hinnenkm Posted February 3, 2016 Share Posted February 3, 2016 Hello! I am horrible at updating threads, but wanted to start one for my dwarf seahorse tank. The tank itself is just a simple National Geographic Half Moon Betta Tank. It is 1.2 gallons and came with a built in filter that doesn't have too much flow, as well as a sponge to cover the filter intake. I thought that would be perfect for some dwarf horses and it has been running since October of this year. The sand used is actually sand I had collected from a beach in Florida while on vacation 19 years ago (crazy to think I kept it that long….)! The macro algae that I started with was just your basic caulerpa, a shaving brush plant, and some flame algae. I have since removed the caulerpa and the shaving brush plant, leaving the flame algae. The tank got to the point of being too crowded with all of the algae growing in there, but now it is working well with just the flame algae growing out. The color is also striking! IMG_6895 by katieh4002, on Flickr IMG_6870 by katieh4002, on Flickr IMG_6869 by katieh4002, on Flickr The first couple pics give an idea of what the tank was set up like initially and also puts into perspective how small these seahorses actually are. I have had 3 of the seahorses since October and then just last week, got 6 more. So I now have a total of 12 because of the 9 adults and as of this morning, 3 newborn babies! IMG_8061 by katieh4002, on Flickr IMG_8097 by katieh4002, on Flickr IMG_8135 by katieh4002, on Flickr Hope you enjoy and I will try to keep this updated fairly often. Thanks for reading Katie Link to comment
JimmyEarp Posted February 3, 2016 Share Posted February 3, 2016 Nice dwarf's !, How do you keep up with hatching brine shrimp ? Years ago I had a 5 gallon dwarf seahorse setup that got over run by hydriods after a couple years. But it was a pain hatching brine every day lol Link to comment
vlangel Posted February 3, 2016 Share Posted February 3, 2016 Hello! I am horrible at updating threads, but wanted to start one for my dwarf seahorse tank. The tank itself is just a simple National Geographic Half Moon Betta Tank. It is 1.2 gallons and came with a built in filter that doesn't have too much flow, as well as a sponge to cover the filter intake. I thought that would be perfect for some dwarf horses and it has been running since October of this year. The sand used is actually sand I had collected from a beach in Florida while on vacation 19 years ago (crazy to think I kept it that long….)! The macro algae that I started with was just your basic caulerpa, a shaving brush plant, and some flame algae. I have since removed the caulerpa and the shaving brush plant, leaving the flame algae. The tank got to the point of being too crowded with all of the algae growing in there, but now it is working well with just the flame algae growing out. The color is also striking! IMG_6895 by katieh4002, on Flickr IMG_6870 by katieh4002, on Flickr IMG_6869 by katieh4002, on Flickr The first couple pics give an idea of what the tank was set up like initially and also puts into perspective how small these seahorses actually are. I have had 3 of the seahorses since October and then just last week, got 6 more. So I now have a total of 12 because of the 9 adults and as of this morning, 3 newborn babies! IMG_8061 by katieh4002, on Flickr IMG_8097 by katieh4002, on Flickr IMG_8135 by katieh4002, on Flickr Hope you enjoy and I will try to keep this updated fairly often. Thanks for reading Katie They are adorable, I love it! I will definitely be following and thanks for starting a thread. Link to comment
Arce Posted February 3, 2016 Share Posted February 3, 2016 Nice setup. How are you feeding them? Hatching BBS daily? Link to comment
hinnenkm Posted February 3, 2016 Author Share Posted February 3, 2016 Nice dwarf's !, How do you keep up with hatching brine shrimp ? Years ago I had a 5 gallon dwarf seahorse setup that got over run by hydriods after a couple years. But it was a pain hatching brine every day lol Thank you! The brine isn't too bad, I've got about 3 different set ups for hatching on a rotating basis. It's easy if you enjoy it Nice setup. How are you feeding them? Hatching BBS daily? Thanks for the compliment, it's the smallest set up I've ever had. I do hatch the brine shrimp, but have a pod culture going that I supplement with. I also feed the brine some phyto, but want to maybe look into other supplements for them nutritionally. They are adorable, I love it! I will definitely be following and thanks for starting a thread. Thank you! They are definitely cute I've enjoyed your horses as well and all of the information in your thread. They are just fascinating creatures! Link to comment
ReeferBoo Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 Very nice set-up you got there! I wish we could get dwarf seahorses down here. Link to comment
hinnenkm Posted February 4, 2016 Author Share Posted February 4, 2016 Very nice set-up you got there! I wish we could get dwarf seahorses down here. Where are you located? We don't have them up here, but I ordered them online from a source I had heard a lot of good things about. Even shipping to Minnesota went well! Link to comment
ReeferBoo Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 New Zealand..I meant reeeeaaallly down under lol Link to comment
