3 gallon Dwarf Seahorse Tank

[Mhamilton0911]

I'm new to Seahorses but I've read a lot and keep reading every day so I decided to jump right in!

I ordered a small herd of 10 dwarf seahorses and a couple gorgs. Seahorses went into a 1 gallon tank for now and gorgs into another tank for another time.

Current photo of the tank:



Equipment:
3 gallon cube, aqueon frameless with lid.
Wood stand to hide pump and cords.
Basic air pump and stone
Amazon light, (we'll see how this one goes, likely will be upgrading)
Oolite sand, dry
Rock structure, dry with small pieces glued together for an arch.

Livestock:
7 adults, 2 males and 5 females.
2 wee lil babies
Green grassy seaweed ( not sure on the name)
Tig copepods
Colonista(?) Snails

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Drama right away....

Delivery day was an event. Ups is usually at 10:30 for deliveries, but I didn't get my box until 4:00. So that means they passed the first time by, had my ponies on a bouncy truck on dirt roads all day, and swung by on the way back. Box was visibly dusty. Hate that. Second time they've done that with a live order, so I'm only going to do hub drop offs for now on for live orders.

2 ponies were DOA (really obvious based on color and smell, lucky the whole bag wasn't DOA), one passed sometime at acclimation or right before I opened the bag. And one passed the next day. Total I've lost 4 adults, they sent 11, so I'm at 7 adults and 2 babies, one born in the bag and one the next day.

The bag was visibly gross and murky. I initially thought they were all dead. I decided instead of a slow acclimation to hurry and get any survivors into fresh water right away. I know right when I opened the bag the ammonia was going to skyrocket. I had no idea what salinity it was at.

Had fresh saltwater, ro to adjust salinity if needed, and prime for the ammonia bag. Cut the bag and dumped then into a bowl. Right away I did see some live so I added a couple drops of prime to hopefully slow down the ammonia poisoning. I scooped the live ponies out into fresh saltwater, and 2 were obviously DOA. They were ghost white, and eyes were clouded. Likey dead a while. Bag smelled terrible. I'm surprised they all weren't DOA honestly. One more appeared dead that I thought was alive, but all the live ones were hitched to it so once they let go it was apparent he had passed also. And shockingly I found a live baby hitched to a tiny piece of something in the bag, like a shred of a plant root or algea. Really surprised it survived the gross bag water and my rush into freshwater situation.

The following day I did loose one more adult, unknown reasons, but I spotted another baby as well, so the count is at 7 adults and 2 babies.

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Initially I did have one of the gorgs in there, but I think it started to turn, all the ponies unhitched and started erratically swimming, and the water got a little cloudy so I removed it and did a few small water changes and ponies are acting normal again. Currently have a grassy seaweed for them to hitch to.

Today I'll keep working on the new tank. Currently thinking about what color to do for a background. I've read blue is better for thier colors, is that true?

So I built this little wood stand, just 2" of height but enough hide the air pump and cords. Stained it grey, with water based poly on top. Super cute. Tank is going on my kitchen counter so I tried to be smart about the cord clutter.

I also whipped out a little rock structure for some visual interest in there. It's currently seasoning in my large tank. Not sure how long I'll let it be in there. Likey until it gets some color on it so those uglies don't happen in the seahorse tank with no algea eating fish in there. I don't have any pests in that tank on account of all the pest eating things in there, so that's the safest place to let it soak up some beneficial bacteria. I even took a Dremel tool to it so soften all the rougher edges of the rock so it won't hurt the ponies. I also plugged any large holes so they can't get stuck anywhere. Glue and rock dust makes it happen.

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Pony pictures.

 

[fishguy242]

...

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Aww! You showed up and brought pictures of your friends! I wruv you!! Good friends are the bestest!

 

[907_Reefer]

Following

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Following

 

[Mhamilton0911]

@fishguy242 your method of harvesting the brine shrimp was way better, look at all the pretty food.

 

[tbrown]

Howdy!

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Howdy!

 

[Mhamilton0911]

It's so pretty!



Now that my gremlins are all awake and fed, go hunting for vinyl colors. Hoping I have a good blue. If not, I'll just paint it, I have loads of craft paint.

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Definitely had some blue.... now which one?
I read dark blue on Alyssa's seahorse savvy, but is the dark one here too dark? I like them all...

 

[907_Reefer]

I like the middle blue. I think

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Middle blue behind both, to give sense of what it'll look like with stuff in there... I like it.

 

[Mschmidt]

100% wouldn't have seen those babies myself. great eyes and good luck! love the tank size too.

 

[Mhamilton0911]

It is done. For today.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Looks amazing!!

 

[JoJosReef]

I love it! Following!

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Ok, rinsed 3 cups of sand. I have lots more if I need, but I think this will be plenty. Also got my Amazon light. I'm really hoping it'll grow at least the seaweed stuff I have. It has 3 color options, white, white and blue and blue. With dimming also. I think I only paid like $10 for it. We'll see...

And might have seen some possible labor signs in one of the males. Not sure which one had the 2 babies already, but one is for sure doing some stretching and squeezing. I'll see if I can catch it on video.