Novahobbies' 37g Seahorse Tank Journal
- Thread starter novahobbies
- Start date
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
PICS!!!
Full tank shot. Gorgonia have been placed "for good," and I finally found a local source for some feather Caulerpa. A scant handful has already grown into a small jungle off to the left of the pic here.
My Acans are still doing well. Goby decided to get in and photobomb the shot...
Kenya colony. This unfortunately is not the one from Lois, as the two frags that survived never got very big. They're still there, but just no growth. More on that in a minute. This colony, however, has already almost doubled in size since I got it....
Here is what I believe may be the cause for the stunted Kenya frag growth. This is my "very first" coral...a Sarcophyton toadstool leather coral that I've had forEVER. It has survived much more than it should ever have been expected to, and I'm glad I was able to migrate it into this tank when I broke down the 110. On the other hand, Sarcophytons are known to be aggressive chemical combatants against other leather type corals in a tank. It's possible that this thing is pumping out something that is keeping the small Kenyas from growing...it would explain a great deal.
Part of the Zoa garden....
And some more.....
A new addition...a pink Lobo. Found this guy under some old yellow PC bulbs in a discount tank ($10.00) and I decided to see if he would color up any in my tank. So far so good...but I'm watching him 'cause Lobos are a 2 on the threat list IIRC.
Another FTS.....
And a last pic of the Acans.....and the camera-happy goby.
Why no pics of the seahorse? Because the bloody stubborn girl has decided she's completely nocturnal, that's why! She sits under the skimmer and only starts moving around when the main lights are off and the moon lights come on. Every once in a while she'll motor over to the macroalgae and hang out there, but that's about it for her daytime excursions. I'm hoping that behaviour will change when I add a couple more horses to the tank down the road.
Full tank shot. Gorgonia have been placed "for good," and I finally found a local source for some feather Caulerpa. A scant handful has already grown into a small jungle off to the left of the pic here.
My Acans are still doing well. Goby decided to get in and photobomb the shot...
Kenya colony. This unfortunately is not the one from Lois, as the two frags that survived never got very big. They're still there, but just no growth. More on that in a minute. This colony, however, has already almost doubled in size since I got it....
Here is what I believe may be the cause for the stunted Kenya frag growth. This is my "very first" coral...a Sarcophyton toadstool leather coral that I've had forEVER. It has survived much more than it should ever have been expected to, and I'm glad I was able to migrate it into this tank when I broke down the 110. On the other hand, Sarcophytons are known to be aggressive chemical combatants against other leather type corals in a tank. It's possible that this thing is pumping out something that is keeping the small Kenyas from growing...it would explain a great deal.
Part of the Zoa garden....
And some more.....
A new addition...a pink Lobo. Found this guy under some old yellow PC bulbs in a discount tank ($10.00) and I decided to see if he would color up any in my tank. So far so good...but I'm watching him 'cause Lobos are a 2 on the threat list IIRC.
Another FTS.....
And a last pic of the Acans.....and the camera-happy goby.
Why no pics of the seahorse? Because the bloody stubborn girl has decided she's completely nocturnal, that's why! She sits under the skimmer and only starts moving around when the main lights are off and the moon lights come on. Every once in a while she'll motor over to the macroalgae and hang out there, but that's about it for her daytime excursions. I'm hoping that behaviour will change when I add a couple more horses to the tank down the road.
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
Tunze nano skimmer just came in the mail today. Took all my effort, but I waited until I got home to open the package. I'm impressed! It took all of 10 minutes to get it assembled and mounted to the tank...and that included breaking down the Aqua Mini as well. Physically it's larger, of course, but not really enough so to be obtrusive in the overall picture.
Speaking of pictures...
As you can see, there's not much difference between this FTS and the ones above with the smaller skimmer.
The collection cup is much larger, and also easier to remove and clean. The magnet mount is a REALLY nice feature IMO....I'm a big fan of getting rid of any and all suction cups in my tank.
And even better, this skimmer seems to be breaking in much faster than the last one.
