First Time Seahorse Tank Setup

[lemonyellowdevintage]

Hi everyone, after being in the hobby for 7 years and stopping just last year, I'm getting back into it with a seahorse tank setup. I keep getting conflicting information from other sources so I thought I'd ask here. My questions are:

Are seahorses really as hard to keep as people say?
Do they absolutely need to be kept in pairs?
Is it true that they need their temp at around 74 degrees?

 

[Bryn]

Welcome to R2R, NS and NB here, although we are living in TN right now. Will be interested to follow this thread, best of luck with this build.

 

[lemonyellowdevintage]

Welcome to R2R, NS and NB here, although we are living in TN right now. Will be interested to follow this thread, best of luck with this build.

Do you know of any sellers who ship seahorses to Canada?

 

[Bryn]

Sorry I do not.

 

[Luckyduck]

Yes sir. Sea Horses like cooler temperatures as well as low flow. Do some research before you jump into it. They are difficult to keep. Captive-bred species are much easier than wild-caught. It can be difficult to get them to eat frozen food. Having a well-established population of copepods will be very helpful. I would try to create as close to a natural habitat for them as possible as it will reflect in their health. They can be kept with filter-feeding corals and I used Tonga branch in my seahorse tank. No other fish as they will the food before the seahorses can even get to it.

 

[pledosophy]

IME seahorses do not need to be kept in pairs, but they do interact with other seahorses.

They do not like temps around 74F, they NEED temperatures below 74 for long term survival. This has to do with a bacteria (vibrio) that they carry in an asymptomatic state. Temperatures above 74 allow the bacteria to alter it's protein structure and become much more virulent leaving the seahorse susceptible to disease.

Seahorses are not hard to keep at all, they just require a system that is setup for them. If you put them in a gold fish bowl they will die. Same as if you put an acropora in a goldfish bowl they would die. Seahorses have inefficient digestive systems so they require to be fed 2x a day, they don't break down their food well so many seahorse tanks have nutrient issues. You just have to plan for it. It is not difficult.

I also believe that seahorses do enjoy a higher rate of water movement, but the movement needs to be spread out, not in a narrower powerhead. My best success with seahorses have been in tanks with over a 50x return, usually accomplished by spraybars under the rock. This keeps the seahorses hunting around well, and it also helps to prevent the accumulation of uneaten food.

I would recommend a protein skimmer in a sump, but that is not NEEDED, just handy to have; especially if you choose to vodka/carbon dose the tank later to control nutrients.

They do require specialized care, but they are wonderful animals. Best of luck to you.
HTH

 

[lemonyellowdevintage]

IME seahorses do not need to be kept in pairs, but they do interact with other seahorses.

They do not like temps around 74F, they NEED temperatures below 74 for long term survival. This has to do with a bacteria (vibrio) that they carry in an asymptomatic state. Temperatures above 74 allow the bacteria to alter it's protein structure and become much more virulent leaving the seahorse susceptible to disease.

Seahorses are not hard to keep at all, they just require a system that is setup for them. If you put them in a gold fish bowl they will die. Same as if you put an acropora in a goldfish bowl they would die. Seahorses have inefficient digestive systems so they require to be fed 2x a day, they don't break down their food well so many seahorse tanks have nutrient issues. You just have to plan for it. It is not difficult.

I also believe that seahorses do enjoy a higher rate of water movement, but the movement needs to be spread out, not in a narrower powerhead. My best success with seahorses have been in tanks with over a 50x return, usually accomplished by spraybars under the rock. This keeps the seahorses hunting around well, and it also helps to prevent the accumulation of uneaten food.

I would recommend a protein skimmer in a sump, but that is not NEEDED, just handy to have; especially if you choose to vodka/carbon dose the tank later to control nutrients.

They do require specialized care, but they are wonderful animals. Best of luck to you.
HTH

May I ask why the skimmer should be used if i use carbon? Does that mean if I use carbon filtration (since it’s an all in one tank) I need a skimmer for sure?

 

[pledosophy]

May I ask why the skimmer should be used if i use carbon? Does that mean if I use carbon filtration (since it’s an all in one tank) I need a skimmer for sure?

Carbon dosing and using carbon are two different things. A lot of people get those confused.

Carbon dosing is adding a sugar product to the tank that feeds the beneficial bacteria, causing them to proliferate faster so the bacteria population will eat more nitrate and phosphate. The side effect of this wonderful little interaction is that you need a protein skimmer to pull out the waste. Vodka, vinegar, and sugar are commonly used as the source of carbon.

