Picoreef for dwarf seahorses

[Italcool]

Hello everyone, 

 

finally i have found a shop here in italy that can provide me, very pricey, a couple of dwarf seahorses (hippocampus zosterae)

 

I bought a small tank "wave orion 25" 11liter

I am going to set up a biological filter.

 

I don't really like bare bottom so I bought 2kg of live sand of "caribsea-ocean-direct"  can it have hydroyds? 

I would include also few dead dry rock, so i need to sip them with panacur before?

 

Thanks 

[debbeach13]

Hi I just wanted to welcome you to NR. I have never kept any seahorses but some members have.  Have you ever kept a salt water tank? Is the store holding the horses for you until you get the tank cycled? Did you do any research on seahorses yet? Seahorses.org can probably answer some of your questions. 

[Italcool]

11 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Hi I just wanted to welcome you to NR. I have never kept any seahorses but some members have.  Have you ever kept a salt water tank? Is the store holding the horses for you until you get the tank cycled? Did you do any research on seahorses yet? Seahorses.org can probably answer some of your questions. 

Hi!

thanks for welcoming me here! 

Yes I have had freshwater and reef tank for years since I was very young.

 

My plan the is to let the tank cycle for all the summer and get the fish in fall.

 

i kept and I’m still keeping other species of seahorses (Kuda). But finally I found a way to gey the dwarf ones. 

 

I read a lot about them and I’m concerned about hydroids, and I would like to avoid the problem since the beginning, that’s why I would like to know if the live sand I bought may have the chance to bring some hydroids...

 

 

 

 

 

[Italcool]

Hi guys, 

 

so do I need to treat the live sand "caribsea ocean direct" with Panacur or not?

I have also bought dry rocks, do I need to treat them as well?

 

please let me know so I can get started.

 

thanks!

[Tamberav]

@vlangel might be able to help

 

Cute little tank 🙂

[vlangel]

I have read that you can treat live sand and plants with panacur to kill all possible hydroids.  My limited but successful dwarf seahorse experience was with a bare bottom vase.

[Italcool]

I understand but I really can't stand bare bottom and fake plants its so unnatural. I guess I should treat the sand then before I really start then....

[Clown79]

On 7/7/2019 at 11:30 AM, Italcool said:

I understand but I really can't stand bare bottom and fake plants its so unnatural. I guess I should treat the sand then before I really start then....

There are ways of doing bare bottom without it looking like bare bottom if the bare glass is the issue or the reflection.

 

Many paint the bottom outside panel a white or sand colour, some use starboard cut to size in the tank.

[TerraMagnus]

I used to keep and breed these in some numbers 20+ years ago. If you can supply their food, they are quite easy to keep. The food is the hard part.

 

Their enclosures were nothing special. I had no money back then. I had one 10 gallon display tank that seemed too huge for them such that you'd really have to look for them. Most of them were kept in glass jars from pickles or other condiments. 

 

I kept them all at room temperature. No heaters. Every day dump the jar through a net, take up some new saltwater in the jar from a bucket, empty the seahorses back into the jar. Like bettas! 

 

They bred like cockroaches. I only got out of keeping them because the BBS were much more of a pain than the seahorses.

Lately I've been feeling like I might try them again. Here in the US they are available fairly inexpensively.