New Setup - Eventually Seahorses

Hi - Have new 35 Gallon Hex setup, cycled with live rock, etc. Currently have only Turbo snails, Hermits, and 3 Damsels (these will go to a friend before I put in any seahorses), and two coral frags that were just added yesterday. Both frags opened up nicely within a couple hours after my adding them. I think one is a green Zoa, but not quite sure what other is.

I will not be getting seahorses until end of May (Mustangs from Ocean Rider) and I am trying to get a nice colorful and safe environment set up for them beforehand. Any suggestions as far as colorful, easy to keep corals would be much appreciated. I am working on posting pics

Thanks.

 

Well, I would highly suggest ditching the hermits as well. Crabs and seahorses just don't mix.
As far as easy to keep corals, stick with the low light corals like zoa's, mushrooms, those sorts of things. The tricky thing when combining corals with seahorses is lighting. You can't over do it. The best would be to pick out a shallow water species of sea horse, as they can take a little more lighting then others (sea horses can actually be harmed by too intense of lighting which can be associated with reef systems).
Do you have a species picked out yet?

 

I like the hex tanks for SH. I am going to end up with a 20g hex myself. You and I are going to have FUN!!!! But you will get to have fun first....;D

 

Thanks for the advice PackLeader - much appreciated. I am going with 2 pair of Mustangs) Hippocampus erectus from OceanRider. I will try to document my tank progression, but I am having a bit of trouble with this so far.

Yes we are PharmJohn! I'm already having fun having gone through cycling, adding cleaning crew and now some coral. When are you starting if you haven't already?

 

SeaHorses are awesome creatures, I have watched them at feeding time in the lfs across the water, they seem slow and hard to keep. Good Luck to you both....
Danny

 

Before setting up for seahorses, please investigate fully as you may be including something or using methods that are not recommended by knowledgeable hobbyists.
One of the most important recommendations is to keep temperatures low, as in 74°F or lower.
While most seahorses can stand higher temps, and indeed do live in higher temps in nature, in a tank, bacterial outbreaks like vibrio are all too common as temps rise above that point.
Be sure to only keep seahorses that come from the same breeder, and only one species to a system.
Be wary of store claims of being captive bred, or, tank raised.
Ask for the source and check to see if they are captive bred AND raised in tanks, like seahorse souce, or Seahorse Australia and South Australian Seahorse Marine Services.
Wild caught are very difficult to keep, with the now more predominant net pen raised, being better only in that they are trained to eat frozen mysis. Many places selling these net pen horses don't mention net pen, but call them captive bred, which technically they are, but they are fraught with the same pathogens and parasites the wild caught ones are.
More still, these net penners have been sold as tank raised, meaning either the suppier lied or the store lied.
While a few hobbyists manage to keep seahorses in reef tank conditions, many many more fail, causing high mortality rates for the seahorse hobby.
Even sticking with the recommended methods, there certainly is no guarantee of no problems, but the odds are very much improved.
There are two dedicated seahorse forums that one should check out, both the forums and the articles sections of each one.

 

Be careful when adding mushrooms as some species have been known to eat fish.