Right now the only major issue I've seen is micro-bubbles. Not a lot, but they're coming from the bottom of the fixture so It's not like I can put a sponge in to absorb them. I'm hoping they will just clear up once the skimmer breaks in and "slimes up."
Speaking of pictures...
As you can see, there's not much difference between this FTS and the ones above with the smaller skimmer.
The collection cup is much larger, and also easier to remove and clean. The magnet mount is a REALLY nice feature IMO....I'm a big fan of getting rid of any and all suction cups in my tank.
And even better, this skimmer seems to be breaking in much faster than the last one.
Right now the only major issue I've seen is micro-bubbles. Not a lot, but they're coming from the bottom of the fixture so It's not like I can put a sponge in to absorb them. I'm hoping they will just clear up once the skimmer breaks in and "slimes up."
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
Thanks. I've always needed a large cup.
Joe doesn't come around this thread too often, so I thought I should fill in for him there.
You know, I think there are some places where you can buy large clam shells around here.....touristy gift shops, that sort of thing. Do you want me to keep an eye out and see if there's anything like that for sale?
I found a sorta neat picture of the tank from a few months ago on my phone. It's older, but I was playing with some of the funkier camera settings. What do you think?
Joe doesn't come around this thread too often, so I thought I should fill in for him there.
You know, I think there are some places where you can buy large clam shells around here.....touristy gift shops, that sort of thing. Do you want me to keep an eye out and see if there's anything like that for sale?
I found a sorta neat picture of the tank from a few months ago on my phone. It's older, but I was playing with some of the funkier camera settings. What do you think?
spanko
Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by novahobbies http:///forum/thread/366648/seahorse-tank-mock-up/200#post_3371981
Thanks. I've always needed a large cup.
Bragger!!!
Originally Posted by novahobbies http:///forum/thread/366648/seahorse-tank-mock-up/200#post_3371981
Thanks. I've always needed a large cup.
Bragger!!!
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
More pics! The seahorse decided to be photogenic this evening.
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
She's my baby! And as soon as I know I'm in a stable location, I'm gonna go find her a couple friends to play with. Teresa, you know I think you're actually right....these guys are pretty social animals, and she may actually be missing that group interaction.
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
Let's see, I got her in the beginning of May 2010, and she came out of deworming QT and into the display tank sometime in the middle of July. She finally started eating frozen PE mysis on August 14th, and it took her about two more weeks to recognize the food bowl as her dining spot. She's kind of a color change artist; when I first got her she was a VERY pale peach color. Her normal "hanging out color" is a slightly darker peach, but lately she's been hanging out near the Kenya coral and has picked up a slightly reddish hue when she's there (I think you can see that in the recent pics). When she's hitched to the macroalgae in the left corner I swear she gets a very slight green color to her fae and torso...it might just be me, but I dunno.
No, I've never had dwarf horses. You probably heard me voice my desire to try them at some point. I still would like to give them a shot, but my next project tank is going to be the dragonface pipefish biotope. I've already got the tank, filter, HOB skimmer/fuge, and Rio LED fuge light for that project. I'll probably start a whole new build thread for that when it gets going.
No, I've never had dwarf horses. You probably heard me voice my desire to try them at some point. I still would like to give them a shot, but my next project tank is going to be the dragonface pipefish biotope. I've already got the tank, filter, HOB skimmer/fuge, and Rio LED fuge light for that project. I'll probably start a whole new build thread for that when it gets going.
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
Flower, I think she's about 7.5 inches long completely extended from tail tip to top of her coronet. I would need to pull out a ruler to be sure...but it's packed away at the moment. That's a rough guesstimation.
flower
Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by novahobbies http:///forum/thread/366648/seahorse-tank-mock-up/200#post_3372220
Let's see, I got her in the beginning of May 2010, and she came out of deworming QT and into the display tank sometime in the middle of July. She finally started eating frozen PE mysis on August 14th, and it took her about two more weeks to recognize the food bowl as her dining spot. She's kind of a color change artist; when I first got her she was a VERY pale peach color. Her normal "hanging out color" is a slightly darker peach, but lately she's been hanging out near the Kenya coral and has picked up a slightly reddish hue when she's there (I think you can see that in the recent pics). When she's hitched to the macroalgae in the left corner I swear she gets a very slight green color to her fae and torso...it might just be me, but I dunno.
