Dwarf Seahorse Nano

That's ok - there was nothing I could do. She/he was near death being swarmed by brine at the bottom in a hard to reach corner so I let her/him go I don't think she/he would have made it anyway. At least I have 2 healthy ones

 

that is so cool!

 

Beautiful setup!! I love love love seahorse. I just bought a little 3 gallon pico and am leaning towards making it a little sea horse tank. I will be following along here to glean all of your helpful knowledge and hints I know my kids want sea horses and just don't understand why I don't plop some down into the 150g lol... Very beautiful little tank and best wishes on your new little babies!
Heidi

 

Thanks

I think a 3 gallon pico would be -perfect- I love tiny aquariums hehe

 

Nice looking setup. I've bred this species for years, they're a lot of fun and breed almost as often as guppies.

Where did you get them from? I've been looking to get back into it.

 

I got them from ccritters, but they are wild caught.


Do you have any advice about raising the babies? ;D

 

today I thought of something regarding tank mechanics that could be very helpful.

Currently with your wild caught horses they have not been isolated against the wide range of pathogens that comes from 1st generation wilds. Any form of UV sterilization you could use on the tank would be ideal, because it kills a wide range of pathogens transmissible in the water, a real concern using wild caught anything in the small nano reef.

UV is a very good cheat to have on hand for unknown ailments that present a challenge to your horses. If it concerns you at feeding time then click it off...but running the other times its a very safe method to kill off x pathogen and it could help with some of your tail rot issues.

Its not a big deal to hook one up, the little ones they make for biocubes would work great on a smaller tank.

any horses actually infected would not be assisted directly, its cross vectoring that would be minimized, and, any sporulation or dormancy of an offending pathogen is very likely to get taken out using UV light.
I have used UV lighting for years and years in both fresh and saltwater tanks, many are passionate against it, but from experience Im sure they are great.

 

I'm not passionate against UV, I just don't use it.
Using UV for seahorse tanks is NOT a big help IMO because for the UV to work, the pathogens have to pass through the UV tube and unfortunately most of the pathogens just don't get through that tube. Even with an UV unit that is tremendously oversized for the tank there is not enough of the water born stages passing through to eliminate the pathogens from the tank.
Tail rot won't be helped because the bacteria are constantly reproducing ON the detritus/decayed food and on slime on aquarium glass, with most never going through the UV.
While there may be a small advantage to having a UV, the best thing you can do for the tank is keeping the tank abnormally clean. (better than reef tank husbandry)
The deworming process of 3 drugs and a 9 week protocol will suffice in most cases for a lot of the pathogens of the wild caught. Better yet, spend a bit more and buy true captive bred.

 

Could you please elaborate on the deworming process (the 9 week protocol part)? I gave the tank 3 doses of panacur dewormer - spread out with a day in between each dose already.

With the tail rot - I've had one that I thought had tail rot, but I was reading a book that covered the specific ailments of dwarf seahorses and the symptoms for nematodes actually fit the description a bit better, so I followed the instructions to remove them. For the most part it seems to have gone away, other than one seahorse who must have had a bad case (that I have given a freshwater dip and medicated already) but even so, he isn't nearly as bad as first one was.

Thanks for the suggestion about the UV lighting - I think for now I will try keeping the tank spotless like rayjay said, and if I'm still plagued with issues, I'll look in to trying it.

 

This thread has a lot of great info. I need to go back through and read it all.