Lets do this.

[redhooksilva]

I had previously researched seahorses but the information I got seemed to be contradictory at times. I just got a 55g a month ago and has been cycling with about 40lbs of live rock. I was going to just set it up as a predatory tank, but reading all of these seahorse posts has re-awoken the desire to care for these amazing creatures. Tell me what you would do and why ( as far as what type of seahorse and other equipment). Also what sort of diseases do they commonly get and how do you deal with those.
Tell me how to make a seahorse tank the right
way, and how to keep it.

 

[darthtang aw]

Ok, this is to broad of a question. I could type for days on this.
If you have the money and wish to do this the correct way, I would set up a 25 gallon refugium for the tank with Nothing but live rock, Chaeto, and some snails or crabs. This will help with filtration and help culture the pods for the tank.
Second...do NOT put horses into any tank till it has been set up for 6 months...This is the best time frame in my estimation as it allows the tank to stabilize and pods to culture in abundance with minimal predators in the tank in the beginning.
After your cycle add some plant life...fake plants if you have a standard light set up for aquariums or Live plants if you have the correct lighting.
Then add your clean up crew, I personally prefer Nausaris snails and one Turbo snail, a few peppermint shrimp (The will make babies for the horses to eat and breed like rabbits). A Purple Lobster would add a bit of color and few smnall crabs would round this out nicely. Maybe even a chocolate chip starfish but this I would wait the 6 months to add.
A simple HOB filter would be sufficient to be honest with you in my opinion but if you have the fuge set up you can skip this (which I actually recomend as HOB filter can create micro bubbles in your tank which can be bad for your horse). I would consider a protein skimmer most definitely however.
As for diseases the most common are Vibri (short form of the name) and this can be treated with a number of medications. The other is gas bubble disease which has no truly known cause to date. There are theories but no definite answer yet. There are about 10-15 other diseases as well. Ecto parasites, endoparasites, Popeye disease, external and internal gas bubble disease, pouch emphysemia (another with truly no cure), snout rot and basic flesh erosion disease. These are the other common issues.
Have the following on hand at all times.
Neomycin and sulfas
Gentamycin
Diamox (acetazolamide)
Beta glucan
A catheter/cannula or similar for tube feeding, pouch flushes etc
Clove oil / MS-222 or similar (anaesthetic)
A hospital tank
Buy only captive bred seahorses for your first horses, These will take to froxen shrimp right away. Wild caught tend to have to eat live food for the first year and are difficult to train to frozen, it can be done but takes work and patience.
Pick an "easier" species like Reidi and Kudas. They are hardier and tropical. Temp right around 76. If you are looking at a different species let me know and I can find the temp requirements for them for you as some seahorses need cooler water.
Contrary to popular belief horses can co habitate with fish. I can recomend a few fish for you house with them that are completly safe 99% of the time. There are other fish may house quite peacefully with horses but the risk of aggression is higher. In a 55 you could have 4 horses and a couple fish.

 

[darthtang aw]

I forgot, Your water flow rate should be at 5 times times the tank size...so water movement of 275-300GPH is ideal. Depending on filtration and pump set up for a fuge and with a Protein skimmer you may not need a powerhead. However, you still may want to place a small one on one side of the tank just to get a bit more water movement. I would not go above 400GPH total in the tank and make sure you seal off the powerhead intake and all other intakes to prevent the horse from becoming sucked in and stuck to it....It doesn't take long for an accident like this to kill them...(One hour in my case as the filter fell off my powerhead once)

 

[reefreak29]

Originally Posted by RedHookSilva
I had previously researched seahorses but the information I got seemed to be contradictory at times. I just got a 55g a month ago and has been cycling with about 40lbs of live rock. I was going to just set it up as a predatory tank, but reading all of these seahorse posts has re-awoken the desire to care for these amazing creatures. Tell me what you would do and why ( as far as what type of seahorse and other equipment). Also what sort of diseases do they commonly get and how do you deal with those.
Tell me how to make a seahorse tank the right
way, and how to keep it.
well if this is your first incounter with salt water seahorses arnt the best starter fish , a 55 will house about 2 pairs of seahorses.
TANK SET UP:
seahorse set up is different then a reaf enviroment. u dont want wall to wall live rock seahorses are not found living near live rock in the wild instead put your live rock in the middle of the tank so u have lots of open water. seahorses need lots of hitching posts of different shapes and sizes. u can use calurpa , fake corals and plants and gargonians. the substrate should be live sand. u will need a skimmer and about 5x turnover rate for water flow as the horses get bigger u can have 10x turnover rate.
lighting shouldnt be stronger then pc lighting about 3 watts per gallon.
water perameters should be 000 nitrates etc. temp about 74 to 78 degrease
PURCHASING YOUR SEAHORSE:
u want to stay away from wild caught seahorses because they will not eat frozen foods.
2 horses u want to start out with are kuda are reidi , they are typically easier to keep.always make sure the seahorse is healthy free of any disease and alert. always ask to watch them eat before purchasing.
after purchasing your sea horse drip acclimate for 2 hrs before placing him in your tank.
FEEDING:
seahorses need to be fed at least 3 times a day because they have very high metabilizms, food for the seahorse should consist of frozen mysis shrimp and live pods.
DISEASE AND TREATMENT:
seahorses are suseptablee to all sorts of diseases that stem from poor water caulity and improper enviroment, or they were simply purchased that way, heres a list of common diseases.external parisites , internal parisites,internal and external gas bubble disease, columnaris, pop eye, flesh erosion disease, Pouch Emphysema,and snout rot. alist of medications u will need are formaline,Malachite Green ,Methylene Blue ,Metronidazole,Niclosamide,Praziquantel,Diamox,Furan II and Paragon II
and always have a qt ready to treat diseases

 

[crossan]

i found a great website on seahorses at seahorse.org

 

[poniegirl]

Be careful of "canned" information...that is to say visiting a part of a site that lists anything related to care.
Updates are not timely, I've found. Check the dates.
Info from live people with experience is a great building block. Seahorse husbandry in relation to the Home Aquarist is still fairly new ground.

