Good seahorse/pipefish only tank setup?
- Thread starter reef_dart21
- Start date
reef_dart21
Member
Originally Posted by Rykna
Well, you're gonna have to wait at least another 45 minutes. it is my little princess's bath time.
no worries here just sittin........
Well, you're gonna have to wait at least another 45 minutes. it is my little princess's bath time.
reef_dart21
Member
just a question what if i were to use madiens hair in my tank. do seahorses seem fine with it? (my other tank is over flowing with it and must be thrown away sold or transfered)
rykna
Active Member
~I am only gonna keep one pipe fish and 2 seahorses so the tank would be big enough.
~how tall is the tank? Seahorse tanks need to be at least twice as tall as the adult seahorse is from snout to tail tip. So if the horse is 8 inches full grown, your tank needs to be at least 16 inches tall.
~The flow is extremely high in my tank, is this bad or good for the horses?
~I am still concluding my research, but I am 98% sure now that seahorses should not be placed in a tank with low flow. However, you do need to buffer the main blast from the return flow. I use a artificial plat mat that I have modified into a tube and wraps around the return flow.
Currently I am using my Eheim Pro2 canister filter(280 gph) and a Aquaclear(50 gph). So my 29 gets cycled aprox. 12 times per hour. With the plant mat buffer, my new borns(just a day old) are able to comfortably navigate the currents in the tank.
~ok I found some great deals at a pet store on artificial rocks/wood its about 5$ and its as tall as my tank is high.
~Sounds like the bargain of the century!!!! I'd just make sure to bleach them before using/placing them into your tank.
Mix 1/4 cup of bleach to one gallon of hot water
Scrub rocks, artificial plants, etc. with bleach water
Rinse thouroughly.
I do this by placing the cleansed items into a 3 gallon bucket. Place the bucket into your tub and run cold water in the bucket for at least 2O minutes. Add a dechlorinator before placing bleached items into your tank.
~What type of worming medicine?
~There a many types of medications. I am still trying to figure exactly which med treats what. The worming medicine that I have and use is Panacur also known as Fenbendazole. Methylene Blue is another med to keep on hand.
~how much are those marine plants? i rather not pay an arm and a leg because mind you i already have 1 55 gallon tank (my other clown tank was given to my uncle *long story*) So i rather not pay like 50$ for a strand of it. I guess i could purchase some sand...
~Silly!!!! That's where your seahorse buddies come in hand, for instance:
I have TONS of unused sand. How much would you like? There would be shipping fees of course, but I have at least 40lbs of sand. It would ship for half the price of purchasing two 20 lb bags of live sand.
As for the marine plants, chito and caulpera grow like weeds in tanks. There's plenty to go around. Which could be shipped along with the sand from my tank.
~do seahorses dig like my one dartfish in my other tank?
~ Seahorses aren't diggers. They do spend at least 75% of their time hovering over the sand bed hunting for pods. Yes, hunting. Seahorses are opportunistic hunters by nature. You can take the seahorse out of the wild, but you can't take the hunter out of the seahorse. In nature they live in coastal waters, from 5 to 30(sometimes found even deeper), which have the highest flow rates of the entire ocean. That is why they love seaweed. Hitching posts are the secret to their survival in the wild. And this is what lead me to my conclusion that horses should not be housed in low flow.
First of all most pictures of wild Seahorses show them hitched to some type of Sea Fan, Marine Plants, Tree Sponges, or Gorgonian. All these corals need extremely high flow because they are filter feeders, hence why they live in the nutrient saturated waters of reefs, in which the high flow brings in the greatest amount of nutrients... so what eats the phytoplankton and zooplankton that the filter feeders eat? Amphiopods, copepods, rotifers and various tiny shrimp such as Mysis Shrimp. These tiny critters make up the main diet of wild seahorses. Hence why seahorses live in the coastal regions. Therefore seahorses habitats would and should have high flow.
So what would you like to know next
~how tall is the tank? Seahorse tanks need to be at least twice as tall as the adult seahorse is from snout to tail tip. So if the horse is 8 inches full grown, your tank needs to be at least 16 inches tall.
