Considering dwarf seahorses. Talk me out of it!

[Tankkeepers]

Also thanks for bring this topic up now the wife wants dwarfs again (lost all mine when kid wiped out the system wont talk about tjat tho)

 

[Tankkeepers]

Honestly it sounds like your doing your homework and are willing to put in the time required to take care of them as they take alot of time and care I'd say go for it and I like the bare bottom so u can really clean out everything each day to keep the water in good shape I used sand with clerpa and a pile of small rock rubbke in the corner and then some bog wood that had been leached in water for a few months for their tank

 

[Tankkeepers]

The key is really good water quality and alot of food constainly if you think you can do both of those in a 4 gallon then I say go for it I myself could not so I went with a bigger tank and plummed it into main system so the main could take care of filtering I had a 500 gph threwput in a 55 but the return to tank was 1 1/2 I'd set at one end half way down and the outlet was a 4inch id set at the top(I drilled the tank) outlet was covered in a removable very fine mesh as that while the threw put was high it had a very very slow overall flow as in nothing waved in the water or got blown so everything settled to the bottom

 

[Tankkeepers]

I'm honestly not trying to warn you away I'm just trying to make sure you know what your getting into and how much extra work a small tank will be and if 1 thing goes wrong you will lose them as it'll go wrong fast

 

[Tankkeepers]

And that you also relize that if things go right you will have more then you can get rid of and will have to use them as food as most lfs wont take them as they dont have the tanks to house them or want to feed them and demand for them is pretty low so not alot of people you can give them to my population eventually evened out at around 150 where I had as many deaths as births and used some as food for fishy as they were part of the food chain I created

 

[Tankkeepers]

If you do get them start a build thread please as I would love to see your progression and what and how you do it

 

[ThePurple12]

I've had 6 dwarves and a lot of fry in a 2 gallon tank for several months now. I feed BBS daily. FWIW, I've heard of I think 500 dwarfs in a 10 gallon, so waste isn't a problem with decent care.

 

[Brendan Reeves]

Also thanks for bring this topic up now the wife wants dwarfs again (lost all mine when kid wiped out the system wont talk about tjat tho)

I got mine a couple month ago from my msaltwaterfishstore.com, two pairs and both pairs have bred and had babies. If you do plan on getting them make sure to set up a couple of convenient brine shrimp hatcheries. I have two and I start a new one every other day. You also should enrich the brine shrimp in selcon or phytoplankton or something. You also want to avoid live rock because of pests and any stinging corals. So you probably stick with some soft corals like gorgonians and macro algae.

 

[deetu]

Love your hatcherys I used 2 litter bottles upside down with a hole in the top to let out pressure and a hole in the cap with an air line sealed and air stone

I was using a different hatching system but didn't have a good hatch so panicked looking around to what I could use and saw these water goblets with my crystal in my china cabinet from my wedding (from my in laws no less) never used because they were expensive... well, they were perfect ;Woot

 

[Tankkeepers]

I was using a different hatching system but didn't have a good hatch so panicked looking around to what I could use and saw these water goblets with my crystal in my china cabinet from my wedding (from my in laws no less) never used because they were expensive... well, they were perfect ;Woot

Wife would kill me if I used anything from the china cabinet and she pretty much lets me do whatever I want lol I'm also not alowed to touch the towels aparently I ruin them so she bought me some chepos for cleaning lol

 

[Brendan Reeves]

I got mine a couple month ago from my msaltwaterfishstore.com, two pairs and both pairs have bred and had babies. If you do plan on getting them make sure to set up a couple of convenient brine shrimp hatcheries. I have two and I start a new one every other day. You also should enrich the brine shrimp in selcon or phytoplankton or something. You also want to avoid live rock because of pests and any stinging corals. So you probably stick with some soft corals like gorgonians and macro algae.

They do like red mangrove roots too, forgot to mention that. I have 2 in my seahorse and they always stay on them. The hermit crabs may be a little risky btw. I just keep snails with the dwarves.

 

[Brendan Reeves]

Also if you don’t want babies you can’t keep your light cycle under 12 hours. They don’t breed in the winter

 

[Nelliy]

Most of the articles I've come across online state that you keep the dwarves in smaller tanks in order to concentrate food to minimize food wastage + rotting. It'd be like trying to broadcast feed in a 3000 gallon aquarium in order to feed a pair of clowns if you did it in a 55.

As for the needing more than just BBS, from what I understand it's more due to not feeding immediately after the brine shrimp hatch (hence, why I advocated for feeding the NHBBS, as opposed to BBS), which allows for wastage of BBS nutrition. Dosing copepods regularly would certainly help with maintaining nutrition for the horses though.

...I'm really not good at this whole "talk person out of buying X fish" am I....

I have had 5 seahorses for over a year now mixed with some Carefully chosen tank mates. I have set up a feeding station with handles for them to grab onto. This minimises wastage 100% for me as the food is stuck in a bowl and trickles down a tube. I have some other tank mates that will also come and check it out for a quick feed but none that hogs it. Depending on how dedicated you are it will take 1-2 weeks to train them to use the station. Mine took about 3-5 days. Now at the same time as my normal feeding times they line up at the station waiting for food. It’s so cute.

 

[Tankkeepers]

Also if you don’t want babies you can’t keep your light cycle under 12 hours. They don’t breed in the winter

I don't think light time has anything to do with them breeding its tempture related as my light cycle was 10 hours and they still breed like guppys at 76 degrees

 

[ThePurple12]

Maybe the room around them was still lit? I've also heard that and seem to be experiencing it right now

 

[Tankkeepers]

Maybe the room around them was still lit? I've also heard that and seem to be experiencing it right now

Nope the tank had their own room and everything in the room was on the same 10 hr scedule Windows were blacked out and the room was dark on the off times I will say this I seem to be the odd ball out on alot of things when it comes to reef keeping or really life in general lol so mabey I had mine long enoff they thought 10hr was summer idk I would of assumed it would be temp related only becouse I couldnt get mine to stop breeding

 

[Tankkeepers]

Mabey it was becouse of where I got them from which was tank raised not wild and that made a difference idk

 

[Tankkeepers]

I will say this it cant hurt to try

 

[Brendan Reeves]

I will say this it cant hurt to try

I think that it does work. I had mine for a month and a half with no breeding activity, turned it on to 13 hours after reading that and two days later they started their little ritual. It definitely wouldn’t hurt if you want to slow down breeding, maybe it won’t come to a complete halt.

 

[Tankkeepers]

Hopfully that will work if the op goes this route and does not want them to breed funny how what works for one does not work for another mabey jts becouse my tanks were always at 10hrs still are