MatthewStarr Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Does anybody here have experience with dwarf seahorses? I know they require live baby brine shrimp which is fine. But any tips and opinions? I have a fluval edge which I would like to convert into a seahorse tank. Simple coral like mushrooms and zoanthids, 1 firefish goby and the seahorses. What macro algaes would do well for them? etc.
yoshii Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Dwarf Seahorses: Ahhh swim away! Firefish: HAHAH om nom nom! (That just means the firefish may eat younger ones, and compete for food in general) You should read this, great info http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles/d...warfguide.shtml
Evanski9 Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Ya only keep sea horses with pipe fish because they are slow swimmers and eaters. And the filefish I too fast. Sea horses need solid tanks. Like sps water conditions with no swing at all. They need low low flow.
Daleo Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Tips: BBS: Have two tanks and alternate so you're never out of food Get a decent hatch rate before ordering the horses Strain the bbs before you feed (the bbs water is dirty and will polite you're tank) Dwarves: Buy from seahorsesource.com Provide plenty of hitching posts Be prepared to be overflowing with horses once they start breeding They are VERY tiny. Think of the smaller safety pins. About that size Live rock: Boil the rock or buy dry rock Cycle the tank with some frozen food for a month You can also cycle with ammonia, but the food is kinda set and forget Good luck! I would try some but do not have the time for them. Edit: no firefish. Try caulerpa prolifera for macro. There are tons of options. You can get some nicer ones from members on the classifieds
MatthewStarr Posted January 11, 2012 Author Posted January 11, 2012 Well the food source is no problem at all. I found a great product by Ocean Nutrition called instant baby brine shrimp. All you got to do is drop the shrimp into the tank and instantly feeds the dwarfs. Many people have success with this product. It takes out the frustration of a hatchery. I already have my tank set up with live rock and a few coral. It's been running for a few months now. I just need to take out the damsel and add macro algae. I just wanted to get others opinions on the sea horses.
Daleo Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 http://forum.seahorse.org/index.php?showto...n+nutrition+bbs Spoken from people with horses already I would not recommend using this as a main source of food. And it's not live food but rather thawed frozen bbs. This product has been out at least since 2006 and is not used by hardly any dwarf keepers. Not trying to burst your bubble but you will most likely have best success with a hatchery and there is no shortcut with dwarf seahorses sorry.
Daleo Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Sorry I I sound like a d*ck. I want you to succeed and like I said there is no shortcut with dwarves
MatthewStarr Posted January 11, 2012 Author Posted January 11, 2012 Thats fine. I'm not a beginner reefer so I pretty much know quite a bit about the hobby. Just never had experience with seahorses as I always thought they were super difficult to keep. I've read people have had success with this product and dwarfs. So let me ask you then since you have experience. Can I keep them in a tank with the temp 78-80? and also say I do get a hatchery. The eggs hatch and I feed them. What do I do with the rest of the shrimp? place them in a jar or what? I had heard something about having to feed the shrimp before they need their first meal or something like that.
dickie52 Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Be prepared to be overflowing with horses once they start breeding this I have to see they are fun but much, much, much work!!!
Daleo Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Temp must stay below 77 preferably 74. Eventually you will get a feel when measuring out cysts on how many you'll need. Or you can over hatch and feed the extras to your other tanks. They're great coral food
MatthewStarr Posted January 11, 2012 Author Posted January 11, 2012 Okay just out of curiousity is there another seahorse I can fit in the 6 gallon? Even if its just one seahorse? My temp stays at 78-80.
ohai.its.steven. Posted January 11, 2012 Posted January 11, 2012 Okay just out of curiousity is there another seahorse I can fit in the 6 gallon? Even if its just one seahorse? My temp stays at 78-80. no. If you want to have any other type of seahorse other than dwarf you need atleast a 30 gallon tank. And it's not recommended to keep a seahorse by itself. They do the best in pairs.
MatthewStarr Posted January 12, 2012 Author Posted January 12, 2012 That sucks I have always wanted a seahorse since I was a kid. Well if the temperature is not a big deal then I will do dwarfs. I mean someone even had a dwarf in 56 degree water and it survived. But I will keep doing research and have to give into hatching my own brine. How well do dwarfs do with copepods?
Daleo Posted January 12, 2012 Posted January 12, 2012 Dwarfs do well with copepods, but it is typically easier to hatch BBS than culture pods
sublunary Posted January 12, 2012 Posted January 12, 2012 If you don't like the traditional air pump powered hatchery, check this out: http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/Hatchery-Dish-p183.html I've had a good experience with it. You don't need to separate BBS from egg casings, since the BBS swim away from them to the collection cup. You get a better hatch rate, since you aren't straining out unhatched eggs after a day or so, you can leave it going. I've found I get a good crop every day for four or five days before it tapers off too much. If I were keeping sea horses I'd probably set up two of these staggered, so I'm still getting BBS out of one when I clean and restart the other.
Noonan Posted January 23, 2012 Posted January 23, 2012 If you don't like the traditional air pump powered hatchery, check this out: http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/Hatchery-Dish-p183.html I've had a good experience with it. You don't need to separate BBS from egg casings, since the BBS swim away from them to the collection cup. You get a better hatch rate, since you aren't straining out unhatched eggs after a day or so, you can leave it going. I've found I get a good crop every day for four or five days before it tapers off too much. If I were keeping sea horses I'd probably set up two of these staggered, so I'm still getting BBS out of one when I clean and restart the other. I would still use decapped brine shrimp. This removes any risks of the dwarfs eating the shells, and also removes any risk of hydroids or other unwanted pests.
M@! Posted January 23, 2012 Posted January 23, 2012 I would really look to keep your tank at 74 to have success with seahorses. Anything over 75 makes the chances of problems a lot greater. It's a pain feeding my seahorses frozen mysis 2-3 times a day. I can't imagine hatching brine all the time. Read up at seahorse.org, the forums over there have all kinds of info.
sillycupid Posted January 27, 2012 Posted January 27, 2012 I keep my dwarfs at 70 degrees, and they are very active.
sunfighter Posted February 24, 2012 Posted February 24, 2012 Dwarf Seahorses: Ahhh swim away!Firefish: HAHAH om nom nom! (That just means the firefish may eat younger ones, and compete for food in general) You should read this, great info http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles/d...warfguide.shtml I read this article and am puzzled by the author's preference for " hatching" decap BSS. I've never used them (I hatch a teaspoon of eggs twice a day), but have been under the impression that they ar not viable and are a form of powdered foof, which would sink to the bottom long before the dwarfs could eat it. Am I mistaken? Sunfighter
MeepNand Posted February 24, 2012 Posted February 24, 2012 74 is the max recommendation by seahorse.org. A few computer fans should do the trick.
C.I._Reefer Posted February 24, 2012 Posted February 24, 2012 Plannin on startin a dwarf pico... following
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.