~The flow is extremely high in my tank, is this bad or good for the horses?
~I am still concluding my research, but I am 98% sure now that seahorses should not be placed in a tank with low flow. However, you do need to buffer the main blast from the return flow. I use a artificial plat mat that I have modified into a tube and wraps around the return flow.
Currently I am using my Eheim Pro2 canister filter(280 gph) and a Aquaclear(50 gph). So my 29 gets cycled aprox. 12 times per hour. With the plant mat buffer, my new borns(just a day old) are able to comfortably navigate the currents in the tank.
~ok I found some great deals at a pet store on artificial rocks/wood its about 5$ and its as tall as my tank is high.
~Sounds like the bargain of the century!!!! I'd just make sure to bleach them before using/placing them into your tank.
Mix 1/4 cup of bleach to one gallon of hot water
Scrub rocks, artificial plants, etc. with bleach water
Rinse thouroughly.
I do this by placing the cleansed items into a 3 gallon bucket. Place the bucket into your tub and run cold water in the bucket for at least 2O minutes. Add a dechlorinator before placing bleached items into your tank.
~What type of worming medicine?
~There a many types of medications. I am still trying to figure exactly which med treats what. The worming medicine that I have and use is Panacur also known as Fenbendazole. Methylene Blue is another med to keep on hand.
~how much are those marine plants? i rather not pay an arm and a leg because mind you i already have 1 55 gallon tank (my other clown tank was given to my uncle *long story*) So i rather not pay like 50$ for a strand of it. I guess i could purchase some sand...
~Silly!!!! That's where your seahorse buddies come in hand, for instance:
I have TONS of unused sand. How much would you like? There would be shipping fees of course, but I have at least 40lbs of sand. It would ship for half the price of purchasing two 20 lb bags of live sand.
As for the marine plants, chito and caulpera grow like weeds in tanks. There's plenty to go around. Which could be shipped along with the sand from my tank.
~do seahorses dig like my one dartfish in my other tank?
~ Seahorses aren't diggers. They do spend at least 75% of their time hovering over the sand bed hunting for pods. Yes, hunting. Seahorses are opportunistic hunters by nature. You can take the seahorse out of the wild, but you can't take the hunter out of the seahorse. In nature they live in coastal waters, from 5 to 30(sometimes found even deeper), which have the highest flow rates of the entire ocean. That is why they love seaweed. Hitching posts are the secret to their survival in the wild. And this is what lead me to my conclusion that horses should not be housed in low flow.
First of all most pictures of wild Seahorses show them hitched to some type of Sea Fan, Marine Plants, Tree Sponges, or Gorgonian. All these corals need extremely high flow because they are filter feeders, hence why they live in the nutrient saturated waters of reefs, in which the high flow brings in the greatest amount of nutrients... so what eats the phytoplankton and zooplankton that the filter feeders eat? Amphiopods, copepods, rotifers and various tiny shrimp such as Mysis Shrimp. These tiny critters make up the main diet of wild seahorses. Hence why seahorses live in the coastal regions. Therefore seahorses habitats would and should have high flow.
So what would you like to know next
reef_dart21
Member
OK i like how you have some extra cheto and sand i would mor ethan happy to take it off ur hands. Also i have a family member in fed ex shipping buisness and can get this stuff shipped through him for nothing so just ship through fed ex ^_^
Also i am currently purchasing a HUGE CHUNK of live rock: heres link
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/299066/anyone-interested-in-live-rock-for-sale (the last pic)
Also i got alot of shrooms coming in and also gorgians/sponges
Ok another question is how would i go apon feeding these horses? i heard its somewhat time consuming. Will the horses from SWF.com eat frozen shrimp?
Also i am currently purchasing a HUGE CHUNK of live rock: heres link
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/299066/anyone-interested-in-live-rock-for-sale (the last pic)
Also i got alot of shrooms coming in and also gorgians/sponges
Ok another question is how would i go apon feeding these horses? i heard its somewhat time consuming. Will the horses from SWF.com eat frozen shrimp?
srgvigil
Member
Originally Posted by Rykna
~I am only gonna keep one pipe fish and 2 seahorses so the tank would be big enough.
