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2.5 Gallon AGA Seahorse Tank


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So I'm starting the cycle tonight for my 2.5 gallon rectangular all glass aquarium! I am doing a deep sand bed (approximately 3 inches) with some LR, but I plan on using mostly sea grass and fan worms. I plan to make it a dwarf sea horse tank, with 2 dwarf sea horse inhabitants. My likely only CUC will be snails, unless something else comes to mind.

 

I have some pictures of the setup that I will post tomorrow, along with a picture of the tank when the water clears!

 

Current Equipment:

 

Lighting:

9 Watt LED Light from Aqueon Evolve 8 (This is temporary until I get a DIY lighting setup put together.

 

Powerhead:

Small ~100 GPH utility pump

 

Heat:

50 Watt (Room's Cold) Tetra auto regulating heater

Coralife Digital Thermo

 

That's all for now... should be a great time!!

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Well that's not true.

I'm sure OP has seen some care hints on LA

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_di...&pcatid=283

 

You actually do need more than 2. Live aquaria is not the bible of saltwater aquaria.

 

2.5gallons is relatively large as far as dwarf seahorses are concerned and the more you have the better. Since their diet is basically exclusive to live food, you'll need a couple pairs to eat all of your food. Even if you feed sparingly, the sea horses won't find all of the food in time and CUCs usually can't pick up all the slack.

 

I'd get 6 or 8 and watch them breed like rabbits.

 

Here's a really cheap place to get a bunch of dwarfs. http://ccritters.com/id2.html

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LebaneseDlight

Seahorse.org is your seahorse bible. This link is a good one to start: http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles/d...warfguide.shtml. You can't have liverock, because hitchhikers as small as hydroids can kill a dwarf. I've been toying with an idea of a pico dwarf seahorse tank for a while, but because of my peroid travel schedule, it's not feasible. You have to hatch decapsulated BBS EVERY SINGLE DAY! You can't skip a day. Also temperate species, so you have to chill the pico. Seahorsesource.com is where you should buy your ponies.

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You actually do need more than 2. Live aquaria is not the bible of saltwater aquaria.

 

2.5gallons is relatively large as far as dwarf seahorses are concerned and the more you have the better. Since their diet is basically exclusive to live food, you'll need a couple pairs to eat all of your food. Even if you feed sparingly, the sea horses won't find all of the food in time and CUCs usually can't pick up all the slack.

 

I'd get 6 or 8 and watch them breed like rabbits.

 

Here's a really cheap place to get a bunch of dwarfs. http://ccritters.com/id2.html

Maybe i misunderstood. I thought he meant a 5g tank is necessary, not 5 animals.

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Haha wow wow ok everybody. I should have clarified some. I'm not 100% sure on DSH yet. I would like too but for now its a tank with some sand and rock in it until it cycles. As far as intruders into the tank from the LR, this rock has been in 67 degree water for two weeks. I doubt there is much left living on it, its just to provide a spot for stuff to grow onto and for the orgs in the sand bed to have a place to hide.

 

As for size of tank, I quote from Seahorse.org, "Most recommendations call for between 2 and 5 gallons." The author personally believes larger tanks "might" be better, but this implies small tanks are perfectly feasible. As far as numbers, I'd probably end up getting four now that I have looked at the tank more and based on my ongoing research. It's going to be a real challenge so either way I'd probably end up getting more than that in the end lol. My dad used to keep DSH and so I am familiar with the process involved.

 

Brine shrimp will be interesting, and I'm still looking into it. I might just either get the other 2.5 from home and use it as a brine tank or just go cheap and fab a small tank myself. We will see. It's exciting because I know this will test my marine husbandry to the limit.

 

What I am deciding now is what kind of ecosystem to create. Most sources say my DSB isn't deep enough to keep sea grass, anybody know more about this stuff?

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sounds sweet, now we need some pictures of the progress! :happy:

 

Haha the sand for the DSB is really fine so the water is still cloudy :P

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I've done a LOT of research over the last 24 hours. Academic sites, marine reefkeeping sites like this one, Sea Horse specific sites, pretty much everything google and JSTOR could come up with. I am going to do some serious thinking about how i continue with this tank. I don't want to rush into dwarf sea horse keeping, just because they are so care intensive and the tank would have to move around a lot. If it doesn't work out, I can always change the focus of the tank :) Just wanted to put it out there and see if anyone had any experience with keeping the little buggers.

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You can raise Brine shrimp in a 2 liter pop bottle. I cut the bottom off, drilled a hole which I put an airline through, and attached an airstone. It worked very well and i used it to raise food for my aquarium a few times a month when I had my 29.

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I kept dwarf seahorses in my old pico tank in my dorm room. making brine was a real PITA everyday, and I fell behind on maintenance. The all died when my roommate caused a draft in the suite in the winter, and the tank got too cold. needless to say i was pissed. I didn't have a heater on the tank because they are a temperate specie and they actually did very well with just the heat from the room.

 

They weren't that interesting really, they just sort of sat there. they were cool, but I don't think I'll be doing them again any time soon. not while I don't have a more permanent residence at least. If you do decide to keep them however, I would recommend you get a bunch, up to 10 for a 3g tank would be alright, just make sure there are plenty of perches for them. I got mine at ccritters.com and would certainly buy from them again.

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Yeah I'm gonna repurpose the tank. Same tank same equipment just not DSH as the main inhabitants. I'm thinking a pistol/watchman pair with coral and inverts :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update! I'll post a picture tonight when i get back, but the levels are coming along nicely, the DSB is really helping I think. I had to use it for a day as a hospital tank for a clownfish and zoa colony, which I checked on to make sure I wasn't going to forfeit. Regardless, ammonia climb was from 0-.05 ppm which I think is pretty decent for a half cycled tank!

 

I am going to make it a tank centered around either the goby shrimp pair or just a coral garden with a tiny fish of some kind. If you have any ideas feel free to chime in, it's a low budget tank so I'll mainly be getting whatever I can that's inexpensive! Star polyps, zoas, maybe a euphyllia, that sort of thing. Can't wait for 01 April!

 

Edit: Here is the photo

 

post-71819-1332328699_thumb.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

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