new year, new seahorse build!!!!!!(many pictuers)

The reason it is not recommended to keep different species together, especially when starting out, is that seahorses, in addition to being really susceptible to bacterial problems, are also prone to severe problems by being introduced to pathogens that they haven't grown up with. Some luck in with seahorses that do manage to accommodate and live with new exposures, but that is not normal.
The best chances of success come from raising your own seahorses from birth, of different species and put them together early in their lifespan.
Next best chance of success is species bred and raised in the same breeding facility, i.e. say, reidi and erectus from seahorse source.

On a general note for those that don't know:
True captive bred are raised in facilities that either use commercial salt mixes or use ocean water that is properly filtered and treated for pathogens before being used for the seahorses.

Tank raised, are mostly but not exclusively, seahorses raised in structures, many times large round cement tanks, using insufficiently treated or filtered ocean water because the majority of the production goes for Chinese medicine sales where it doesn't matter that such water is not treated.
The numbers that are siphoned off for sale in the hobby are insignificant compared to the total bred and raised this way, so cost to properly treat the water for just those numbers is prohibitive when they are mostly concerned with selling for medicine.
The only advantage these seahorses have over wildcaught are that they have been trained to eat frozen mysis.
They are normally cheaper than true captive bred because of lower production costs.
These seahorses should be put through a deworming protocol, nines weeks of three different medicines, in order to give them a decent chance of success,
the same as "net pen" raised, or wild caught.

 

fisrt were is pekas ponys. im in crystal lake its right nere the wisconsin border. what club is she in.

next im not thinking about mixxing two diifent kinds, and im also not even going to atempt to breed untill i get a good feel for them. i need the extra work to do, im not one of thouse kids who play xbox all day, if their was a way to tell how many hours iv spent on this site, id be in weeks. im relly thinking this is the way to go Erectus but all the site says is that their available, no prices or if they have a pair. dose anyone know

 

Chillers are so damn expensive...

 

yes they are...

 

im going to go and take a look at the tank in an hour

 

Pekas Ponies, is located just south of Crystal Lake Illinois, for more precise directions your going to have to call her.

I understand the reasons why you cannot keep them together, I was actually just messing with Incognito a little bit, figured I would try and lighten the mood since we didn't started off on the right foot, mostly due to my fault.

But thank you for the information. I find it all really interesting. I really hope to be able to get back into then at a late date. Seahorse are one of my true passions. I used to sit in front of my tank and spend hours hand feeding them.

 

Don't know what you mean by "what club is she in" but she is a member on seahorse.org. Her profile there lists her location as Lake in the Hills, Illinois.
Unfortunately, unless you buy a mated pair from someone, one cannot guarantee a pair just by buying two because sometimes a female looking seahorse turns out to be a late developing male.
Depending on the age of the seahorses, it may not even be possible to ship you two seahorses and know what sex either is.
You also cannot specify and get a guarantee on the colour as each seahorse changes according to it's mood and how it perceives it's surroundings.
Her website has her e-mail so just e-mail her and ask what she has and how much. (peka at pekasponies dot com)

 

Sorry forgot about the reef club, We both belong to the Joliet Area Reef Club or JARC. As you might have guessed her screen name is Peka. Our home page is here JARC Main

Rayjay is correct about the color, I used to have several silk plants that were gold in color I used in my tank. The seahorses started out black and after hanging out in the plants they changed to a muted Gold, they were beautiful until I took the plants out and they converted back to black

 

mmhmmmm. i though they only changed shads, not compleat colors.



and i did end up buying a 25 tall tank. it only cost me 45 dollers. im going to pick it up the 26th

 

I don't know what to think about the mixing of species anymore. It's always been such a hot topic in the past that I myself have engaged in internet "fighting" on the topic. And I think my response back has been one of the few times on this forum I've gotten snippety. We must remember to not debate at night. LOL.

Every time I mix I loose a horse. Wish I had research to tell ya why, but everything is pure speculation. Speculatory topics always lead to hot disagreements. I've mellowed over the years.

I have a barbouri, reidi and erectus in the tank. I forget how long.... 2-1/2 - 3 years? Somewhere around there. But someone always dies when I do it. Each of these seahorses had same species mates. As I mixed them, one one of each of the species died. I've stopped trying to figure it out.