In nature they live in coastal waters, from 5 to 30(sometimes found even deeper), which have the highest flow rates of the entire ocean. That is why they love seaweed. Hitching posts are the secret to their survival in the wild. And this is what lead me to my conclusion that horses should not be housed in low flow.
True that I can confirm that from first hand experience. When I went down to Cozumel this summer I went diving. My aunts good friend is a dive master so he was the dive master. He took me down to see seahorses. Well first we went diving in this reef then moved to where to the seahorses where. This was one of the strongest currents I've swam in. You didn't have to kick at all that current just carried you, pretty fast also
~I am only gonna keep one pipe fish and 2 seahorses so the tank would be big enough.
In nature they live in coastal waters, from 5 to 30(sometimes found even deeper), which have the highest flow rates of the entire ocean. That is why they love seaweed. Hitching posts are the secret to their survival in the wild. And this is what lead me to my conclusion that horses should not be housed in low flow.
True that I can confirm that from first hand experience. When I went down to Cozumel this summer I went diving. My aunts good friend is a dive master so he was the dive master. He took me down to see seahorses. Well first we went diving in this reef then moved to where to the seahorses where. This was one of the strongest currents I've swam in. You didn't have to kick at all that current just carried you, pretty fast also
rykna
Active Member
Originally Posted by Reef_Dart21
OK i like how you have some extra cheto and sand i would mor ethan happy to take it off ur hands. Also i have a family member in fed ex shipping buisness and can get this stuff shipped through him for nothing so just ship through fed ex ^_^
Also i am currently purchasing a HUGE CHUNK of live rock: heres link
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/299066/anyone-interested-in-live-rock-for-sale (the last pic)
Also i got alot of shrooms coming in and also gorgians/sponges
Ok another question is how would i go apon feeding these horses? i heard its somewhat time consuming. Will the horses from SWF.com eat frozen shrimp?
Sounds Awesome!!!!
As for feeding, Monalisa has the prize winning creation. Many books talk about spot feeding. Which is time consuming and results in a lot of uneaten food. But seahorses are quick learners and soon learn to eat frozen mysis from a food dish.
Here's a set up I used.
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/298114/princess-aurora
OK i like how you have some extra cheto and sand i would mor ethan happy to take it off ur hands. Also i have a family member in fed ex shipping buisness and can get this stuff shipped through him for nothing so just ship through fed ex ^_^
Also i am currently purchasing a HUGE CHUNK of live rock: heres link
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/299066/anyone-interested-in-live-rock-for-sale (the last pic)
Also i got alot of shrooms coming in and also gorgians/sponges
Ok another question is how would i go apon feeding these horses? i heard its somewhat time consuming. Will the horses from SWF.com eat frozen shrimp?
Sounds Awesome!!!!
As for feeding, Monalisa has the prize winning creation. Many books talk about spot feeding. Which is time consuming and results in a lot of uneaten food. But seahorses are quick learners and soon learn to eat frozen mysis from a food dish.
Here's a set up I used.
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/298114/princess-aurora
reef_dart21
Member
well i think i got all the info i need except for one thing.
what type of garlic juice, like from the store?
what type of garlic juice, like from the store?
nybutterfly03
Member
posted a pic of the eelgrass on ur other post
reef_dart21
Member
ok thx
zeke92
Active Member
Originally Posted by FishyGurl
its not a good idea to mix pipefish and seahorses(because of tank dimensions and diseases). and i think pipefish like longer tanks(but im not sure)
actually pipefish and seahorses go great together, there one of hte best tankmates for each other.
its not a good idea to mix pipefish and seahorses(because of tank dimensions and diseases). and i think pipefish like longer tanks(but im not sure)
actually pipefish and seahorses go great together, there one of hte best tankmates for each other.
nybutterfly03
Member
I have to say I agree with you on that one, they make great tank mates!!!