hinnenkm Posted May 29, 2018 Share Posted May 29, 2018 Seahorses are the creatures that I have always said would be my someday animal. There is something completely calming and intriguing about them - as many people say, they are quite magical, and I finally have a pair! A few years ago, I had bought the 15 gallon column tank from Petco because I had a pair of dragonets who were spawning and needed the additional height. One day, one of the dragonets disappeared and at the time I wanted to downsize, so I sold the tank to a friend. I now have the tank back because my friend is moving to Thailand. In taking the tank back, I set it up with the intention of getting some captive bred seahorses later on this summer (after my vacation).... long story short, I saw two baby female erectus seahorses and couldn't pass them up. These horses have now been with me for about a month and a half and I am still just as intrigued by them. Also in the tank are another pair of spawning ruby red dragonets, a dragon faced pipefish, and a captive bred mandarin dragonet. As far as cleanup crew, I have chosen to stick with only snails, cowries, a nano star, and a captive bred tuxedo urchin. I honestly have found this tank to be fairly easy and run it almost the same as I do my other tanks. I keep the temps cooler, but beyond that, feed a lot and make sure I am doing consistent water changes. By no means am I an expert on seahorses, but I have worked with them before and would love to answer any questions or receive any comments you may have. Thanks so much for looking and here are some pictures/videos ☺️ Right before a water change - it's hard to keep up with the detritus, but definitely do a lot of water changes in this tank to keep nutrients down! 8 2 Quote Link to comment
Christopher Marks Posted May 29, 2018 Share Posted May 29, 2018 😲 They are all so beautiful! Seahorses, dragonets, pipefish, sponges, and gorgonians! 😱 What a great group, wow. So many tiny mouths to feed, it's perfect for them! 😆 Quote Link to comment
hinnenkm Posted May 29, 2018 Author Share Posted May 29, 2018 2 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said: 😲 They are all so beautiful! Seahorses, dragonets, pipefish, sponges, and gorgonians! 😱 What a great group, wow. So many tiny mouths to feed, it's perfect for them! 😆 Thank you 🙂 The horses have been really consistent with their coloring and for the most part they are a nice creamish color - the video is pretty representative. This tank gets fed a lot between mysis, brine, reef frenzy, baby brine, and dosing pods (I've got a couple small cultures going). It's been a fun project so far 🙂 1 Quote Link to comment
Lypto Posted May 30, 2018 Share Posted May 30, 2018 fantastic! watch out for the pod population though! lots and lots of macroalgae is great for seahorses as it makes the perfect environment for them to grab and blend and acts as a pod factory. 1 Quote Link to comment
Tamberav Posted May 30, 2018 Share Posted May 30, 2018 Looks great!! Tank is probably fed frequently, bet that helps with the pods. Love your critters! How frequent do you do water changes and what size? Quote Link to comment
banasophia Posted May 30, 2018 Share Posted May 30, 2018 Wow! Great videos. Interesting to watch how the seahorses eat!! 1 Quote Link to comment
1967type1 Posted May 30, 2018 Share Posted May 30, 2018 I love this tank so much please continue to pose videos!!! 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted May 30, 2018 Share Posted May 30, 2018 Gorgeous! Have you seen Dawn's seahorse thread on this site? Her tank's pretty neat too. 3 Quote Link to comment
vlangel Posted May 31, 2018 Share Posted May 31, 2018 They are absolutely adorable hinnenkm! They look quite healthy too. Water changes are your best friend when it comes to seahorses. Also make sure no excess food lays anywhere unnoticed. Seahorses can take more flow than folks think as long as they have hitches in a lower flow part of the tank too. I blasted the bottom of my tank (when it was bb) so everything stayed in suspension longer and so food would be unlikely to stay stuck under rocks. If you have any ?s, just ask and I will try to help. 2 Quote Link to comment
hinnenkm Posted May 31, 2018 Author Share Posted May 31, 2018 On 5/29/2018 at 10:21 PM, Pjanssen said: Love it! Thanks 🙂 Quote Link to comment