 

[rykna]

Originally Posted by PonieGirl
Be careful of "canned" information...that is to say visiting a part of a site that lists anything related to care.
Updates are not timely, I've found. Check the dates.
Info from live people with experience is a great building block. Seahorse husbandry in relation to the Home Aquarist is still fairly new ground.
Definately

I'm still trying to track down some Marine Biologists that specialize in seahorses.

 

[dmitry]

2 people on this forum have listed Reidi and Kuda as good beginner SHs. What about Erectus? Are Reidi and Kuda more hardy?

 

[reefreak29]

Originally Posted by Dmitry
2 people on this forum have listed Reidi and Kuda as good beginner SHs. What about Erectus? Are Reidi and Kuda more hardy?
erectus aka lined seahorse is one of the easeir ones along with kuda and reidi

 

[rykna]

Originally Posted by reefreak29
erectus aka lined seahorse is one of the easeir ones along with kuda and reidi
Say reef, the erectus is larger than the Kuda and the reidi right? If so, would that give them a head or "fin" above the rest because their digestive tract would be longer. Meaning they would have more time to absorb nutrients?

 

[reefreak29]

Originally Posted by Rykna
Say reef, the erectus is larger than the Kuda and the reidi right? If so, would that give them a head or "fin" above the rest because their digestive tract would be longer. Meaning they would have more time to absorb nutrients?
the advantage i found with the erectus is yes it is larger then the reidi but not the kuda. it ate larger food like krill and shrimp from the grocery store so i didnt feed him 3 times a day just two (sometimes one) good question

 

[rykna]

Originally Posted by reefreak29
the advantage i found with the erectus is yes it is larger then the reidi but not the kuda. it ate larger food like krill and shrimp from the grocery store so i didnt feed him 3 times a day just two (sometimes one) good question
Thanks. So does the erectus have a larger snout, allowing them to eat larger food items?

 

[rykna]

Originally Posted by RedHookSilva
Tell me how to make a seahorse tank the right
way, and how to keep it.
I apologize for hijacking your thread Red.

 

[reefreak29]

Originally Posted by Rykna
Thanks. So does the erectus have a larger snout, allowing them to eat larger food items?
i believe they have a longer snout but as they grow there able to eat larger foods, it was 8 inches

 

[poniegirl]

well if this is your first incounter with salt water seahorses arnt the best starter fish , a 55 will house about 2 pairs of seahorses.
TANK SET UP:
seahorse set up is different then a reaf enviroment. u dont want wall to wall live rock seahorses are not found living near live rock in the wild
I have to disagree here. Seahorses are found where their food source thrives. The ocean carries its debris (rubble, plantlife, etc) into the surf-break, inlets, bays, lagoons.
Their food is our equivilent of insects. Therefore: plant-cover, rock-cover....is all good hunting ground.
The trick may be to keep these areas as clean as the surf-break areas? Waterflow has to aid in the upkeep of these areas.

 

[rykna]

So that goes back to the fact that all horses are opportunistic feeders, eating as much as possible while using as little energy as possible. Which does not relate in any way to it's size.Yes?

 

[reefreak29]

what exactly dont u agree with

 

[poniegirl]

Originally Posted by reefreak29
what exactly dont u agree with
Sorry, I disagree that the tank cannot house alot of live rock. I should temper that to depend on tank size and population.
My thought is that pods multiply in the live rock...in my tank, in any case.
In the wild, I do believe seahorses do live in areas that are reef. Not open-ocean reef, but definitely rock and coral populated.

 

[poniegirl]

Originally Posted by Rykna
So that goes back to the fact that all horses are opportunistic feeders, eating as much as possible while using as little energy as possible. Which does not relate in any way to it's size.Yes?
Well, feeding will depend upon body weight, yes.
They are ambush predators, and I do think opportunistic goes with that, to some degree. Pretty fine line, in any case.
I don't think they eat "as much as possible". I have seen mine turn away from mysis at a point...and they are very finicky. So opportunity only goes so far? Offer a starving wild seahorse a frozen mysis and they will only glance.
It is difficult to know, for sure.

 

[poniegirl]

Originally Posted by reefreak29
i believe they have a longer snout but as they grow there able to eat larger foods, it was 8 inches
Able, sure. But will they eat larger food because they are larger, themselves?
Aren't they something?
My horses would never accept any food other than mysis. Sophia was 8" at her prime, but would not acknowledge krill. It did not look like her food. Krill would have been appropriate for her size (more filling and nutritional), but mysis was ALL she (and her corral-mate) would ever try.
I think to a large degree, they are so primitive that they cannot process a new food visually. Their eyesight must be incredible for hunting purpose, but the next step is difficult, if not impossible for them; to accept what they see as being a possible food.
It could be concern that the item presented might stick in the snout (would they have that concern?) or otherwise be harmful? I don't know.
My experience is that what your seahorses eat when you purchase them is what they will eat for their lifetime.
Does anyone have other experience with new foods?