vlangel Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 I have read on seahorse.org about DSH keepers who put live adult mysis shrimp in their tanks and the DSHs eat the larvae shrimp. Eventually some of them will even eat adult shrimp. I think the thread title is large dwarf tank? Link to comment
hinnenkm Posted February 4, 2016 Author Share Posted February 4, 2016 New Zealand..I meant reeeeaaallly down under lol Yeah, I understand now. Thanks for the clarification ??? I have read on seahorse.org about DSH keepers who put live adult mysis shrimp in their tanks and the DSHs eat the larvae shrimp. Eventually some of them will even eat adult shrimp. I think the thread title is large dwarf tank? That's a really interesting concept, I wonder how many it would take to keep up a decent supply of the baby brine? by accident I started a culture with some baby brine that turned into adults and have now been continually reproducing in a Diet Coke bottle. There's only able 10 adult brine shrimp in there though... I also feel like I read somewhere that adult brine shrimp really don't live very long. One other thing I had thought about was just getting a few peppermints or cleaners and collecting the babies they have. I used to have a pair of peppermints that spawned every two weeks until my bangaii got big enough to wipe them out ?? Link to comment
hinnenkm Posted February 8, 2016 Author Share Posted February 8, 2016 I'm up to 5 babies now They really are fun to watch and have been doing well. They are so small when they're first born (smaller than a grain of rice).... Link to comment
D3monic Posted February 8, 2016 Share Posted February 8, 2016 I wonder if they would take to cyclopeeze. I used to have all my pipefish, mandarins and seahorses trained to food dishes/half clam shell. Made feeding so much easier and cleaner. Not to mention introducing new foods since they was already conditioned to eat from the dish. I've never kept a dwarf before, they look like they would be really neat though. Maybe in a small tank with some sexy shrimp and they can eat the sexy shrimp larvae from all the spawns. Link to comment
D3monic Posted February 8, 2016 Share Posted February 8, 2016 Don't mind the background noise darn clownfish making a mess of things Hmm no pics or vids of eating in the SH / pipefish tank but you get the idea. Maybe a small seashell with a couple of tip ties around it for them to hang onto. use a 1/2 pvc to reach shell from outside tank. Pour food down pvc. Wait a minute for it all to settle into dish and then slowly pull it out and let them feed with pump off. Start with cyclopeeze and baby brine shrimp. When they get drawn to dish to feed on the brine shrimp they may accidentally suck up some cyclopeeze and it doesn't take much from there to get them to switch over all together. Could also try nutramar ova. Link to comment
hinnenkm Posted February 8, 2016 Author Share Posted February 8, 2016 Don't mind the background noise darn clownfish making a mess of things Hmm no pics or vids of eating in the SH / pipefish tank but you get the idea. Maybe a small seashell with a couple of tip ties around it for them to hang onto. use a 1/2 pvc to reach shell from outside tank. Pour food down pvc. Wait a minute for it all to settle into dish and then slowly pull it out and let them feed with pump off. Start with cyclopeeze and baby brine shrimp. When they get drawn to dish to feed on the brine shrimp they may accidentally suck up some cyclopeeze and it doesn't take much from there to get them to switch over all together. Could also try nutramar ova. I haven't given that much thought, from all the reading I've done, it doesn't seem like they are likely to be trained onto anything but live food. Maybe when I've got some more time or some cyclopeeze available I can give it a try. I have tried the instant baby brine from ocean nutrition - they didn't touch it. It seems that they really need the live food to elicit the feeding response from them. We've got a larger seahorse at work too, who even though he's in a system with tank raised seahorses, he still only goes for live shrimp. I appreciate the ideas though and have definitely done some research on the subject as I have trained several mandarins, pipefish, and ruby reds onto frozen using the method of mixing it with live food and target feeding. These dwarfs still seem so fascinating to me and my students that it really isn't so much work hatching out the baby brine shrimp - it's beneficial for my other tanks as well, so I think that will continue for quite awhile! The idea of the sexy shrimp is something I've thought about for awhile as well - it might be interesting, but it makes me a little nervous to see how they'd react to the dwarf babies. I'll keep you posted! Link to comment
vlangel Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 I have peppermint shrimp in my seahorse tank and they grew quite large. Much bigger than I ever expected and I have seen them snatch full size ghost shrimp that I put in for the big seahorses. I would be afraid they might go after dwarf seahorses too if they got big enough. Their larvae would be a great food though if you could keep them in a sump. Maybe sexy shrimp would not get as big and you could keep them with the dwarfs. Link to comment
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