Questions for Seahorse owners

I'm about to begin the construction of my 36 Gallon Seahorse tank. I have done my research and understand how to care for them and what they need. However, I have a couple questions for owners. How many medium sized Horses could eventually go in a 36? What have been the best species to keep? Would you mix species, or keep it to one? I was thinking of doing either all H. reidi (Brazilian Seahorse) or all H. barbouri (Zebra Snout Seahorse). What would you use for hitching posts other than macroalgae and fake coral/coral skeleton? Other advice? Thank you in advance.

 

Also, do you think it is necessary to have macroalgae in the setup?

 

I thought of yet another question. How difficult is it to find Captive Bread specimens?

 

IMO 4 to 6 medium seahorse would do fine in a 36. As far as mixed species tank most everything I have ever read or seen said that this isn't a good Idea. Mostly due to different temperaments, diseases and feeding requirements for different species.

No but personally I like the way it makes the tank look, Also helps with the nuisance algae by using some of the excess Phosphate that are sure to exist in the tank.

Not hard at all, in fact most sellers are selling Captive breed. I would recommend checking out the Seahorse.org classifieds there are always some for sale there or check out Seahorse Source most all of their horses are captive bred.

 

So if I were to wait to buy the lighting before adding it due to cost, it would be okay. I am thinking that due to funds, I will keep only a pair for a while until I can afford lighting for macros. This will slightly lessen the need for hitching posts, and it will give me minimal trouble in water quality.

 

I started my seahorse tank a little over 3 years ago after having read a lot for several years on and off. I found that like any aspect of salt water hobby, opinions were diverse.
I decided to go with live rock and bare bottom with plastic hitching/decor.
I would really like to have corals, macro, higher lighting, but having those would mean that I stood a much higher chance of having problems to even loosing my seahorses as the temperatures necessary to maintain a tank like this would be higher than recommended for safe keeping of the horses.
That meant going with the plastic hitching/decor.
I opted to go with bare bottom so I could siphon out the food before each feeding thus removing nutrient quickly and lessening the load on the biological filtration.
After a while, I DID experiment with raising the temperatures with the thought that if all went well, I could add corals and macro and better lighting.
Unfortunately for my seahorses, I killed 4 of my six horses, when they became afflicted with some unknown pathogen/bacteria.
I reduced the temperature back down to 72 and have had the remaining two ever since.
Reidi's are what I started with so I have no recommendations as to what is best/easiest, but I just received an early Christmas present a few weeks ago in the form of H. Barbouri, which I had been searching for captive bred ones for longer than I've had seahorses, and H. Angustus, one pair each.
They are in quarantine and will remain there for a minimum of two months. I haven't yet decided to go through the long process that is recommended if one goes against the preferred rule of do not mix.

 

I am planning on going with plastic hitching decor and live rock. I havn't decided on whether or not to add sand yet. I am going to take everything for the tank out of my reef, (all the live rock and water). I've also decided to go with with a 20-25 gallon tank instead because I can't bear to part with my freshwater fish. In there I will keep 2 H. kuda. Could I keep 3 seahorses, or do they like to be in multiples of two. I have read a lot about pairs, and do these need to be male female, or could I just do female to avoid breeding.

 

here is a link to my post about my tanks
http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/my-tank-setup-56047.html
I have a 35 gallon hex tank for seahorses. in that tank I have ~ 1" sugar sand bed ( about 20 lbs of sand) about 50 lbs of LR. 14 Black Kuda Seahorse and 5 African Bluestripe Pipefish. I keep the water 76.8 degrees and the water movement in the tank if provided by a "quietone 3300" ( if you read my other post, you will understand more about my setup). I don't actually filter in the "horse" tank, I filter in my other tank, and pump the clean water into the seahorse tank.
I do have 2 "clumps" of Chaetomorpha Algae that are pushed between some of the rocks. The horses sometimes hold on to that, sometimes to the rocks. One thing I did notice, becasue I have a hex tank, the water pumping in causes a slight but constant circular water movement. the rocks are positioned in a way so there is an emply space in the center of the tank, some of the horses go down in that area and just hang out.
I have also noticed that at night ( with only the lunar light on.. and the room lights are off). after a few hours, they will "goto sleep" by laying down in sand where there is almost no current. ( first time, I thought 1/2 of my tank was dead. I turned the light on and they all swam away). they have been doing this now for about a month, so I assume it's normal.
I am not a pro at horses and I personally beleve in over populating my tanks. The only losses that I have had in my horse tank where my 1st batch of horses, I got baby dwarf horses, they were TINY ( full adult size is one inch.. so you can imagine how small the babies are). well, I have a strainer/bulkhead that drains the water back into my main tank. they were so small, they kept going through the strainer. Since the loss of those 4, I have only bough the Black Kuda Seahorse.
I started with 6, 2 weeks later I added 8 more. with 14, you always see activity.
Incase you are wondering, since removing all of my crused coral and going to sand.
amonia - 0
nitrites - 0
nitrates - 15 (and droping)

last thing. prices. I got my horses from liveaquaria.com full price is $35, their sale price is $20 (19.99)

 

With all due respect, I don't feel you should recommend high density stocking, especially to an inexperienced person.
A 35 would be pushed to PROPERLY house 3 pair of medium horses.
If you really do have that many seahorses in that size tank I can almost guarantee you won't have them a long time.
I saw pics of a couple of pipe fish but I never saw a pic of all your horses.

 

rayjay you are welcome to have your own opinion, that's what this site is for. What works for me, may not work for others.

I personally don't believe in having 3 fish in a 100 gallon tank because "they" say so.

I have a heavy population and I take care of my tank. I did not know that I needed to send you pic's of all of my fish as proof they are 1) there and 2) alive.

again, something for us all to remember, anyone's posts on here are just sugestions and ideas. no one is forcing anyone to do anything

lastly, plase read my post. I said that " I have" not he should or you should. I said that " I did " By you adding "with all due respect" does not chage that point that you believe your opinion matters more the others opinions.

with all due respect....