh and BTW if you go to some venture capitalist with this idea, at least give me credit ;)

 

p-73187-dwarf-seahorse.jpg

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This is basically an idea for torture of seahorses. They need to eat huge quantities of fresh hatched baby brine multiple times a day to be healthy. There's no way you could get a population of shrimp like that to thrive in a little 2 gallon tank. Seriously, do not do this. It is just cruelty to animals.

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This is basically an idea for torture of seahorses. They need to eat huge quantities of fresh hatched baby brine multiple times a day to be healthy. There's no way you could get a population of shrimp like that to thrive in a little 2 gallon tank. Seriously, do not do this. It is just cruelty to animals.

 

 

Its just an idea. Of course if the seahorses survived you really couldn't call it torture. But I understand your point.

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bonsaidarrell

Also, baby brine shrimp are not the natural food source for dwarf seahorses, just one that is easy to culture. While the brine shrimp can survive in seawater, you will have a hard time getting them to thrive. You would have better luck with pods, but you are not going to have the volume to generate enough to feed the seahorses.

 

You should also know that those EcoSpheres only really work because the shrimp are slowly starving to death.

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Its just an idea. Of course if the seahorses survived you really couldn't call it torture. But I understand your point.

The seahorses are absolutely not going to survive.

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lol you are crazy. This won't work with seahorses. It works with those shrimp because those shrimp are extremely hardy and live up to 30 years. They can survive in extremly harsh conditions like those in a sealed glass ball whereas seahorses are delicate.

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Legendary Corals

Although a cool idea, I think sea horses are hard to care for in an open tank already. Your idea of the population regulating itself isn't wrong, but usually it's in a very large and in an environment that can actually sustain the lifestyle of both organisms. The idea to make a self-sustaining environment is already difficult in large aquariums that aren't sealed and I have yet to see a successful aquarium that was hands free.

 

As someone pointed out, the shrimps in the glass balls are actually a species of shrimp used to living in extremely harsh conditions (I believe they live around volcanoes?). They aren't actually creating an self sustaining ecosystem in those glass balls, but the shrimps are just slowly starving and dying over a long period of time.

 

Sorry that everyone is shooting your idea down. Although it would be cool to see little seahorses float around in a little ball, I don't think life was meant to be closed off in a little glass ball. Aquarist already have enough troubles and work trying to keep things happy in their open tanks!

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Seahorses are probably the most wrong animal you can come up with for an idea like this. The amount of food they require just can't be done in a tank that small with no outside influence. They eat thousands upon thousands of food items a day, per seahorse. 100% self sustaining systems are very rare and usually really aren't self sustaining at all because they do require outside influence of some sort (usually FW systems but even those are provided with CO2 and artificial light).

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psssshhh.. seahorses. Shits already been done with dolphins. Every time they start to breathe hard you just pick it up and give it a shake. Helps stir up the detritus a bit too.

 

dolphins-crystal-ball-sweethearts-snow-g

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natalia_la_loca

Lmao Its a joke people don't know what's more entertaining the original post or the thoughtful elaborate responses.

 

I wrote my response under the hopeful assumption that it was a joke.

 

Of course, in a world where this happens, it's not always a good idea to make assumptions:

salamander.jpg

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I wrote my response under the hopeful assumption that it was a joke.

 

Of course, in a world where this happens, it's not always a good idea to make assumptions:

salamander.jpg

That new trend. Disgusting. Live animals in keychains.

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lol those dumb key chains... seriously, who wants to strap a bag of water to their KEYS?! Large rocks as key chains next? I'm ignoring the animal cruelty part just to point out how stupid they are regardless of that.

 

Whats funny is they said it is "crystallized oxygen" and nutrients. LOL! I bet it is toilet water and food coloring. BTW you're supposed to microwave and eat it once it dies. Salmonella, yum!

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Lol, crystallized oxygen. Oxygen freezes aka crystallizes at 50.5 K. I would hope people would call bs when they see that. Granted I would hope they would call bs when thinking about keeping a live animal in a tube of water. Who would ever think a turtle would survive completely submerged in water? It just pisses me off to think someone would buy those things and then walk around swinging this poor animal on their keys or as a phone decoration.

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Hi guys, I was just napping and had a pretty interesting idea. I like the idea of pico reef tanks and such, but when I run it by other people, they claim that is requires too much work or is too messy, so it got me thinking.... :rolleyes:

 

What if I could create a 100% sealed fish tank? No messes, no hassle, lots of inbreeding (hahaha :lol: ) anyways I was looking into do this as a coral tank, but that seems extremely hard. But what about seahorses?

 

http://www.amazon.com/EcoSphere-Closed-Aquatic-Ecosystem-Sphere/dp/B005IZOB5M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398029037&sr=8-1&keywords=sealed+shrimp+tank

 

I see this ^ on Amazon for $50 and over 250 people have bought it :o thats big $$... and think about how many people have bought one of these before. Ok, so my point is proven, there is interest in this.

 

But there are obvious problems, but I feel like I have a good work in progress.

 

The idea: The idea would be using a 2 gallon jar (just an idea of sizing). completely sealed.

 

the requirement: The requirements would be that the tank be placed in sunlight for (x) hours a day, that would be the only way to let the "plants" and "algae" in the tank grow.

