Sea Horses in a refugium

[andree.sisario]

any one tried dwarf sea horses in a refugium?

 

[vlangel]

any one tried dwarf sea horses in a refugium?

I wished I could tell you that this could work easily but it probably wont. There are a number of reasons: the first being seahorses need temperatures down in the low 70s to reduce the chances of them getting dangerous bacterial infections. However most of our reefs run in the high 70s because that is where it is optimum for coral. Another reason is dwarf seahorses need a high density of enriched live food a minimum of 3Xs a day. The entire sump area needs to be snowed with live food because dwarf seahorses do not hunt, they just stay hitched and wait for the food to come to them. Even if you turn the pump off to let the dwarfs feed for half an hour and then turn it back on, that is flushing a lot of baby brine shrimp into your reef. That would mean much larger water changes to keep the water quality up in the whole system. One way it could potentially work would be to design a small plastic fish bowl to go in the sump. Drill a hole in the shoulder of the bowl and insert an airline tube with a valve to control air flow. Also on the flat side of the fishbowl cut a 1" diameter circle out. Silicon a fine mesh screen or netting over the cut out circle. Set up fake plants or decor for the little ponies to hitch to. Then have an aqua lifter pump bring water from the sump into the dwarf seahorse fish bowl. That will keep filtered water circulating into the seahorse bowl and dirty seahorse water exiting through the mesh screen in the side of the bowl. When you feed the little ponies you remove the line from the aqua lifter for a half hour or so to let the little dwarfs feed. When they are done you put the aqua lifter line back in and flush their little seahorse bowl clean with the remaining bbs going out the screen and feeding the reef. It will be much less bbs than if you just fed the whole sump. However you must understand that hydroids can come in from your reef and kill certainly dwarf fry and sometimes even dwarf adults. Also you still have to deal with the temperature issue. I know this can work because I raised standard seahorse fry this way and they eat the same food as dwarf seahorses. Temperature was not an issue for me because my display tank was a seahorse tank too so the temperature was already 70-72 degrees. I will post a pic of my nursery fish bowl. I hope this helps.

 

[vlangel]

Here are the things I needed to raise my erectus fry, but dwarf seahorses would need the same things. The big bag in the back is probiotic to help control bacteria, both in the tank and the live food. Actually a container like a critter carrier is even better than this half gallon fish bowl because it would have more surface area for gas release. All seahorses have high respiration and need a lot of oxygen.

 

[FishRForMe]

Did you have a chiller?

 

[vlangel]

Did you have a chiller?

Yes, I have a chiller. When I got my seahorses in 2014 our house did not have A/C so a chiller was a must have even for a reef tank. We have A/C now and with my sump in the basement my chiller does not run much. Its a Coralife 1/6 hp.