Seagrass Aquarium

I am getting a 40 long sea grass lagoon aquarium and was wondering if anybody had any experience or if anybody had any suggestions or advice. And i kind of want some filefish and seahorses and pipefish

 

So will you have live rock? This sounds cool.

 

awesome idea? i also reccomend just adding some bland looking sea whips or tree corals just to accent the grass a bit. will look great when its started and will work great for seahorses. cant wait to see it going.

 

True seagrasses require LOTS of light (similar to a reef) and at least 4" of substrate, preferably a bit more. They're a bit tuff to grow, actually.

If you're going to go with a SH setup, you want to keep it on the cooler side (74*F max for tropicals), and bright lighting generally adds to the heat of a system that you'll already be trying to keep cooler.

I recommend "planting" Caulerpa prolifera in the area you want the seagrass bed to be. It's hardy, fairly fast-growing, requires much less light, and you can run with a much shallower sandbed (1" is fine).

Other SH tips:

Be sure to get TRUE CB (captive bred) stock from a reputable breeder such as SEAHORSE SOURCE (the best IMHO) or hobbyist-breeder such as Peka's Ponies.

Do some research on mixing Syngnathids...it generally doesn't end well, and if you mix pipes and SH, you'll likely be mixing WC pipes with CB SH.

A 40L is a bit short for SH...you generally want to go with 3x the uncurled height of the adult SH you keep, but pipes would do super in a 40L.

HTH

 

a 40 gallon would be fine for a couple pairs of seahorses along with a few pipefish, just make sure to get the smaller varieties not the large ones that need like a 75 gallon tank.

really wild caught seahorses are not hard to care for, however they need to be weaned off live food unless your up to feeding live food and there is always a chance of a parasite coming in with one, which i say is a very small price to pay considering how much more expensive captive bred seahorses are. its not hard to wean them off live food. and mixing wild caught and captive bred is not a big deal at all.

 

I beg to differ regarding WC SH...they not only require weaning, but most keepers treat them for endoparasites as a minimum. By the time you spend the time, money (meds and live food), and effort weaning them, the "cost of ownership" is well beyond the $30 or so spent at the LFS for the SH, so it's just as well to start off with CB stock, esp. as a novice keeper. I've seen lots of peeps toss up their hands because they've had a bad experience with WC stock (I've been a global mod on "the" SH forum for several years, so I've seen a lot of this).

As for "smaller species", what do you suggest? Not erectus, reidi or kuda, for sure...MAYBE barbs, but really, fuscus or caps would be best, and not that I know EVERY breeder, but nobody I know of is raising capensis anymore, and fuscus are tuff to come by.

Personally, I'd go with some gulf or northern pipes (both are at home in grassbeds), a pair of Acreicthys tomentosus (bristletail filefish) and call it a day.

JM .02...

 

ok liking the ideas i am really looking forward to this i think i am going with some t5 HO and just go with pipes and a filefish. thanks for the help

 

i am not even in high school so it is going to take some savings time but when i get it running i will get some pics

 

I love the idea of the sh/pipefish tank.

Lots of great info here. Thank for the help, Marcus. I've heard good things about both Seahorse Source and Peka's Ponies. I wish I had the time to care for these.

I don't know why you would choose to do wc seahorses if cb are already available. It just doesn't make sense.

 

LR is not suggested in seahorse tanks, as it can bring in unwanted diseases and hitchhikers. It would be best, if using rock at all, (which doesn't appear to be the case hear(?)) to buy all dry rock.