FOM: Syngnathids

celacanthr

Active Member
Syngnathids!
Well, I thought I would write about the September FOTM. I hope no one minds!
Syngnathid is the family that includes seahorses, pipefish, ghost pipefish, and the sea dragons. They are very specialized in almost every aspect of their life, therefore it is OUR job to cater to their needs, not force them to bend to what is easiest for us. If you look at pictures of seahorses, pipefish, and sea dragons you will notice that they have very undersized fins, which means that they are not very good swimmers. One of the biggest developments in the syngnathids is reproduction, the most advanced being of hippocampus. Hippocampus males have pouches in which the female releases the eggs, and where the male fertilizes them, and then once the gestation period has elapsed the male will go through muscle spasms causing the pouch to expel miniatures of the adults. Pipefish males have 2 folds of skin, where they will clutch the eggs between. Sea dragon males merely have a patch on their tail, where the eggs are “glued”. Also all syngnathids have advanced camouflage skills, the most advanced being that of the dragons and pipes. Sea dragons actually have leafy outshoots that mimic the surrounding kelp beds magnificently. Ghost pipefish, a type of pipefish, have completely changed their body structure, including the shape translucency, and color, remarkably. Probably their biggest downfall for the hobbyist is their feeding. They have developed so specifically for copepods, amphipods, and other free-floating organisms, that they can’t take “normal” fish food. Now when I say “developed so specifically for…” I mean that their mouth shape has completely transformed into basically a tube. Below is the scientific classification.
Kingdom: Animalia-Animals
- Phylum: Chordata- they have a backbone, but it also includes tunicates
-- Class: Actinopterygii-Ray finned fish
--- Order: Gasterosteiformes- means stomach bone
---- Family: Syngnathidae

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Syngnalhina-Pipefish

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Hippocampus- Seahorses

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( I am having trouble locating the genus of the sea dragons at the moment)
 

celacanthr

Active Member
Seahorses:
Seahorses are probably the most widely know representative of the Syngnathids. They are harder than most fish are to keep, but easier than most other Syngnathids.
Housing: These cute little guys will need, IMO, for best success, a dedicated system, especially the dwarfs. Now if you were to get a H. Reidi (I suggest these as ur first seahorses because they are the most widely Captive bred seahorse sold and they require a bigger aquarium, which also means that you will have a greater margin for error) it is suggested a minimum of 25 gallons for 4 of em. Now if you wanted a dwarf then it is not recommended to go more the n 10 gallons, because any bigger and you will have to hatch a lot of brine shrimp, to ensure that everyone gets enough food. Well I wouldn’t suggest getting those $500 metal halides for your cool soon to be seahorse reef, because corals and seahorse = bad idea! The reason is that even if the coral gives a very mild sting, it still may be enough to irritate the seahorse thus causing it to stress, usually preventing them from eating, which they will stop eating fairly readily. Now you may say, well I my seahorses probably will never touch my corals! I guarantee you they will touch almost everything in your tank! They have this tail, right, which they use to grab onto things, and those things could be your corals!
This talk of corals makes me think of something else, water flow, which seahorse, do not need a lot of, I would say a MAX of 15g per hour and that is only for the very large guys, like reidi. Now for that cut little H. zostrea you want no more than 7g per hour.
Sorry, I would never suggest any tank mates, but it can be done, but absolutely never ever for the dwarf, and rarely for the small species.
Now décor, I would suggest plastic, you need some kind of branching thing in the tank, like a plastic gorgonian.
For filtration, you should get lr and ls except for the dwarfs, which need a very sterile environment. For the dwarfs, basically get a bio-wheel or some other kind of HOB filter.
Food:
This is the biggest difficulty that seahorse keepers have, why? Well it all goes back to that lovely little tube like mouth. That mouth eats what? That’s right small animals. This means in the wild what do they eat? Small animals. So in the tank what will they be looking for? Yes I think you got it! So, am I saying you must have a huge refugium that produces a never ending supply of pods, and a brine shrimp hatchery? No, of course not. What I’m saying is that if you buy wild caught ones, which ate small animals, then you will have to make small animals. But if you shell out the extra 40$ then you can buy a lovely CB seahorse that was raised on frozen mysis. Now you may think 50$ bucks a seahorse! No way am I going to pay that much, I will just buy a brine shrimp hatchery! No you will not! Brine shrimp is like McDonalds very tasty! (M’mmm grease and salt!) But as we all should know, McDonald’s is as nutritional as cardboard (maybe cardboard has more fiber?).
Ok, so you will just buy a refugium! Nope, think about how big you need a refugium, for a mandarin in a 25-gallon tank, now double it. I think that the cost of these mighty fine CB guys out weigh that!
Now there is an exception to this rule and that is those tiny dwarfs. There is no way to get around it you will need to hatch brine shrimp, DAILY!! Buying CB in this case will not save you from the feeding issues, because these guys are too small to eat anything but nauplii.
Ok, Now ya’ll are saying thanx, for ranting about CB’s and all but how often do I feed em?! Well, ANATOMY LESSON! Syngnathids have very simple digestive system, basically a tube, so any one want to guess this means? That’s right, no stomach, means no ability to hold food, no ability to hold food means that they pass very quickly, which means feed often. I would suggest 2 times a day.
Disease: Ok there are thousands of diseases that affect these and other syngnathids only, but there is one miracle cure to fix them (99.9%) of em. Wanna know what it is hmm? How much will you pay me? Oh, well I would hate to see these little dudes (dudettes) die so I’ll tell you free of charge!
B
U
Y
C
A
P
T
I
V
E
B
R
E
D
So you are thinking, well if you introduce live rock, then the sterile environment is broken! The answer is absolutely not! Since the diseases only affect Syngnathids, then on the way here on the live rock what would the diseases live on? Exactly! What will break the sterile environment is introducing WC syngnathids.
 

