a seahorse adventure

hello folks,

so...im still a little iffy about this, mainly because i feel i do not yet have the correct knowledge about these creatures and their keeping. ill break this post in two main parts, what i currently know and what my questions are.

right so i know they are not a fan of strong currents so i was thinking of using two small korelia pumps pointed towards the surface to create water movement and promote gas exchange all while limiting currents in the water column.

in the tank itself (a 40 gallon) i would like to place the classic set up, LR, skimmer, sand bed. on top of this i was thinking of adding macro algae for both anchorage for the seahorse and nitrate absorption.

lighting will be achieved with a single duo t5 bulb rail, seeing as i wont keep any sps i believe this should be largely enough....perhaps a couple softies.

now my questions, firstly what would be the more hardier species, iv read erectus are one of the hardier? how many could i keep in a 40 gallon? hand in hand with that question comes the feeding one. they eat amphipods if im not mistaken so how many could i keep without them completely depleting the amphipod population? is there a chance they will munch the same food mix i make for my fish (a mixture of clams, fish and algae)

how sensitive are they to water quality? considering im aiming for a light bioload can i get by with a couple gallons weekly water changes? salinity at 1.025 a little lower?

anyway any help is more than welcome, its a long term project i want to take my time with.

cheers folks

 

I applaud you for doing homework before buying the seahorses.
First, get rid of the notion that seahorses don't like anything but slow current flow.
You can have areas of low, medium and high flow, with hitches in each area so they can choose where to perch whenever, but just no blasting flow that can toss them against something to damage them.
Intakes of power heads and filters need to be protected to prevent damage to tails or high suction of higher flow power heads.
If you have a heater, you need protection around it to prevent burns, but as the recommended temperatures for most standard seahorses is 68° to 74°F, you shouldn't need to use a heater unless you keep the room at temperatures below 68°F (20°C). I have no heaters in any of my seahorse tanks.
Water quality is a BIG problem due to their propensity to fall victim to various bacteria like the vibriosis species.
Seahorses make for very dirty water, requiring more husbandry than a reef tank.
Seahorses normally are very selective about the pieces of food they eat, leaving the not so choice looking pieces to find a way to be trapped somewhere out of site in rockwork or decor or macro. Also, when they snick the food they masticate it, passing micro particulate matter through the gills into the water column. It can be seen sometimes as a "cloud" being expelled from the gills.
Larger more frequent water changes are needed than you would do for a reef tank, with siphoning out of trapped food particles that you need to find perhaps by directing flow of water around the rockwork, decor, and macro, before doing the siphoning. (I do about 25% changes weekly)
Kuda, erectus, reidi, are the basic ones I'm familiar with here in Canada and all are pretty hardy if you get true captive bred stock, but for raising fry, the erectus are definitely the easier way to go.
Recommended tank size is 29g for a pair, with an additional 15g for each additional pair. Your 40 is almost large enough for two pair and could work out for two pair if you are prepared to do the extra work needed to keep the water/tank clean.
There are very helpful links at the bottom of the page linked in my signature, "My Thoughts on Seahorse Keeping" that will lead to the basics of seahorse care, from which you may have further questions after reading those.

 

rayjay....merci!

ill post back once iv read your links

 

Excellent have all the info i need to get started with your links, can i pm you if i have specific questions?

 

My biggest recommendation would be to get captive bred seahorses, as Rayjay stated. You can feed them frozen food, which minimizes reliance on the natural population of crustaceans in your tank.

My seahorse tank has an MP40 in it, so don't worry about providing too much flow!

 

But i dont think this strange sea horse can serive in 40 gal tank.... they will die after killing all the other fishes too in the tank. :/

 

????
Can you explain what you are trying to say? It isn't making sense to me when I read it.

 

i'm looking forward to an explanation on this as well.

 

It will be a seahorse tank only, maaaaaybe move my toby in there so i can keep a clam in my reef tank but thats really not a certainty.

Iv never heard of seahorses killing fish in fact iv always thought they were the more weak/bullied creatures in the wild.

Rayjay thx again for those links i had no idea that temperature could have such a large role in their keeping. I would have set up the tank at 26C. If i hadn't read this

 

HUH???????? I think you have a LOT of 'splainin' to do...

Swiss,

Rayjay knows his stuff regarding SH...we do things a bit differently, as I'm not a "sterile tank" type person for larger species, altho I agree that zots should be kept this way. He won't steer you wrong.