No, I've never had dwarf horses. You probably heard me voice my desire to try them at some point. I still would like to give them a shot, but my next project tank is going to be the dragonface pipefish biotope. I've already got the tank, filter, HOB skimmer/fuge, and Rio LED fuge light for that project. I'll probably start a whole new build thread for that when it gets going.
Started eating frozen...was she a wild caught baby?
Originally Posted by novahobbies http:///forum/thread/366648/seahorse-tank-mock-up/200#post_3372220
Let's see, I got her in the beginning of May 2010, and she came out of deworming QT and into the display tank sometime in the middle of July. She finally started eating frozen PE mysis on August 14th, and it took her about two more weeks to recognize the food bowl as her dining spot. She's kind of a color change artist; when I first got her she was a VERY pale peach color. Her normal "hanging out color" is a slightly darker peach, but lately she's been hanging out near the Kenya coral and has picked up a slightly reddish hue when she's there (I think you can see that in the recent pics). When she's hitched to the macroalgae in the left corner I swear she gets a very slight green color to her fae and torso...it might just be me, but I dunno.
No, I've never had dwarf horses. You probably heard me voice my desire to try them at some point. I still would like to give them a shot, but my next project tank is going to be the dragonface pipefish biotope. I've already got the tank, filter, HOB skimmer/fuge, and Rio LED fuge light for that project. I'll probably start a whole new build thread for that when it gets going.
Started eating frozen...was she a wild caught baby?
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
Yes she was. I knew that when I purchased her. When I got her, she had a full set of cirri going on (current thinking is that cirri patterns develop as a camouflage response, and I suspect she may have been living in sargassum or other brown macroalgae) and she was simply magnificent. She has since lost most of her cirri, but IMO it doesn't diminish her good looks.
I got her after I berated the LFS owner a little for accepting an order of wild caught erectus.....but let's be honest, I think the purchase of the horse sort of defeated the purpose of the tongue-lashing. ;-) He said he gets them in every once in a while for a breeder down here in S florida, and this one was a horse that the buyer had missed when he came to pick up the rest.
I knew I had an uphill battle with her, and I consider my success to be the exception in these cases, NOT the norm. I am still a HUGE proponent of moving forward in our hobby with captive bred and raised horses, and I completely discourage anyone from impulse-buying horses from a local fish store unless they can prove they were tank bred and raised.
Here's a link to the thread I started when I purchased this little girl. Look at the linked pic in the first post....those cirri were really something to behold!
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/forum/thread/377092/new-seahorse
I got her after I berated the LFS owner a little for accepting an order of wild caught erectus.....but let's be honest, I think the purchase of the horse sort of defeated the purpose of the tongue-lashing. ;-) He said he gets them in every once in a while for a breeder down here in S florida, and this one was a horse that the buyer had missed when he came to pick up the rest.
I knew I had an uphill battle with her, and I consider my success to be the exception in these cases, NOT the norm. I am still a HUGE proponent of moving forward in our hobby with captive bred and raised horses, and I completely discourage anyone from impulse-buying horses from a local fish store unless they can prove they were tank bred and raised.
Here's a link to the thread I started when I purchased this little girl. Look at the linked pic in the first post....those cirri were really something to behold!
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/forum/thread/377092/new-seahorse
flower
Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by novahobbies http:///forum/thread/366648/seahorse-tank-mock-up/200#post_3372231
Yes she was. I knew that when I purchased her. When I got her, she had a full set of cirri going on (current thinking is that cirri patterns develop as a camouflage response, and I suspect she may have been living in sargassum or other brown macroalgae) and she was simply magnificent. She has since lost most of her cirri, but IMO it doesn't diminish her good looks.
