The Seahorse Club!

[Wildkokopelli]

dang you got it all found out... so why did you not continue with it if you had the tank cycling and everything?

[Felicia]

dang you got it all found out... so why did you not continue with it if you had the tank cycling and everything?

I ended up getting super busy at work and decided I just wasn't going to have the time to devote to that tank. Hatching the live baby brine daily was quite a bit of a commitment. I now have a seahorse tank with captive bred H. Erectus, which each frozen mysis.

[Wildkokopelli]

I ended up getting super busy at work and decided I just wasn't going to have the time to devote to that tank. Hatching the live baby brine daily was quite a bit of a commitment. I now have a seahorse tank with captive bred H. Erectus, which each frozen mysis.

ohh hahaha i hear that! so i was in my local reef supplier earlier spending money i didnt have, just like everytime i walk in that damn place ahhaha, and they have dwarves that they have trained to eat frozen foods... or so they claim. since its where i buy pretty much everything it was good to hear. they also found me a evolve 2 for really cheap as well so if all goes well i will be sending you pics of the tank cycling this nxt week gotta let me know how it looks haha.

[Felicia]

ohh hahaha i hear that! so i was in my local reef supplier earlier spending money i didnt have, just like everytime i walk in that damn place ahhaha, and they have dwarves that they have trained to eat frozen foods... or so they claim. since its where i buy pretty much everything it was good to hear. they also found me a evolve 2 for really cheap as well so if all goes well i will be sending you pics of the tank cycling this nxt week gotta let me know how it looks haha.

Oh I hear you. I'm the same way every time I go to the LFS. Honestly I have never heard of dwarf seahorses eating enough frozen foods to survive long term. That's amazing if they managed it, but if I were you I would still have live foods ready to go for them if you notice them not eating or getting skinny. That's exciting that you'll get your tank soon! Keep us posted

[Wildkokopelli]

Oh I hear you. I'm the same way every time I go to the LFS. Honestly I have never heard of dwarf seahorses eating enough frozen foods to survive long term. That's amazing if they managed it, but if I were you I would still have live foods ready to go for them if you notice them not eating or getting skinny. That's exciting that you'll get your tank soon! Keep us posted

see thats what i was thinkin but i asked the desk person so im thinkin maybe she knew that Most of their hawses (southern accent haha) eat frozen but who knows yea im gonna take your advice. def will keep yall posted.... haha excitement for the tank will have me on hear more then i already am. hahha

[Felicia]

see thats what i was thinkin but i asked the desk person so im thinkin maybe she knew that Most of their hawses (southern accent haha) eat frozen but who knows yea im gonna take your advice. def will keep yall posted.... haha excitement for the tank will have me on hear more then i already am. hahha

Yeah, it may be that all their larger seahorses like H. Erectus eat frozen and she didn't realize the dwarves were different. I know they are way too small to eat frozen mysis, so if they do eat anything frozen it must be something small like cyclopeeze.

[Felicia]

These photos are all in my thread, but I figured the Seahorse Club was due for some more seahorse photos

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Felicia]

Just wanted to share a new video of my seahorse tank:

[Felicia]

I was looking at "The Complete Guide to Dwarf Seahorses in the Aquarium" by Alisa Wagner Abbott to provide some information for someone with dwarf seahorses, and I realized that the last section of the book is on the larger seahorse species such as H. Erectus. I figured I'd read what it had to say, and I didn't learn too much that I didn't come across in my research for my seahorse tank except one really interesting statement that I want to share.

 

So many people (here and elsewhere) will jump in and say that I shouldn't have purchased my seahorses based on color because seahorses will always change color and it doesn't matter one bit what color they are when you buy them. I've known that this wasn't a true statement for a while now based on the fact that Zia's seahorses were purchased to be yellow and have been vibrant yellow at all times for the months that he has had them. The same has proved true for the seahorses that I bought based on color. However, every seahorse that I see that was not purchased based on color spends most of its time being earth toned (black, brown, beige, etc.) and will only be a vibrant color ever once in a while. This seems to be pretty significant proof that breeders who know what they are doing can breed for seahorses with the genetics that predispose them to be a certain color. This fact isn't something I've been able to find much info on, except that I found a nice statement about it today in my dwarf seahorse book. So I wanted to share:

 

"Many of the seahorse now available come in multiple colors and patterns, such as orange, yellow, and even a solid red. Seahorses are known for rapid color changes, depending on their mood or aquarium background; however, some of these colors are here to stay. The fixation of colors by selective breeding or line breeding is an art that has been practiced for years.

 

Hippocampus erectus is available in several different colors, from yellows to reds and everything in between. The intensity of coloration is dependent on several factors: foods, aquarium background, mood, and genetic make-up. It is common for the most colorful specimens to be made up from several generations of captive-produced offspring."

[discus513]

Hey Im the new guy flsvedlund was talking about helping out with the Dwarfs, I have looked through this post and some of you have amazing seahorse tanks. One thing I did see a few pages back was someone had ricordia in there tank, but I have heard that they sting, do there stings not bother the bigger seahorses like they do the dwarfs? I'll be tailing along this thread until I get my feet wet!

[1.0reef]

Awesome horses!

[Felicia]

Hey Im the new guy flsvedlund was talking about helping out with the Dwarfs, I have looked through this post and some of you have amazing seahorse tanks. One thing I did see a few pages back was someone had ricordia in there tank, but I have heard that they sting, do there stings not bother the bigger seahorses like they do the dwarfs? I'll be tailing along this thread until I get my feet wet!