celacanthr

Active Member
Pipefish:
Well, basically the same care, except males are much more aggressive, so make sure to buy only females or females and a male. On sexing them check out the above links.
Now as of right now their aren’t any mass produced CB pipefish, so you can’t buy Captive Bred seahorses and then buy pipefish, because then the tank is not sterile.
Same feeding instructions, as seahorses, but many places have taught them to eat frozen mysis shrimp, just make sure they have a guarantee on that! They also do well in tanks with branching FAKE corals.
Sea-Dragons-
My #1 best advice for these guys is just don’t try. You will have to ship from this one guy in Australia who is commercially breeding them for an arm and a leg, convince him to ship them to the US overnight, have a circular 390 gallon tank, and a huge copepod growing system.
I really hope ya’ll enjoyed this, I will be editing and probably adding info, but all comments questions suggestions, and of course pics are welcome!
 

speg

Active Member
I would think they belong to their own class of species or something. Though YOU did the research right? =c)
 

pammy

New Member
Thanks for posting all of the information regarding seahorses and pipefish. I have a dedicated seahorse tank that I wouldn't give up for the world!
They're the BEST! And, yes, you're right. the two sites you mentioned have been crucial in the education of seahorses and their care.
Smiles,
Pam :joy:
 

celacanthr

Active Member
Edit to my original essay on this: their have been successes that people have had with seahorses in reef tanks, even though i wouldn't reccomend it, i do believe darth is one of them that has done it, right?
 

celacanthr

Active Member
oh, ok some corals can be kept with them, but the ones that say semi-aggressive, and aggressive just don't do it!
 

darth tang

Active Member
I haven't done it...yet. But personally seen it done and have read enough to know what to try. I do have a "fake" reef with my horses. A couple gorgonians and a a sun coral. But nothing that requires special lighting yet and is fine with low flow. I am movingf the gorgonians and sun corals though in a week or two to a specialized tank for them.
I will get pics of the horses if my camera wopuld take a quality picture. Maybe I should borrow one.
I mainly disagree with the tank mates also....There are a number of fish you can have with horses.
 

celacanthr

Active Member
i agree, very much so, but some of the common ones like clowns are usually to food aggressive, but shy things, like firefish, are fine. do you not agree, any other problems. :help:
 

darth tang

Active Member
The only clownfish I would condone are the Percula and false percula clowns. None of the others. They are far to aggressive. Even these clowns can be aggressive but 70% of the time they are ok. When it comes to feeding, feed your clowns the flake first and they won't be as food aggressive when you feed your horses.
You can have firefish, some gobies and blennies, royal gramma,some Jawfish, and blue-green chromis. There are a couple other fish you place with them but these are the safest.
Don't skimp on your clean up crew and you can over feed the tank to allow the horses to get their fill. My two don't even eat the whole cube of shrimp I feed them. So the clean up crew is VERY important to have. Just watch what you get. Snails are safest and a couple crabs or peppermint shrimp. These would be idle. Anything outside of this list for a clean up crew may cause problems for the horses. In my 55 with two reidi I have 50 N. Snails, One Mexican Turbo snail, 3 red legged hermit crabs, 3 peppermint shrimp, and a chocolate chip starfish ( I advice against this one however). Along with an engineer goby under my rocks.
That is my clean up crew.......
 
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