beenbag497
Member
hey everyone,i was wondering how many dwarf seahorses i should put in a three gallon and how hard they are to take care of??
3 gallon for dwarfs???
- Thread starter beenbag497
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beenbag497
Member
anybody??
lion_crazz
Active Member
From everything that I have heard, dwarf seahorses will breed quite often. There is one poster who wrote into Bob Fenner who said that he cannot keep the population under control. He said he was up to 51 sea horses in his 2 gallon aquarium. Yikes.
Other sources that I have read say that they do best in smaller tanks. This may sound wrong at first, but the explanation was quite sound. Because the seahorses eat so slowly, it takes them a while to get to the food. In a larger tank, they will be hunting for their food forever. To counteract this in a larger tank, you will have to put in a lot of food. The end result of this is that you will spend all day removing the uneaten food or you will get a lot of decay from the food you were not able to find and remove. Obviously, this is not good, as the water quality will be bad.
A full sized adult only gets 1.5 to 2 inches. This is not very large at all. I would think you could keep 3 pairs of dwarf seahorses in a 3 gallon comfortably.
Now the unfortunate part. Dwarf seahorses demand quite a bit of care. Their feeding can be a bit rigorous. Most people are only able to get them to eat live brine. The dwarf horses must be fed daily, preferably, twice to 3 times. This means that you must set up a brine shrimp hatchery and be very up on it. To me, it sounds like you need to be able to devote a lot of time to a set up like this. I don't know about you, but I have nowhere near that amount of time. Unless you work from home, it would seem to me that their needs would be a bit hard to meet. Unlike other horses, where they are larger and easier to feed, and whom you could get trained on frozen, these guys seem like a lot of work. You need to seriously ask yourself whether you have that kind of time every single day.
Other sources that I have read say that they do best in smaller tanks. This may sound wrong at first, but the explanation was quite sound. Because the seahorses eat so slowly, it takes them a while to get to the food. In a larger tank, they will be hunting for their food forever. To counteract this in a larger tank, you will have to put in a lot of food. The end result of this is that you will spend all day removing the uneaten food or you will get a lot of decay from the food you were not able to find and remove. Obviously, this is not good, as the water quality will be bad.
A full sized adult only gets 1.5 to 2 inches. This is not very large at all. I would think you could keep 3 pairs of dwarf seahorses in a 3 gallon comfortably.
Now the unfortunate part. Dwarf seahorses demand quite a bit of care. Their feeding can be a bit rigorous. Most people are only able to get them to eat live brine. The dwarf horses must be fed daily, preferably, twice to 3 times. This means that you must set up a brine shrimp hatchery and be very up on it. To me, it sounds like you need to be able to devote a lot of time to a set up like this. I don't know about you, but I have nowhere near that amount of time. Unless you work from home, it would seem to me that their needs would be a bit hard to meet. Unlike other horses, where they are larger and easier to feed, and whom you could get trained on frozen, these guys seem like a lot of work. You need to seriously ask yourself whether you have that kind of time every single day.
teresaq
Active Member
I would pm rynka. She has a lot of experiance with dwarfs. I do know they need a sterile tank, nothing that would carry hydroids in to it. they need to be feed newly hatched bbs several times a day. You could prob have 10 to 15 horses in a tank that size. They are very small.
TeresaQ
TeresaQ
beenbag497
Member
well........im at home all day,but how much are brine shrimp hatcheries and how do they work???????
teresaq
Active Member
here is a good thread of hatcherys. its best to use decaped brine also.
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/296079/brine-shrimp-hatchery
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/296079/brine-shrimp-hatchery
bronco300
Active Member
hatcheries can be very inexpensive if you make your own...or you can buy nice ones for up to $30......basically the best is a cylinder container with an airline in there....put the decapped eggs in the saltwater...then airlines circulate the eggs so they do not sit on the bottom and die. They will finally at the 24hr mark where you put them in a container to keep...they need to be enriched before fed as they lose their nutritional value very very quickly...but they do not form mouths until another 24hrs...so you have them in another container with bubbles again...at that point you can add an enrichment like naturose etcetc....then soak them in that...give them another 12-24hrs...then strain them into a bbs net, and rinse them in water....and feed....seems daunting at first, but very easy when you get into the rhythm of things
you could probably have 10-15 in there, but like said they breed often so i would only do 3 pairs or so
you could probably have 10-15 in there, but like said they breed often so i would only do 3 pairs or so
beenbag497
Member
ok im really thinking about it,i would love to have seahorses,how big are they when they get to you,one more thing whats the acclimation procedure for them???
bronco300
Active Member
if you get adults(which i would def not get babies).....they will fit on a quarter...take out a quarter and look...its small....they are amazing to have and watch, but small nontheless. To acclimate you do the same as a sensitive fish....but it's recommended to QT them first to be sure you're not bringing anything to the entire display if you can
most of the time that i've seen they do not come in big bags of water...when i got my first i think they have about 1.5-2cups of water...so acclimation wont be long to get it up to your water...but id do a drip on it, just watch the water temp.
most of the time that i've seen they do not come in big bags of water...when i got my first i think they have about 1.5-2cups of water...so acclimation wont be long to get it up to your water...but id do a drip on it, just watch the water temp.
bronco300
Active Member
i mentioned panacur, that is one thing you definitely want....anything that goes into your tank should get a dip by that med....it will get rid of any pests like hydroids etc....even any snails etc that you put in there should get dipped.....which you will want to watch what you put in there....there are no crabs safe really and some snails...shrimps are not ok unless they are herbivore...i think a Hawaiian shrimp is that.....remember that yes they may not eat the adults...but the babies are even smaller...they'll fit on a DIME(and very skinny)...so any common thing we put in our normal tanks can be deadly to these guys.
beenbag497
Member
i know thois is kind of a stupid question but...........are dwarfs worth the money and the time it takes to hatch brine shrimp??????
carrieabn
Member
Originally Posted by beenbag497
i know thois is kind of a stupid question but...........are dwarfs worth the money and the time it takes to hatch brine shrimp??????
I have had mine for 1 month now and they are worth the time. And after you get the set up going there isn't alot of time involved, IMO. Keep the hatchey clean and new ones hatching.
Mine had 2 babies a few days ago (you can see pics in the "Babies are here!!" post) and its amazing to see how small they are and know that they actually survive in the wild.
I have a chair by my pony tank and every evening I set and watch them eat (ok, in the morning too when I should be getting ready for work LOL!!)
i know thois is kind of a stupid question but...........are dwarfs worth the money and the time it takes to hatch brine shrimp??????
I have had mine for 1 month now and they are worth the time. And after you get the set up going there isn't alot of time involved, IMO. Keep the hatchey clean and new ones hatching.
Mine had 2 babies a few days ago (you can see pics in the "Babies are here!!" post) and its amazing to see how small they are and know that they actually survive in the wild.
I have a chair by my pony tank and every evening I set and watch them eat (ok, in the morning too when I should be getting ready for work LOL!!)
bronco300
Active Member
that is personal preference...but the main thing I think is to make sure you have the dedication and time to do it...I loved having mine when...but then things happened like getting engaged etcetc and time got a lot more restrictive and i ended up doing my feedings and thats it...didnt get to enjoy them whatsoever and it became more of a hassle then fun....so i ended up trading them to Rykna....but if you can do that they are definitely worth it i think.
beenbag497
Member
i have the time and dedication but.....ive just never seen dwarfs before
if you have pictures would you post 'em
beenbag497
Member
awwwwwwwwwwww i think ive made up my mind