hinnenkm Posted May 31, 2018 Author Share Posted May 31, 2018 On 5/29/2018 at 10:32 PM, Lypto said: fantastic! watch out for the pod population though! lots and lots of macroalgae is great for seahorses as it makes the perfect environment for them to grab and blend and acts as a pod factory. Thanks! I can't keep macro in the display - had some flame algae and between the urchin and the cowries, it all got eaten! As I mentioned before, I do have some smaller pod cultures going as well to supplement the tank. Beyond that though, everything in the tank does a nice job of eating frozen 🙂 Quote Link to comment
hinnenkm Posted May 31, 2018 Author Share Posted May 31, 2018 On 5/29/2018 at 11:21 PM, Tamberav said: Looks great!! Tank is probably fed frequently, bet that helps with the pods. Love your critters! How frequent do you do water changes and what size? Thanks 🙂 the tank is fed several times a day and with a variety of foods. My water changes are kind of random, but I try to vacuum the detritus every other day or every third day and usually take about a gallon out when I do that. I also do at least 5 gallons weekly. So far it has worked well! On 5/30/2018 at 1:09 AM, banasophia said: Wow! Great videos. Interesting to watch how the seahorses eat!! Thank you! I need to get better at taking videos with my actual camera.... maybe someday... One of my favorite parts is watching the horses eat and to hear the sound they make is really neat too! 1 Quote Link to comment
hinnenkm Posted May 31, 2018 Author Share Posted May 31, 2018 On 5/30/2018 at 2:29 AM, 1967type1 said: I love this tank so much please continue to pose videos!!! Thank you, will do for sure - especially now that it's summer and things are slowing down! On 5/30/2018 at 5:52 AM, Snow_Phoenix said: Gorgeous! Have you seen Dawn's seahorse thread on this site? Her tank's pretty neat too. Thanks! I definitely have followed her seahorse tank - absolutely beautiful! Quote Link to comment
hinnenkm Posted May 31, 2018 Author Share Posted May 31, 2018 2 hours ago, vlangel said: They are absolutely adorable hinnenkm! They look quite healthy too. Water changes are your best friend when it comes to seahorses. Also make sure no excess food lays anywhere unnoticed. Seahorses can take more flow than folks think as long as they have hitches in a lower flow part of the tank too. I blasted the bottom of my tank (when it was bb) so everything stayed in suspension longer and so food would be unlikely to stay stuck under rocks. If you have any ?s, just ask and I will try to help. Thanks so much! They are definitely healthy and very active 🙂 There are plenty of hitches for them to use - the rock even has spaces for it and flow is right where I would like it to be for them. I appreciate the support and hope everything is going well with your ponies! 2 hours ago, bryanphillips said: Amazing tank! Thanks so much! 1 Quote Link to comment
1891Bro Posted May 31, 2018 Share Posted May 31, 2018 Very cool. Wonder why no one ever titles a thread “Finally got crabs!”? That’d get some traffic for sure. 😉 3 Quote Link to comment
hinnenkm Posted June 1, 2018 Author Share Posted June 1, 2018 3 hours ago, 1891Bro said: Very cool. Wonder why no one ever titles a thread “Finally got crabs!”? That’d get some traffic for sure. 😉 Thanks 😂 Quote Link to comment
Lula_Mae Posted June 1, 2018 Share Posted June 1, 2018 5 hours ago, hinnenkm said: 2 Quote Link to comment
banasophia Posted June 1, 2018 Share Posted June 1, 2018 Love the new videos! Keep them coming!! 💚 1 Quote Link to comment
Christopher Marks Posted June 1, 2018 Share Posted June 1, 2018 "Go home Starfish, you're drunk!" 😄 All these clips are amazing @hinnenkm, thank you for sharing them with us! 👏 4 Quote Link to comment
ajkochev Posted June 1, 2018 Share Posted June 1, 2018 Great tank! Love the colors of the critters! 1 Quote Link to comment
hinnenkm Posted June 29, 2018 Author Share Posted June 29, 2018 On 6/1/2018 at 2:33 AM, banasophia said: Love the new videos! Keep them coming!! 💚 More videos coming today! Thanks 🙂 On 6/1/2018 at 11:19 AM, Christopher Marks said: "Go home Starfish, you're drunk!" 😄 All these clips are amazing @hinnenkm, thank you for sharing them with us! 👏 Hahaha exactly with the starfish! Thanks for the comments and an update is happening today! 3 Quote Link to comment
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