What advice would you give to someone relatively new to reefing who was mislead by their lfs?

[Kidagirl8]

I have a nano reef tank but have also recently learned on a reef discord I was mislead by my fishstore and have been doing a lot wrong. I want to learn and make sure I can do what I can for what I now have. You can ask anything and I will try my best to answer honestly. I have heard R2R is really nice and understanding so despite reservations I am posting this.

I have a 4 month old 10 gallon with about 20 dwarf seahorses, 2 clownfish, a goby, 3 blue legged dwarf hermit crabs, a lettuce sea slug, a snail, 2 yellow finger Gorgonians, a red carnation coral, 1 sick and possibly dead goniopora, a large kenya tree, two star polyp frags, a clove polyp frag, and a mushroom. I also have a couple more pieces of coral and a dwarf pipefish on the way. I am switching the seahorses, pipefish, and some of the coral to a 5 gallon as soon as I get it cycled with live rock/sand. I am reluctant to give up my seahorses/clownfish to anyone else but also don’t want to give the fish store that mislead me so bad anything back. I would go to a different fish store but it’s the only one in my small town.

I would give you the tanks current parameters but the store told me I could use my freshwater api test kit on it so I don’t have anything to test with. I have already ordered the salifert Nitrate, Phosphate, Calcium, and Alkalinity test kits. I just need to wait for them to get here. If you want to give me a list of essentials that would be nice. I want to confirm I have everything either here or on the way here. I am going to read the pinned threads but figured it couldn’t hurt to post this as well.

 

[ScottR]

Wow. Your tank is wayyyyy overstocked. Sounds like they are trying to get you to spend big. Seahorses alone need a much bigger tank. As for the corals, what kind of light are you using? Lighting is extremely important.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Sorry this happened to you! If you don't mind, what in particular did they mislead you on?

 

[ScottR]

Can you post a picture of your setup. No one will be critical. If you were misled, it should be pointed out. I’d also possibly look into if you know anyone that can take your livestock for you.

 

[Kidagirl8]

I don’t know anyone who can take them. I could probably ship them if someone is willing to take them. I have the materials to do it. I can post some pics give me a min take them and post it. As for lighting I am using a regular plant light right now but have a Reef LED 50 on the way.

 

[Kidagirl8]

Are these good enough?

 

[Kidagirl8]

Oops that last one was blurry.

 

[Doctorgori]

I’m no resident Seahorse expert but I have some and I’m reasonably sure dwarfs need live foods... how’s that going so far? May wanna back away for a while while you get your feet wet so to speak ... Ask away and good luck

 

[|Tom the Bomb|]

@Kidagirl8 i didnt here abt u having so many fish in ur 10g on thediscord i literally thought u only had like 15 dwarf seahorses gorgonians and carnation thats it btw its way overstocked

 

[ahiggins]

This is why I hate most lfs around me. There are some good ones but around here you’ll get taken advantage of really quick. I’m sorry to hear about your troubles.
I’d keep the clowns in the 10 and rehome or go much larger for multiple seahorses. I can only imagine how much those cost you

 

[Wee Mad Arthur]

I think a good place to start would be in the seahorse section here https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/seahorse-pipefish.377/

Checkout the sticky threads at the top.

 

[Kidagirl8]

Yeah I recently tried counting them and had more than I thought. I was also somewhat hesitant to fully disclose how bad it was on discord but wanted the best help possible on here so took my chances on r2r.

I feed the seahorses live baby brine shrimp I hatch and have had them quite awhile with success.

Thank you for the link I will check it out!

 

[Claire Austin]

Actually, a 10 gallon tank is a good size for 20 dwarf seahorses. BUT, just about everything else has to GO! Gorgonians, sea lettuce, snails, and softies can stay. Plus, dwarfs require live food. Twice daily hatching of decapsulated brine shrimp eggs is essential, which means your kitchen counter will look like a crack lab with multiple hatcheries bubbling away. Eggs must be decapped, or you will introduce hydra (think mini aptaisia) into your tank, which will sting your adults and eat any babies they produce.

A good resource for information on dwarfs, and seahorses in general, is Seahorse.org.

It sounds like your lfs person is either ignorant, or a greedy jerk who doesn’t care about the animals.

 

[TheOldSalt]

Wow. I am so sorry that this happened to you.

One of the greatest failings we have in this hobby is that just any **** can open a pet shop.
Honestly, we'd all be better off if things were self regulated in the same way the SCUBA industry is regulated. Things like this would never happen.

Okay, I've been doing this for over 40 years, so you can consider that or ignore it when I give you my advice.

