Seahorsies end of this year

Jmck

Reef enthusiast
time for me to start planning, Hopefully this upgrade goes as plans and I get my 5x2x2 in my room.

If this happens, ill be moving most items from my 2x2x2 to my new tank and putting sea horses into this one.

How many are you able to keep in a 60g? also, what lighting can I have? I wouldnt midn having acro's growing here, but i think the Mhalide (150watts) is too strong for seahorses isnt it? And i dont think i can grow acro's under 4 T5 globes with reflectors?

Any advice is helpful :)
 
Stick to the basics, you know most of this silly!

Any i would say the MH are too strong, but if you had shaded areas for the seahorses to go to if the choose they T5s would probably be ok.

Personally i think the best thing you could do if you want to educate yourself about seahorses is to take Pete G. free lessons. That will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about seahorses.

Seahorse.com - Seahorse, Sea Life, Marine Life, Aquafarm Sales, Feeds and Accessories - Home

Another awesome place to check out is seahorse.org and i would check out their suitable compainion page because seahorses dont do well with some corals.

I think you could keep 3 pairs in the 60, maybe even 4 just so long as you keep up with water changes and all that good stuff.

Im sure Picasso will chime in with more when sees this post and get you covered. She is the resident seahorse expert.
 
Thanks little fish :)
Picasso definitely is the expert and im sure will be happy to see another sea horse keeper ;)

There will be shaded areas, but i think I would keep it with 4 T5's which will let me keep everything except acro's and anemones (which you dont want anyway)

Ill have a good read of this seahorse site, i do know a but about them, because i read most things that get written in here. And you have to buy seahorses in pairs? you cant say have 5 seahorses?
 
For corals you are pretty much limited by things that dont sting, so ya, no nems, but im not sure about the acros. However, i have read that the Barbouri actually live on stony corals and can tolerate the stings. Of course the issue is finding them! I know here in the US you can get them everynow and then, but i dont know what is available to you in Australia. But they usually recommend you start with Erectus because they are far more personable and hardier. Anyways, just a thought . . . .

And you could keep 5, but from what i understand they are much happier in pairs. Also if you dont have a close to equal sex balance one of them will change sex to balance things out.
 
Ohhh k, so I could keep 5, thats fine though, I have many sea horses around here.

Erectus are just the plain black ones right? My LFS 10 minutes from me have some tank bred ones, so thats what ill start with, and an LFS just over an hour away has a couple of other species, im not sure what they are though.

Ill find out the breeds and then ill post it here, would accro's be a big issue with the sting for the erectus hrosies? If it is, ill jsut steer clear.
 
your setting up a seahorse tank?!?!? Thats freekin sweet! Hopefully looking at pics of your SH tank will calm my craving for seahorses but theres a strong possibility that it will only make me want them more lol
 
Josh no more European vacations for you if you get Seahorses! :shock:Someones got to feed those guys 2-3 times a day. Although cool, they are pretty demanding in the care area. JMO but do you really want to be "chained" to your tank like that while in college?
 
Not too big a deal david, you can feed once a day without sea horses getting unwell. they will also be going into the established tank which will be about 1 year old at that point, so they should have a very strong pod population as well.

My LFS does baby sitting to, so if i bring my seahorses in he will look after them. He does it every holidays for a primary school that has them
 
Hahahaha, Brian, if I had that possibility I would do it! currently, am in the process of convincing the rents to let me put it in my room, because they dont want it downstairs and are very wary of having a big tank in the house. I just need to do more chores and help more! that will make them say yes :D and plus, christmas and my birthday november and december, will help with some finances.

I CANNOT wait though XD this tank is already overfilled with corals. I need this 5 foot NOW !!!! :frustrat::frustrat:
 
Your tank is definitely overfilled with corals ... and I'll gladly help you out with that ... I know of a tank in my house that you can put your corals in ;)
 
Well seahorses frequently change color so they could be the black one today but not tomorrow. I would also be weary of a dark colored pony because that can be a sign of not doing well. I'm on my iPod so I don't want to go on forever but please please take Petes lessons. I firmly believe that is the best thing you could do to prepare. I might even go so far to say it's irrsponsible to do otherwise.
 
I agree with most of Lil' Fish's suggestions. She's got you covered with the lighting and the suggestion of Pete's class. The class is amazing and FREE! For corals, you'll want to stay with mostly softies, leathers, sponges and some species of gorgs as the horses will "hitch" on to pretty much everything in your tank and they can get stung by most of the hard corals. Also, you'll want an all snail CUC, try to steer clear of crabs as they can pinch. Don't try to identify a horses' species by its color. There is a wide variety of colors for most species of horses. My erectus are blackish and they are very healthy. When Pegs gets super happy she'll turn either pink or dark black. They do tend to change with their environment somewhat but usually they are one color most of the time. Jmck, I thought I remembered reading somewhere that you had horses and returned them because they weren't for you? Has something changed to make them a good fit for you now? Also, I disagree with David's assessment of feeding. If you've got a healthy tank with lots of pods then you can leave your horses for a few days if you're on vacation. I wouldn't make a habit of it. Horses aren't as finicky as everyone thinks as long as you've set your tank up to accommodate their special needs. For a long time, I fed only once a day, it's not ideal but it will work. I try to target feed my horses 3x a day but they'll be fine if I only do it once.

Sooooo happy to have another pony keeper! Woot!

C
 
I will definitely take those lessons :)

Picasso, i did have horses, but honestly, as a first tank, not the best thing i could have done, im glad i went down the route of a full reef first but i see the idea of having both a reef tank and a sea horse tank as something i will enjoy. Its not that i didnt like the horses though, I didnt like being limited, but now i know more about the hobby and aquascaping, i can get around that, the main thing before i get horses will be to get the scape perfect and amazing ;)

I agree with the CUC the only crabs i have in my reef are hermits and they will all be leaving when i get the bigger tank and into the big one. I dont have to worry about long holidays though, my lfs is good with that. Ill have to work out every coral that is good for the tank, but im sure ive got a lot in there already that are.

I thought you would like me being a keeper ;) they are amazing animals.
 
Haha brian, thanks for the suggestion, mine barely fit my tank because i cant get frags, only full colonies!
 
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