I got her after I berated the LFS owner a little for accepting an order of wild caught erectus.....but let's be honest, I think the purchase of the horse sort of defeated the purpose of the tongue-lashing. ;-) He said he gets them in every once in a while for a breeder down here in S florida, and this one was a horse that the buyer had missed when he came to pick up the rest.
I knew I had an uphill battle with her, and I consider my success to be the exception in these cases, NOT the norm. I am still a HUGE proponent of moving forward in our hobby with captive bred and raised horses, and I completely discourage anyone from impulse-buying horses from a local fish store unless they can prove they were tank bred and raised.
Here's a link to the thread I started when I purchased this little girl. Look at the linked pic in the first post....those cirri were really something to behold!
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/forum/thread/377092/new-seahorse
OMG! It's hard to believe it's the same horse. She almost looks like a seadragon with all that Cirri. Was she your first? I ask because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to keep a CB seahorse, let alone a WC on the first try.
I love her color, one of mine actually did manage to get the saddle blothes to look like the green striped mushrooms against a grey base...she/he was so well hidden just leaning against the mushroom rock, I didn't see her/him until it moved. I thought it was the lighting. So I know what you mean about the green. They really are masters of disguise.
Originally Posted by novahobbies http:///forum/thread/366648/seahorse-tank-mock-up/200#post_3372231
Yes she was. I knew that when I purchased her. When I got her, she had a full set of cirri going on (current thinking is that cirri patterns develop as a camouflage response, and I suspect she may have been living in sargassum or other brown macroalgae) and she was simply magnificent. She has since lost most of her cirri, but IMO it doesn't diminish her good looks.
I got her after I berated the LFS owner a little for accepting an order of wild caught erectus.....but let's be honest, I think the purchase of the horse sort of defeated the purpose of the tongue-lashing. ;-) He said he gets them in every once in a while for a breeder down here in S florida, and this one was a horse that the buyer had missed when he came to pick up the rest.
I knew I had an uphill battle with her, and I consider my success to be the exception in these cases, NOT the norm. I am still a HUGE proponent of moving forward in our hobby with captive bred and raised horses, and I completely discourage anyone from impulse-buying horses from a local fish store unless they can prove they were tank bred and raised.
Here's a link to the thread I started when I purchased this little girl. Look at the linked pic in the first post....those cirri were really something to behold!
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/forum/thread/377092/new-seahorse
OMG! It's hard to believe it's the same horse. She almost looks like a seadragon with all that Cirri. Was she your first? I ask because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to keep a CB seahorse, let alone a WC on the first try.
I love her color, one of mine actually did manage to get the saddle blothes to look like the green striped mushrooms against a grey base...she/he was so well hidden just leaning against the mushroom rock, I didn't see her/him until it moved. I thought it was the lighting. So I know what you mean about the green. They really are masters of disguise.
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
Oh no, I kept a pair of H. reidis along with a single erectus in this tank for a year and a half (?? sounds about right...) until I lost them to what we believe was a fast-moving viral infection.
Here's a few links to some old threads I started back in '08 and '09.
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/forum/thread/328509/rick-s-seahorse-pics
This thread is great, and full of some really stunning tank shots. I wish Cranberry would hang out here more often; she and her hubby had a STUNNING seahorse display:
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/forum/thread/337846/seahorse-full-tank-shots-post-em/60
And, the sad posting about the deaths...
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/forum/thread/364008/lost-the-second-one
Hmmm. It looks like most of my pictures didn't survive one of the forum revamps. I can repost a few pics of the old setup if you're interested.
Here's a few links to some old threads I started back in '08 and '09.
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/forum/thread/328509/rick-s-seahorse-pics
This thread is great, and full of some really stunning tank shots. I wish Cranberry would hang out here more often; she and her hubby had a STUNNING seahorse display:
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/forum/thread/337846/seahorse-full-tank-shots-post-em/60
And, the sad posting about the deaths...
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/forum/thread/364008/lost-the-second-one
Hmmm. It looks like most of my pictures didn't survive one of the forum revamps. I can repost a few pics of the old setup if you're interested.