Hey! Welcome to the seahorse club! A lot of corals that are totally fine with the larger seahorses like H. Erectus are a big risk with dwarves. I am not positive on exactly how much of a risk ricordea are to dwarves, but I do think they are pretty risky. When I was planning to keep dwarves I was only going to do macro algaes with them.

[Tripwyr]

Hey! Welcome to the seahorse club! A lot of corals that are totally fine with the larger seahorses like H. Erectus are a big risk with dwarves. I am not positive on exactly how much of a risk ricordea are to dwarves, but I do think they are pretty risky. When I was planning to keep dwarves I was only going to do macro algaes with them.

 

My ricordea are sticky enough to pull on shrimp antenna, so I would say they are definitely not dwarf safe.

 

EDIT: My green ric is about half as sticky as my bubble tip, for reference.

[discus513]

My ricordea are sticky enough to pull on shrimp antenna, so I would say they are definitely not dwarf safe.

 

EDIT: My green ric is about half as sticky as my bubble tip, for reference.

yeah doesn't sound like a good match, I think I will stick with macros and maybe a gorg or two in the tank. Now to just find some nice macro to add some color to this tank! LOL

[Felicia]

yeah doesn't sound like a good match, I think I will stick with macros and maybe a gorg or two in the tank. Now to just find some nice macro to add some color to this tank! LOL

Dragon's breath is a nice bright red macroalgae that would look nice.

[discus513]

yeah I have a couple small pieces of that in there also some green grape calerpia, but that white dry rock is killing me! LOL

Anyone ever use purple up in a horse tank? anything bad in this?

[Felicia]

yeah I have a couple small pieces of that in there also some green grape calerpia, but that white dry rock is killing me! LOL

 

Anyone ever use purple up in a horse tank? anything bad in this?

I've never used purple up, so I can't help there sorry. You could get some blue ochtodes since its a bright blue macro that grows as more of a carpet, so it can quickly cover the rocks. However, if it does well for you, it can grow quickly and take over the tank. You just have to manually remove some of it occasionally like with caulerpa.

[discus513]

I noticed today that one of my males stomachs/pouches is bright yellow, does this mean what I think it means??????

 

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Sorry for the bad pitchers!

[Felicia]

Awesome! I hope he's pregnant. I have no male seahorses (all females), so I actually can't tell you for sure if that's what it means. Keep us posted!

[Felicia]

I came across this photo of a seahorse tank and thought it was super cool. Its interesting with the two-tone color scheme.

http://www.worcreef.org/index.php?topic=12094.0

[Felicia]

http://s289.photobucket.com/user/alatarie/media/IMG_5059Edit.jpg.html'>

 

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[discus513]

I came across this photo of a seahorse tank and thought it was super cool. Its interesting with the two-tone color scheme.

http://www.worcreef.org/index.php?topic=12094.0

Yeah that is actually quite local to me, I am a premium member of WORC and have seen this tank. it is awesome.

 

Awesome! I hope he's pregnant. I have no male seahorses (all females), so I actually can't tell you for sure if that's what it means. Keep us posted!

I think he is, his belly has lost some of the yellow coloration but now his belly is definitely sticking out further than normal. I just hope it goes okay, that would be awesome to be able to breed these guys so soon! I'll keep you guys posted, I need to update my thread in the pico tanks section.

[discus513]

_{Posted an update in my thread about my pregnant seahorse. I also have a question for all you seahorse old salts, I have heard before you add macro to soak it in freshwater for 30min to make sure you kill any pests, I haven't done this but I heard you are supposed to, any thoughts? Also if that works for macro, how do you prepare Gorgs or sponges to go into a seahorse tank to make sure they do not transfer and Hydroids or other nasty little pests? I ask because I plan to start getting some but want to make sure I am as careful as possible. Any help would be appreciated!}

[Felicia]

_{Posted an update in my thread about my pregnant seahorse. I also have a question for all you seahorse old salts, I have heard before you add macro to soak it in freshwater for 30min to make sure you kill any pests, I haven't done this but I heard you are supposed to, any thoughts? Also if that works for macro, how do you prepare Gorgs or sponges to go into a seahorse tank to make sure they do not transfer and Hydroids or other nasty little pests? I ask because I plan to start getting some but want to make sure I am as careful as possible. Any help would be appreciated!}

I am no the expert here, so hopefully someone else will chime in as well. When I was going to set up a dwarf seahorse tank, my plan was to soak all macros in freshwater with Panacur (aka fenbendazole). Its a medication that is commonly used as a dewormer for dogs and cats, but it is proven to kill hydroids. Seahorsesource sells a small bottle of it for the purpose of killing hydroids. The only problem with fenbendazole is that there is not a lot of info out there about which macros, corals, etc can handle being treated with it, so it tends to me trial and error. I was going to test it with small portions of the macro algaes I planned to add, to double check that they could all survive treatment. I do not know if gorgonians or sponges can handle fenbendazole treatment, and I'd be hesitant to risk it. I'm not sure if there's a 100% safe way to make sure those are free of hydroids.

 

Oh, and if you do use fenbendazole for anything, make sure you rinse everything off really good after the treatment. You don't want to get it into the tank because it can kill several of the common species of snails. It will also kill any worms, like feather dusters. And don't ever use it to treat the whole tank because it can leach from the rocks and the sand for a long time and kill snails and other inverts.

[discus513]

Yeha I have read about panacur and also that it is some pretty harsh stuff and although the horses are fine with it a lot of other inverts snails and corals are not, I am pretty sure I read that most gorgs and sponges could not handle the pancur treatment, After reading all the stories, I will only use this as a lest ditch effort in an emergency. Any other ideas? Did you do any preventative on the gorgs and corals in your tank?