Feedback on planned seahorse tank

[cartery]

I would like to keep seahorses and pipefish in my new 65 gallon tank (19.5" tall). However, I'm pretty busy with two kids and a full-time job, so target feeding and then cleaning up leftovers several times a day is a non-starter.

I've come up with a plan that I could do, but I don't know if it has any realistic chance of success. I'd love some advice. Obviously, if the plan seems like it would be bad fish-keeping, I'll skip the seahorses. Thanks in advance!

-Keep only 4 captive bred H. Erectus (heartiest choice, right?) plus some gulf pipefish.

-Feed using Smarter Reefs Reefcicle for a trickle of frozen food throughout the day. (I've been using this on my current tank and it's pretty neat).

-Macroalgae, gorgonians, and live rock in the display. Willing to do no substrate if it would be a big help, but would prefer sand.

-Use true live rock (and sand, if any) from somewhere like Tampa Bay Saltwater. Obviously I'll get rid of any hitchhikers that might not be seahorse friendly.

-Sump will be two 20 gallons plumbed together. One will be a cryptic refugium full of live rock, the other will be a standard sump with room for a skimmer.

-The goal would be to have tons of microfauna and not add the seahorses until the tank is mature. Maybe a year or year-and-a-half. (I have copepods, isopods, amphipods, and mysid shrimp thriving in my year-old mixed reef, so going for the same thing here).

-Possibly keep a breeding group of sailfin mollies to get additional live food going. Maybe add glass shrimp.

-Some kind of small hermit crabs for clean up of extra food.

-Skip the UV sterilizer so microfauna can thrive.

 

[Gman83]

No experience myself, but @robanister any thoughts?

 

[picea]

I like your plan, but if you have the benefit of a fuge, have you considered taking advantage of it further and growing macro on a reverse photocycle? You could keep species that might visually clog the tank down there, creating even more space for pods/microfauna.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

The major issue will be feeding IMO. Seahorses don't have stomach so they have no gut bacteria to process decaying food. We thaw the mysis and feed it to them right away. We clean up the uneaten food partly to keep the water quality immaculate, and partly to remove the chance the horse might eat the mysis later on, this can cause vibrio in seahorses. Seahorses will snack on copepods and such, but its too small to be sustainable for adult seahorses, they really need the mysis as the main food source.

Adding other fish to the tank means increased feeding and pooping which will mess with water quality. Seahorses are not hardy like fish, bad bacteria and dissolved organics will quickly and easily cause infections and sickness to the seahorses. Frequent water changes and increased filtration are a must.

 

[robanister]

No experience myself, but @robanister any thoughts?

I would set-up an automated water change system and and the frozen food feeder if I did it again. Keep the crabs out. Urchins worked well. Crabs picked at horses. Gonna want some sand sturing. If you can put an algae scrubber on it that may help too. Pipefish are pretty easy as long as you have a good copepod population. I used a corner seahorse feeder. It help keep it in one place . Also plastic chains got waterloged and would sink so you may need something for them to hang on to.

 

[cartery]

I like your plan, but if you have the benefit of a fuge, have you considered taking advantage of it further and growing macro on a reverse photocycle? You could keep species that might visually clog the tank down there, creating even more space for pods/microfauna.

I definitely could. Is there a benefit to the display tank of a reverse photo cycle if there aren't really hard corals in there?

 

[cartery]

No experience myself, but @robanister any thoughts?

I would set-up an automated water change system and and the frozen food feeder if I did it again. Keep the crabs out. Urchins worked well. Crabs picked at horses. Gonna want some sand sturing. If you can put an algae scrubber on it that may help too. Pipefish are pretty easy as long as you have a good copepod population. I used a corner seahorse feeder. It help keep it in one place . Also plastic chains got waterloged and would sink so you may need something for them to hang on to.

Thanks! When you say frozen food feeder, are you referring to anything specific? I know there's that new $500 one. Do you think an algae scrubber gives a benefit beyond the macros in the display?

 

[cartery]

The major issue will be feeding IMO. Seahorses don't have stomach so they have no gut bacteria to process decaying food. We thaw the mysis and feed it to them right away. We clean up the uneaten food partly to keep the water quality immaculate, and partly to remove the chance the horse might eat the mysis later on, this can cause vibrio in seahorses. Seahorses will snack on copepods and such, but its too small to be sustainable for adult seahorses, they really need the mysis as the main food source.

Adding other fish to the tank means increased feeding and pooping which will mess with water quality. Seahorses are not hardy like fish, bad bacteria and dissolved organics will quickly and easily cause infections and sickness to the seahorses. Frequent water changes and increased filtration are a must.

Yeah... This is the response I was expecting and the issue I was trying to get around with my plan. But if there's no getting around the need to remove uneaten food, seahorses aren't for me. At least at this time. Thanks!

 

[robanister]

Yeah... This is the response I was expecting and the issue I was trying to get around with my plan. But if there's no getting around the need to remove uneaten food, seahorses aren't for me. At least at this time. Thanks!

I didn't remove uneaten food. Urchins atebit.I was referring to ate 500$ af4? The algae scrubber can be run lower or higher times to get nutrients adjusted right. Macros take time to establish .