Keep the gorgonians and the seahorses, and get rid of everything else. It will make your life much easier, and make all of your animals happier.
If you put lights bright enough to keep your other corals on a ten gallon tank, your water will get hot and algae will take over everything.
The other fish need more room, and they'll keep your seahorses from getting enough food. They'll make enough waste to make algae grow like crazy, too.
The gorgonians are pretty much doomed already, but you can feed them fairly easily to keep them going for a good while. They don't need the bright light, and in fact often get algae covered and suffocated if you give them too much light. Dead or alive, though, the seahorses need them, so keep them. They also won't sting the seahorses like the other corals will.

You're going to have to get a bigger tank. A 20 gallon will do for your horses.
The biggest lie your store told you is that you can easily keep all of this stuff in a small tank. Yes, it's possible, but it's a ton of extra work to do it, and just not worth the trouble.

So... Where are you, anyway?

 

[Kidagirl8]

Wow. I am so sorry that this happened to you.

One of the greatest failings we have in this hobby is that just any **** can open a pet shop.
Honestly, we'd all be better off if things were self regulated in the same way the SCUBA industry is regulated. Things like this would never happen.

Okay, I've been doing this for over 40 years, so you can consider that or ignore it when I give you my advice.

Keep the gorgonians and the seahorses, and get rid of everything else. It will make your life much easier, and make all of your animals happier.
If you put lights bright enough to keep your other corals on a ten gallon tank, your water will get hot and algae will take over everything.
The other fish need more room, and they'll keep your seahorses from getting enough food. They'll make enough waste to make algae grow like crazy, too.
The gorgonians are pretty much doomed already, but you can feed them fairly easily to keep them going for a good while. They don't need the bright light, and in fact often get algae covered and suffocated if you give them too much light. Dead or alive, though, the seahorses need them, so keep them. They also won't sting the seahorses like the other corals will.

You're going to have to get a bigger tank. A 20 gallon will do for your horses.
The biggest lie your store told you is that you can easily keep all of this stuff in a small tank. Yes, it's possible, but it's a ton of extra work to do it, and just not worth the trouble.

So... Where are you, anyway?

I am in Louisiana and to be fair to them I don’t think they did it on purpose. I think maybe they got swept along in my enthusiasm and aren’t reefers. They mostly just have saltwater fish and little to no coral in the store. I bought the coral online. They are nice and very knowledgeable in freshwater at least. In the end it’s mostly on me for not doing research like I should have.

I just got my 5 gallon today and transferred my seahorses and gorgs to it. I don’t mind extra work to keep my clowns. I love them and their blue accents. It’s the main reason I got them instead of just the horses and goby.

I don’t really want to get rid of all my coral and my goby either to be honest. I have gotten attached to them all but I’m not allowed a bigger tank at the moment. I could try to sneak one in I suppose though.

I also am getting conflicting advice on my horses some say they all will be fine even in my 5 gallon and others like you are saying they aren’t. How many do you think I could keep in a 5 gallon?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Find a different LFS AND RATE THEM ACCORDINGLY ON YELP AND YELLOW PAGES

 

[|Tom the Bomb|]

@Kidagirl8 just keep everything except for the 2 clowns and the goby just get rid of those or get another 10-20g tank

 

[Bosreef]

You got some work and research to do but if you kept 20 seahorses alive for 4 months your doing something right

 

[Sosuke]

Hello! just a little advice the carnation coral needs regular feedings of filter feeding foods, same with both of the yellow gorgonians. I would split the amount of seahorse you have too since your moving to a 5 gallon, Also the yellow gorgs which are going to be difficult to maintain in a newly setup 5 gallon especially if you have to feed them a lot. I would just get rid of the gorgs for now and keep the dead one since the sea horses seem to like it. Also like some previously mentioned the dwarf seahorses eat baby brine shrimp and pods

 

[JThw8]

Dont know much about many of the things but as I've been planning my own dwarf seahorse tank for about 15 years now (and its finally happening) I can speak to that. You are doing right moving the horses to the 5. 20 dwarves in a 5 gallon is a good amount, some folks more knowledgeable than I say you can go up to about 40 in that size. But you dont want the other livestock with them. There are very few good tankmates for dwarves. Keeping them on their own and in a smaller tank will mean less competition for the live food they need and less chance of bullying by other critters. The smaller space also allows the live food to be more concentrated which helps as the seahorses dont really like to hunt but would rather wait for the food to come to them.

We've all had bad advice, be it from an LFS, or even others in the hobby. Even in this thread not all advice is the best (I'll even lump myself in there) best you can do is learn the best you can and seek out actual expert advice where you can. You recognized the problem, that is a good start and it sounds like you have a solid plan to fix it. Keep it up, as someone else noted, keeping the dwarves live for 4 months in those conditions is one hell of an accomplishment so you are doing something right.