Carbon as in those little black rocks that absorb contaminants and impurities in the water, is very different. I would not recommend using those with seahorses at all unless it was an emergency (someone sprayed bug spray in the room, etc). Carbon produces small fines, aka really tiny pieces of carbon that look like a dust. It can get into a seahorses gills and irritate them.

If you do want to use Carbon (tiny black rocks), I would suggest doing so in a reactor and having that reactor drain into a filter sock. I also have found that the Bulk Reef Supply Rox .08 produces less fines than other brands. I am currently trying Brightwell Aquatics Purit in my reef system and so far (5 days) so good. I think if Purit works as advertised it will be a superior product in that the included resin will also absorb nitrate and phospate and the product has a longer filter life (3-6 months with Purit vs 3-4 days with Carbon).

JME

 

[lemonyellowdevintage]

Carbon dosing and using carbon are two different things. A lot of people get those confused.

Carbon dosing is adding a sugar product to the tank that feeds the beneficial bacteria, causing them to proliferate faster so the bacteria population will eat more nitrate and phosphate. The side effect of this wonderful little interaction is that you need a protein skimmer to pull out the waste. Vodka, vinegar, and sugar are commonly used as the source of carbon.

Carbon as in those little black rocks that absorb contaminants and impurities in the water, is very different. I would not recommend using those with seahorses at all unless it was an emergency (someone sprayed bug spray in the room, etc). Carbon produces small fines, aka really tiny pieces of carbon that look like a dust. It can get into a seahorses gills and irritate them.

If you do want to use Carbon (tiny black rocks), I would suggest doing so in a reactor and having that reactor drain into a filter sock. I also have found that the Bulk Reef Supply Rox .08 produces less fines than other brands. I am currently trying Brightwell Aquatics Purit in my reef system and so far (5 days) so good. I think if Purit works as advertised it will be a superior product in that the included resin will also absorb nitrate and phospate and the product has a longer filter life (3-6 months with Purit vs 3-4 days with Carbon).

JME

How old should the tank be before I get seahorses? And would bare bottom be easier to maintain? Would weekly water changes be ok or would I be doing them more often than weekly?

 

[pledosophy]

There is no distinct age an aquarium has to be before adding livestock. It just has to be cycled. For seahorses that means if you can add a cube of mysis per pair of seahorses you want to keep, (e.g. one cube 1 pair, but if you want to keep 2 pairs of seahorses, you need 2 cubes, etc) then test again for ammonia/nitrite at 4, 12, and 24 hour periods. If both are 0 you can add seahorses.

I like to wait a bit longer. When my nitrogen cycle is complete I like to seed the tank with Tisbe pods. I get all the filtration going and continue to feed the tank like seahorses are in it. Then if I under did my filtration, or if anything is not working right I can fix it without having livestock in the tank.

I would add snails and peppermint shrimp at this time, but I would not add any of the fish the seahorses will be kept with.

Barebottom is easier to maintain. Seahorse poop and left over mysis tends to accumulate in the rocks. Going barebottom means at water changes you can hold a powerhead in one hand and really clean under your rock work at every water change.

Weekly water changes are enough if you plan your filtration correctly.It is actually possible to change less often if you paln your filtration accordingly. Really depends on your comfort level.

 

[Luckyduck]

I guess what #pledosphy said is correct. They're not that difficult to keep as long as you know what their needs are and can provide them. And in the spirit of saying that I guess the bar exams aren't too difficult either if you know all of the information. Nothing is that hard to keep in a reef tank if you know what you're doing and can provide for it. Seahorses just require a different set of parameters compared to most common reef tanks and can be finicky eaters so that's where their reputation of being difficult comes from. Usually the salinity needs to be a touch lower than most reef tanks as well as the temperature (depends on species). There is a lot of information out there so dig in and learn as much as you can. Seahorses are very fun animals to keep! And you can always post questions on here. There's a lot of knowledgeable people on Reef2Reef willing to help. Keeping your Substrate clean is always a good idea no matter what type of aquarium you have but there's sand in the ocean why would you want a bare bottom tank? Just don't over feed and you won't have to worry about excess food all over the place. Depending on their size they only require a couple mysis shrimps morning & evening which can be provided by hand feeding. As well when you do a water change vacuum your sand. It's obviously personal but I've never been a fan of bare bottom Aquariums, they just don't look natural. You can always set up a macro tank as that is the natural habitat for most Hippocampus'. They look really cool too! #keen4 has a really nice looking macro tank, check him out. Good luck and keep us posted!