 

The livestock: Live dwarf seahorses, would just guess that the tank could start out with 4 adult seahorses. This would give a roughly 12.5% shot that you get all one gender and thus loose the lasting life of the tank, although apparently its possible to figure out which gender is which. Additionally, there is the potential for a few mini shrimp to be placed in the tank to help regulate the algae and plant growth.

 

Food: This is where the biggest problem lays. Adult seahorse eat Brine Shrimp. Not just normal Brine Shrimp, but BABY brine shrimp. The only way this would work is before sealing I would have to establish a fair population of brine shrimp in the tank. Then add the seahorses. Sadly, as the population of Brine Shrimp goes down, a seahorse would have to die. Seahorses can not last long without food so it would be possible that one would die rather fast. Hopefully the seahorse would then be eaten by a shrimp. But then, the population of seahorses would be so low, the brine shrimp could reproduce faster than consumed and offer more food for the seahorses. As more seahorses are born, the population of Brine shrimp goes down etc etc the cycle never stops.

 

Plants: The purpose of the plants would be to add O2 to the tank and keep the nitrogen cycle working. More research needed.

 

And finally, Water and Air quality: The only way to keep these up without water changes would be some kind of internal filter. I have an idea here, what about a tiny solar panel connected to a mini "fan"? The "fan" would remain half in the water and half out, thus moving the air and water. The only problem is that the fan could only work for a few hours a day... aka only when the sun is hitting it.... So the water quality would be worse during the night.

 

If anyone is interested in making this dream of mine (literally!) a reality, please post a comment, I am happy to talk about it. :)

 

Best,

JB

 

Ohh and BTW if you go to some venture capitalist with this idea, at least give me credit ;)

 

p-73187-dwarf-seahorse.jpg

Cool idea, but I don't think you should try it.

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Wow... just wow (the amphibian keychain thing). :blink:

 

To the OP - you'd have a better time building your own Ecosphere jar and raising a colony of h. rubra in it than seahorses - the latter just aren't made for it. I've got just that sort of thing (the former, w.shrimp not the seahorse version) on my desk here here work:

post-70644-0-31196900-1380117494_thumb.jpg
A quarter pound of marco rocks, some WaterWeld to hold it together, a handful of dry aragonite sand leftover from my nano build, a 1/2 gallon jar I found to my liking at a local container store and a 3-led daylight spectrum tap light + rechargeable batteries (no pet policy at work - it's classified as an "ornamental vase").
I've got 11 shrimp in it since Jan/Feb of last year and one small blue leg hermit - no loses since that time except for a shocking conclusion to IslandOfTiki's majano salinity experiment. Couple pellets every day or two for the crab, a light dusting of spirulina powder every week for the shrimp. Top off once a month with fresh to account for evaporation. Viola!
EDIT: Admittedly this is not 100% sealed like an EcoSphere, but on the other hand the shrimp ARE growing and the females are saddled from time to time. Although if I want them to breed I'll probably need to transfer this into a slightly bigger jar.
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Those shrimp really only last2-3 years in those spheres, They slowly starve and shrink each molt.

lol you are crazy. This won't work with seahorses. It works with those shrimp because those shrimp are extremely hardy and live up to 30 years. They can survive in extremly harsh conditions like those in a sealed glass ball whereas seahorses are delicate.

 

 

Ive found feeding and water changes to be more important when breeding h. rubra.

 

 

Wow... just wow (the amphibian keychain thing). :blink:

 

To the OP - you'd have a better time building your own Ecosphere jar and raising a colony of h. rubra in it than seahorses - the latter just aren't made for it. I've got just that sort of thing (the former, w.shrimp not the seahorse version) on my desk here here work:

A quarter pound of marco rocks, some WaterWeld to hold it together, a handful of dry aragonite sand leftover from my nano build, a 1/2 gallon jar I found to my liking at a local container store and a 3-led daylight spectrum tap light + rechargeable batteries (no pet policy at work - it's classified as an "ornamental vase").
I've got 11 shrimp in it since Jan/Feb of last year and one small blue leg hermit - no loses since that time except for a shocking conclusion to IslandOfTiki's majano salinity experiment. Couple pellets every day or two for the crab, a light dusting of spirulina powder every week for the shrimp. Top off once a month with fresh to account for evaporation. Viola!
EDIT: Admittedly this is not 100% sealed like an EcoSphere, but on the other hand the shrimp ARE growing and the females are saddled from time to time. Although if I want them to breed I'll probably need to transfer this into a slightly bigger jar.
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frankdontsurf

 

Wow... just wow (the amphibian keychain thing). :blink:

 

To the OP - you'd have a better time building your own Ecosphere jar and raising a colony of h. rubra in it than seahorses - the latter just aren't made for it. I've got just that sort of thing (the former, w.shrimp not the seahorse version) on my desk here here work:

 

 

 

A quarter pound of marco rocks, some WaterWeld to hold it together, a handful of dry aragonite sand leftover from my nano build, a 1/2 gallon jar I found to my liking at a local container store and a 3-led daylight spectrum tap light + rechargeable batteries (no cord policy at work - it's classified as an "ornamental vase").

 

I've got 11 shrimp in it since Jan/Feb of last year and one small blue leg hermit - no loses since that time except for a shocking conclusion to IslandOfTiki's majano salinity experiment. Couple pellets every day or two for the crab, a light dusting of spirulina powder every week for the shrimp. Top off once a month with fresh to account for evaporation. Viola!

How does air get exchanged in there?

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